Reweaving Fashion & Textiles 2050 – a vision for the future

1. Decarbonisation and the scale of the challenge – for meaningful emissions reductions, we must focus on scalable, high-impact solutions available today. Understanding which measures can cut emissions the most helps target efforts effectively.
2. A systematic approach is required – decarbonising the industry requires both efficiency and sufficiency measures. Relying only on efficiency won’t meet the pace or scale of necessary changes.
3. Overconsumption must be addressed – renewable energy and efficiency improvements alone won’t achieve decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement. Reducing overconsumption in regions where it’s excessive, while recognising underconsumption elsewhere, is vital.
4. Consumers must join the sustainability journey – as brands make products more sustainable, consumers need to adapt too. They must understand why clothes might cost more but last longer and come with a lower carbon footprint, shifting towards quality over quantity.
5. The urgency of 2030 – large-scale decarbonisation must be in progress by 2030 to meet net-zero by 2050. The solutions emerging today will form the foundation for this transition, alongside future innovations.

• Hot or Cool Institute’s Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable report explores how lifestyle changes can contribute to a decarbonised fashion industry, focusing on efficiency versus sufficiency approaches. This report aligns with the Paris Agreement’s goals.  
• Global Fashion Agenda and McKinsey & Company’s Fashion on Climate report highlights the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions and life cycle impacts, offering strategies to accelerate decarbonisation.
• A sustainable and resilient circular fashion and textiles industry by Stockholm Resilience Centre, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and H&M Group collaborated to explore how the Planetary Boundaries Framework and circular economy principles can help the fashion industry become sustainable.
• The Outlook Report by Mistra Future Fashion’s Research Program provides eight key recommendations for driving systemic change in the fashion industry.

NGOs working towards systemic change in the fashion industry:

• Global Fashion Agenda
• The OR Foundation
• Fashion Revolution

Representing change in consumption. From abundance and fast, to sufficiency and slow.

• Role: CEO of fashion brand. Yujin started her career as an influencer and designer in the rapidly evolving streetwear scene in Seoul is now part of an Italian fashion group. 
• Age: 45 
• Home city: Seoul, South Korea
• Family situation: Single mother of one daughter (age 12), often travels for work. 

Representing change in production. From linear and resource intensive to circular and resource efficient.

• Role: Factory owner
• Age: 58
• Home city: Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Family situation: Married with three grown children (ages 25, 22, and 18). His eldest son is studying abroad, and his youngest daughter Kajari is finishing school in Dhaka. Kajari becomes the factory owner in 2045.

Representing change in supporting energy infrastructure. From fossil to renewable energy.

• Role: Former oil rig worker, now wind farm engineer 
• Age: 48 
• Home city: Houston, Texas, USA (now working globally, including in Bangladesh) 
• Family situation: Divorced with one teenage son (age 16), who lives with his mother in Texas. 

Rashid’s grown daughter, Kajari who is taking over her father’s textile mill.

2024

Rashid Hossain
– I’ve been running this factory for the past 30 years and now there’s this pressure to ‘go greener’. They want us to get rid of the coal burners, install solar power and generate no waste at all. But what happens if the orders stop coming? I too want to save the environment, but I can’t afford to gamble with my business.

John Peterson
– I’ve been on the rig my whole life – this is what I know. They keep talking about climate change and I’m hearing the oil industry is shrinking. I just think it’s nonsense.

Park YuJin
– I started as an influencer, and turned my streetwear brand into something global. But now? It’s like we’re stuck. I know we need to reduce emissions – it’s on everyone’s mind – but the system we are part of is so slow. Meanwhile we need to sell to survive.

2030

John Peterson
– After the oil jobs dried up here I am, 2030 and I’m dangling from a turbine, working on these wind farms off the coast of Bangladesh. This job keeps food on the table, but that’s all it is. I sure miss the rigs, I miss the guys I used to work with. The summers in Texas are almost unbearable now, we ain’t even allowed to wash our cars at home anymore to save water.

Rashid Hossain
– We’ve worked with different partners to co-invest in some upgrades of our machinery, but it’s slow. I still don’t know what to do with my old machines. Every new machine means training, downtime, and uncertainty. We do what we can, but I also have a business to run and that balance is really, really hard.

Park YuJin
– My brand grew fast we are now… [calling her daughter] in a global network of different actors co-investing in climate solutions. We see customers pushing for these changes, some are shifting consumption patterns. It’s tough, we’re seeing progress, but you know there’s still a long way to go.

2050

Rashid Hossain
– It’s 2050, and sometimes I can hardly believe how far we’ve come. We’ve cut our carbon emissions by 80% and use wind, tidal and solar power. Water use and waste is close to zero. We and our partners have trained hundreds of workers, especially the women.

Interviewer: So, what happens next?
– Well, it’s better to ask my daughter Kajari, she runs the factory now.

John Peterson
– The wind farms were just the beginning. Now, there are energy sources I couldn’t even dream of before, like solar paint that turns entire buildings into power plants or ocean waves driving factories. I used to laugh at all this green energy talk, thinking it was a fad. But now? Well, maybe there’s something to it after all.

Park YuJin
– We did this together, creating lasting change for both people and the planet. Today, we’re doing things that once seemed impossible – self-repairing fabrics, outerwear that generates energy, and zero-waste designs. It feels strange to think that take-make-waste was ever the norm. We have shown there’s a better way.

Narrator, Kajari Hossain
This is our future. A future built on resilience, innovation, and determination. What we’ve just heard shows the challenges of struggling with old systems. But it also shows what’s possible. We already know what needs to be done. The answers are here, and the time is now.