Responsible Fashion Series
Call for Contributions
Responsible Fashion Series: Innovation, Bio-design and Technology
October 27th – November 7th 2025, West Coast of the United States
The Responsible Fashion Series (RFS) is a sequence of events promoting the potential of a responsible approach to fashion studies around the world – past events include: India, China, Netherlands, UK, Italy, Brazil, Belgium, Macedonia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. These events have always been free in order to reduce barriers for people to attend and to encourage participation and topics of local significance.
For our next RFS event, we will visit the West Coast of the United States of America. This is an amazing region, perched on the Pacific Rim, facing the largest wilderness on the planet: the Pacific Ocean! Known for its boom-and-bust pioneering spirit, design culture and innovation and its close proximity to vast natural landscapes, arguably the most industrialized agriculture in the world and displacement of indigenous peoples. This region is home to many innovative enterprises driving responsible fashion forward. By combining visits to local projects and businesses with workshops, exhibitions, paper sessions, and panel discussions, we aim to share insights, expertise, and creative ideas. We will examine the potential of responsible fashion generated across this region and want to explore leading edge innovation including an examination of what we can learn from indigenous producers in order to find new ways to expand sustainable initiatives.
The fashion industry uses large amounts of natural and – finite – mineral resources, and therefore the focus for this event is on slowing the flow of materials through the fashion system and radical material innovation that vastly reduces extraction rates. While the production of natural materials draws on replenishable resources, this, too, is fraught with issues due to mono-cultivation and economic pressures. Does the bio-economy hold the promise of material production for textiles grown responsibly from renewable resources and that are also compostable? Can the circular economy truly convert fashion’s waste into new inputs? For this event, we explore how technology, digital tools and know-how push these approaches to innovative sustainable production and invention of materials. But we also ask what lessons can be learned from existing technologies and from traditional and indigenous production methods to inform a responsible fashion system.
We invite contributions that explore the future of fashion and textiles at the intersections of biodesign, sustainability, and old and new technologies. We welcome original research, reviews, case studies, and critical perspectives that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Innovations in sustainable materials and bio-fabrication
- The role of biotechnology in creating biodegradable or regenerative textiles
- Smart textiles and wearable technology for enhanced functionality and user experience
- Circular economy models and strategies for reducing waste in fashion production
- The impact of digital tools, AI, and machine learning on sustainable fashion design
- Ethical considerations in the application of technology within the fashion industry
- Case studies of companies integrating biodesign with scalable production
- Cross-disciplinary collaborations driving sustainable innovations in fashion
- The role of education & policy in fostering new thinking, new business models & biodesign practices in fashion.
We encourage submissions that push the boundaries of traditional fashion practices and offer insights into the evolving landscape where technology and sustainability converge to shape the future of the apparel industry. We want to maximize the learning experience for all (through a variety of modes – from workshops, paper presentations and panel discussions etc).
This event is divided into three parts to maximize flexible attendance and encourage diversity of participation across three principal locations:
PART A: Monday 27th to Friday 31st October 2025 in San Francisco
We start in San Francisco and its surrounding area, in technology’s epicenter, Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area by exploring the latest topics in innovation and technology. This section will focus on explorations of biodegradable, bio-based materials, biofabrication and bio design in textiles and fashion as well as smart textiles and clothing design in particular. We will visit the research centers at UCDavis and a variety of iconic and start-up brands in San Francisco including UNSPUN, Mango Materials, and Hue. We will also organize an exclusive visit to Levi Strauss and Co headquarters.
West Valley College Cilker School of Art & Design fashion program instructor Anthony Murray will host a panel discussion on biodesign on their campus with panelist Garrett Benisch followed by a visit to OurCarbon, a biodesign company.
PART B: Saturday 1st November to Tuesday 4th 2025 in Los Angeles
From San Francisco, we travel along the coastal freeway through California’s great central agricultural valley to attend a cotton farm tour. From there, we will travel to Los Angeles, America's West Coast fashion capital, where we will arrive just in time to experience Dias de los Muertos celebrations at Hollywood Forever cemetery. Based at the ASU FIDM campus in the heart of the fashion district, we will tour design studios and manufacturing sites and hear industry leaders discuss California’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act that is set to lead the way in addressing the environmental impacts of “fast fashion.” Circular approaches, eco-friendly design and production processes, and strategies for reducing environmental impacts in the textile and fashion industry are the main research focus, here.
PART C: Tuesday 4th – Friday 7th November 2025 in Phoenix
For our third location, we travel to Phoenix, Arizona to observe the sublime beauty of the American Southwest where mindful craft methodologies have been embedded in the culture for centuries. Here, we will investigate the creation of environmentally friendly e-textiles, energy-efficient smart clothing, and wearable technology that balances functionality with sustainability. This includes biodegradable sensors, renewable power sources, and sustainable design practices of smart textiles. At Arizona State University, we will experience workshops and demonstrations at the fashion studios, Fashion Fabrication Lab, and Wearable Technology Lab at ASU FIDM. Experience indigenous creativity and traditions with a workshop about traditional dressmaking in the life of the Apache and a visit to the Heard Museum, a vibrant museum dedicated to American Indian art. Discover the Sonoran desert’s unique magic at the Desert Botanical Garden and its lure to creatives at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert laboratory. At the end of the event, there will be options to visit Sedona and the Grand Canyon.
Participants must register to join us. Registration is essential in order for us to calculate numbers attending. Please, write to mail@responsible-fashion-series.com and let us know, if you intend to attend all three parts (or less). (PART A: Monday 27th to Friday 31st October 2025 in San Francisco, Part B: Saturday 1st November to Tuesday 4th 2025 in Los Angeles or PART C: from Tuesday 4th to Friday 7th November 2025 in Arizona).
Please be advised that certain costs will have to be carried by the attendees. This includes transportation and accommodation and other supplementary costs (i.e. participation in the excursions).
We invite and encourage your participation and welcome a variety of proposals including: exhibitions, paper presentations, panel discussions, workshops… we like to encourage as much participation and sharing of knowledge as possible. At each location we will facilitate sharing of the local and international experience. Please send your proposals of max. 300 words to mail@responsible-fashion-series.com by 31st December 2024 – specifying which location you would like to present at.