
Ep 19. Now and the Future of Smart Textiles with Victoria Nickerson
No Ordinary Cloth: Textile innovations in future materials, manufacturing and sustainabilityShow Notes
In this special episode of No Ordinary Cloth, we're joined by Victoria, the Material Innovation Lead at the World Textile Information Network (WTIN). Victoria shares her insights on the rapidly evolving field of smart textiles, highlighting key innovations and challenges in this industry. We discuss how smart textiles are bridging the gap between textiles, electronics, and computing, and explore emerging trends such as self-powered textiles and bio-based solutions. Victoria also discusses the importance of sustainability and circularity in the smart textile industry.
About WTIN: WTIN is a leading provider of specialist insights and data-driven intelligence for businesses across the textiles and power value chain. Their primary focus is on high-growth markets such as material innovation, industry digitalisation, and technical textiles. WTIN operates on a subscription basis, offering a wide range of digital content, including in-depth reports, company profiles, podcasts, and conferences.
Key Points:
* Smart Textiles Database: Victoria discusses her comprehensive smart textile database, which connects companies across the supply chain, from conductive yarns to integrators who help develop commercially viable products. * Emerging Trends: We explore emerging trends in smart textiles, including self-powered textiles and bio-based solutions. * Collaboration: This episode is a special collaboration with WTIN's Textile Innovation Podcast, welcoming their listeners to our community.
World Textile Information Network (WTiN): Website [https://www.wtin.com/] l Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-textile-information-network/posts/?feedView=all]
Textile Innovation: Podcast [https://open.spotify.com/show/6FrTyjWa2B5dR3ih68i7CF?si=226d32665ed34908]
You can connect with me here: Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjtharakan/] l Insta [https://www.instagram.com/noordinarycloth/] l Buy me a coffee [https://buymeacoffee.com/noordinarycloth]
Email me: No Ordinary Cloth [https://www.noordinarycloth.com/contact-8]
Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash
Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman
More from No Ordinary Cloth: Textile innovations in future materials, manufacturing and sustainability
Flocking is one of those techniques we have all touched without knowing its name: the velvety surface on a wallpaper, a piece of packaging, a couture garment or a car dashboard. It is made from tiny fibres, electrostatically charged so they stand upright in an adhesive, and for most of its history those fibres have been nylon, polyester or viscose.
This is a special episode in partnership with Fashion District London
What if the fashion industry didn't have to create waste in the first place? In this episode of No Ordinary Cloth, Mili sits down with textile designer and founder of WEFFAN, Graysha Audren, to explore a radically different way of making clothes: garments that are folded, flat‑packed and "baked" straight into the weave on a jacquard loom.
In this episode, we step into very different territory. We leave the factory floor and the chemistry lab behind, pull on our wellies, and head into the wetlands. Our guest is Julian Ellis-Brown, CEO and Co-founder of Ponda [https://www.ponda.bio/] — the biomaterials company turning wetland restoration into one of fashion's most exciting new fibres. We explore why wetlands are one of the most carbon-rich and biodiverse ecosystems on earth, why centuries of drainage have turned them from the planet's greatest carbon store into a significant carbon emitter, and how a farming practice called paludiculture is now allowing farmers across the UK and Europe to bring degraded wetlands back to life — while still earning a living from the land.
We're used to thinking about sustainability at the point of purchase: what fibres a garment is made from, whether it's certified or recycled. But the truth is, what we do with a garment after we buy it – how we wash it, whether we repair it, and what happens when it's finally worn out – is just as important as what it's made of.