Ep 3: Knitting Mathematics and Musical Textiles with Sophie Skach

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.