School of Design hosts major international sustainable textile exhibition
The exhibition featured a diverse range of research outputs, material samples, and industry collaborations
The University of Leeds’ School of Design hosted the final exhibition of the major European Union-funded Colour4CRAFTS research project last month, showcasing three years of cutting-edge innovation in sustainable, bio-based textile colouration.
Running from 5–29 May 2026 at the Space@Design gallery, the exhibition marked the culmination of the cross-continental initiative before the project officially concludes on 30 June.
The consortium group at the Colour4CRAFTS exhibition
The Leeds showcase brought together interdisciplinary research from scientists, designers, artists, and craft practitioners from across Europe. Visitors were able to explore how traditional textile colouration knowledge from the 10th century can be combined with modern green chemistry to create sustainable colourants for the global fashion and textile industries.
Professor Pammi Sinha, Professor of Fashion Management at the University of Leeds and one of the project's Co-Investigators, said:
"By exploring textile colouration processes stretching from the 10th century to how we foresee the 2050s, this project bridges the gap between historical craft and modern innovation. Combining traditional European knowledge with cutting-edge green chemistry allows us to create innovative, eco-friendly colourants that directly support the European Green Deal goals for a more sustainable future industry."
The exhibition featured a diverse range of research outputs, material samples, and industry collaborations. It also served as the backdrop for the final Colour4CRAFTS consortium meeting from 11–13 May, which included a public seminar on textile sustainability and the official refurbishment of the Natural Dye Garden in the Clothworkers North Courtyard.
Work by the semi finalists of the student textile design competition, on display at the exhibition
A highlight of the event was the display of entries from the project's International Student Textile Design Competition, run jointly with the Sustainability Special Interest Group of The Textile Institute. The competition challenged students to develop textile collections using exclusively natural colourants. Entries were received from 17 countries and Nika Usmiani from the University of Zagreb was named the overall winner for her collection, “Nature As The Origin of Design,” securing a £1,000 bursary provided by industry sponsor Dr Leather Ltd. Usmiani also received from the Textile Institute digital access to textiles, a complementary one-year students’ membership, and the BIOCOLOUR Book (hard cover) from the project PI Professor Riikka Räisänen. Twig Searle (Falmouth University) and Hana Salih (Manchester Metropolitan University) were highly commended by the international jury panel too.
The Colour4CRAFTS project is a three-year, Horizon Europe-funded consortium led by the University of Helsinki in collaboration with the University of Leeds, University of Lapland, University of Tartu, the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK IRPA) in Belgium, and PILI in France. The Leeds event follows previous successful project exhibitions held in Rovaniemi, Finland; Tartu, Estonia; and an earlier showcase at Leeds in late 2025.
