As fashion and biotech turn to AI to design new materials and reduce waste, the industry is attempting to balance sustainability with profit.

Among the luxury fashion brands on the third floor of Selfridges’ flagship London store sits PANGAIA, a label whose products use natural fibres, many of which are biodegradable. Alongside the colourful garments, shoppers can learn about the science behind these materials through an in-store presentation.

The display reflects a growing tension within the fashion industry. Globally, it is responsible for around 10 per cent of carbon emissions, yet in the UK it contributes £62bn annually to the economy and generates £23bn in tax revenue. 

Behind brands like PANGAIA are laboratories developing the technology that drives sustainable fashion. Solena Materials is a London-based company that uses AI-driven computational design to create biodegradable fibres.

“Our CEO came up with this technology,” says Lara Lovric, business and sales administrator for Solena. “After a year working for the company, it still seems like complete magic.”

“After a year working for the company, it still seems like complete magic”

The process begins with AI designing protein molecules. These proteins are then purified through a fermentation process. The final stage is called wet spinning, during which the protein becomes a fibre.

While biotech firms are using AI to develop alternatives to synthetic fabrics, fashion brands are increasingly adopting the technology elsewhere in the supply chain. AI-driven pattern cutting, for example, can optimise fabric layouts to reduce waste during production. 

Hana Amer, Regenerative Fashion Lab Lead at Imperial College London’s Leonardo Centre, says AI is cost-effective for businesses. Many decisions in fashion, she explains, are based on estimates – such as how much to produce.

“AI can help reduce that uncertainty by accelerating research, modelling scenarios, identifying system hotspots, and supporting faster, more coordinated decision-making.”

Still, AI is something of a contradiction when it comes to sustainability. Training and operating AI models require high energy consumption – by 2027, AI training and use could account for up to 6.6 billion cubic metres of water extraction.

“It’s difficult to say sustainability and AI in the same breath,” says Lovric. Solena operates with just one AI computer in the lab: “That’s why we dare say that it’s sustainable.” 

Yet new technology is key to removing the current reliance on synthetic fibres –non-biodegradable materials which shed microplastics. According to Lovric, the current system is already fragile and particularly vulnerable to geopolitical instability.

Rising oil prices linked to the current US-Iran conflict have increased the cost of synthetics like polyester, which makes up nearly two-thirds of global fibre output. “We don’t know when that’s going to stop,” says Lovric. 

Even so, she doesn’t expect sustainable materials to replace synthetics overnight. 

“Everything is contingent on the way other things are going,” she says. “If we are going to be forced into making this work sooner because of the Middle East [US-Iran] and because of the energy prices, then it’s going to happen much sooner than if actual investors don’t feel the sense of urgency.” 

Yet the economics remain difficult. Sustainable materials require significant upfront investment, while the average consumer is used to cheap synthetics – a polyester T-shirt from a high-street brand could cost less than £10, whereas one organic cotton T-shirt from PANGAIA is £80.

Still, investment is happening. In Manchester, the Robotics Living Lab is developing collaborative robotics, designed to help UK brands with onshore production of sustainable fabrics. In the US, the Bezos Earth Fund recently granted $34m to four research centres developing these fabrics.

Back in Selfridges, PANGAIA’s presentation markets the brand as existing at the intersection of science, technology and design. Amer says that such partnerships are key to scaling sustainable fashion technology. 

“Everyone needs to come into that equation to test out these different formulas to reach profitability and sustainability in one go,” she says.

Even if not in our lifetime, Lovric thinks sustainable materials will eventually take over synthetics. “I do think it is inevitable at some point […] I just don’t see a different way.”

Fittingly, the supply chain need not be discarded – merely refashioned.

Featured image: Clothes at the PANGAIA store. Credit: Emma Gatrell