New York knows how to put fashion on a stage. Every September, designers, buyers, editors, investors and industry insiders arrive in the city as Fashion Week takes over. But some of the developments shaping fashion’s future are happening away from the runway.
Across New York, scientists, founders, research institutions, laboratories and deep tech ventures are developing new fibres, biomaterials, circular systems, manufacturing technologies and alternative approaches to material production.
On September 17, the Sustainable Design Impact Hub will bring many of these worlds together at Newlab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for Fashion × Deep Tech, a one-day convening taking place at the intersection of New York Fashion Week and Climate Week.
The central question is straightforward: what does it take to move the next generation of materials from lab to market?
From Biella to Brooklyn
The New York edition also offers an opportunity to look back at the Hub’s 2025 edition in Biella, Italy, where the focus was on next-generation materials.
The Biella event brought together perspectives from textiles, education, manufacturing, art and culture. The program included conversations on Made in Italy challenges, opportunities and innovations, the role of art and culture in sustainable development, and the future of materials.
Left to Right: Caterina Micolano – Founder of Cooperativa Alice, and Tatiana Koltsova at Biella Sustainable Design Impact Hub
Panel Title: Made it Italy Challenges & Opportunities
Among those featured were artist Enrica Borghi, Rebecca Mazzù, Project Manager at Fondazione Pistoletto, Caterina Micolano, Founder of Cooperativa Alice, Tatiana Koltsova of Città Studi Biella, and Eleonora Chiais, Professor at the Università degli Studi di Torino.
The photographs from Biella capture a conversation around materials and sustainable development in a very different setting. In New York, that conversation is being placed directly alongside the city’s fashion, technology, research and investment communities.
From innovation to the market
There is growing interest in what fashion could make next. New fibers, biomaterials, agricultural-waste-derived materials, biotechnology, circular systems and new manufacturing approaches are all part of the conversation.
But developing a material is only one part of the process. Fashion × Deep Tech is focused on the practical systems needed to help scientific and technological innovation move towards the market. The program brings together innovators, investors, academics and industry leaders to look at the connections between these different parts of the ecosystem.
The event will feature six cross-disciplinary conversations, with speakers including Vanessa Barboni Hallik, Founder and Co-CEO of Another Tomorrow; Adam Bent, CEO of Lonely Whale; Karen Pearson, Chair of the FIT Sustainability Council; Michelle Gabriel, Resident Fellow at the Yale Center for Business & Environment; Larissa Shepherd, Professor of Fiber Science & Apparel Design at Cornell University; Stephanie Downs, Founder & CEO of Uncaged Innovations; and Tavis Ezell, Managing Director at the Advanced Science Research Center at CUNY.
Their perspectives come from very different parts of the fashion and innovation landscape. That is central to the idea behind the Hub.
Seeing the materials being built
At the center of the event will be the Fashion × Deep Tech Innovation Gallery, a tactile exhibition featuring more than 20 next-generation material innovators and applications. The Gallery will include new fibers, agricultural-waste-derived materials, biotechnology, circular material systems and advanced approaches to manufacturing.
For an industry that often encounters new materials through images, presentations and product samples, the opportunity to encounter these technologies physically adds another dimension to the conversation. The day will also include startup pitches, connecting emerging companies directly with investors and industry leaders. The question is not simply what is being developed, but what will help these innovations scale.
Shannen Kaylia Henry
Building the connections
The event is supported by an ecosystem spanning academia, industry and environmental innovation.
Academic partners include the Fashion Institute of Technology, ASRC Center for Advanced Technology and Yale Center for Business and the Environment, bringing research and academic perspectives into the discussion.
The wider ecosystem supporting the convening includes Lonely Whale, Western Alliance Bank, ESSPO, Just Ice Tea and BjornQorn, among others. This range of participants reflects the larger point Fashion × Deep Tech is making. The materials shaping fashion’s future are not being developed by fashion alone. They are being built across science, technology, research and entrepreneurship. Connecting those worlds could determine how quickly the ideas emerging today find their way into the industry.
What New York is building
New York has long been a place where fashion is shown, sold and shaped.
Fashion × Deep Tech makes the case that it can also be a place where the future of fashion is researched, built and commercialized. That is what makes the September 17 gathering interesting. It is not simply looking at the next generation of materials as a collection of new inventions. It is bringing together the people who will be needed to move those ideas forward.
The runway may show what fashion looks like next. At Newlab, the conversation will turn to what fashion could be made from next.
Sustainable Design Impact Hub: Fashion × Deep Tech
September 17, 2026
Newlab, Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York City
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