Opinion
Beyond style
Why fashion education must go further to truly turn green
Fashion schools are teaching sustainability as a philosophy. The industry needs them to teach it as a science.
By Philippe Berlan, CEO of EverDye
Opinion
Beyond style
Why fashion education must go further to truly turn green
Fashion schools are teaching sustainability as a philosophy. The industry needs them to teach it as a science.
By Philippe Berlan, CEO of EverDye
16 September 2026
The UK fashion and textile industry remains one of the country’s major creative and economic forces. According to a 2023 report from UKFT and Oxford Economics, the sector contributes £62 billion to the UK economy, supported by globally recognised institutions, heritage brands and events such as London Fashion Week. Across the country, more than 100 universities and specialised schools train the next generation of designers, marketers and fashion entrepreneurs.
Over the past decade, sustainability has undeniably entered the conversation. Fashion schools increasingly incorporate environmental awareness into their curricula, teaching students about ethical sourcing, circularity and responsible communication. Institutions such as London Metropolitan University, the University of the Arts London, the University of Westminster and the London College of Fashion have all integrated sustainability principles into fashion education in different ways.
Yet the deeper truth is this: fashion education is changing — but not fast enough to match the scale of the industry’s crisis. While sustainability is now recognised as important, it is too often approached as a creative philosophy or branding exercise rather than as an industrial, scientific and technological challenge.
Students are encouraged to think responsibly about fashion consumption, but far fewer are trained to understand the environmental consequences of manufacturing itself.
The missing technical conversation
Many programmes continue to focus primarily on branding, visual identity, communication and trend forecasting, while subjects such as fibre science, industrial chemistry, wastewater treatment, material innovation and low-impact manufacturing technologies remain largely absent from the classroom.
One of the clearest examples lies in textile dyeing and finishing — among the most resource-intensive stages of fashion production. Dyeing processes consume enormous quantities of water and energy while generating chemical pollution that continues to impact ecosystems worldwide. Despite the scale of this issue, these processes often remain peripheral within fashion education.
This is not necessarily a failure of fashion schools themselves. These disciplines traditionally belong to engineering and industrial manufacturing rather than design education. However, the result is a growing disconnect between creativity and production reality.
Tomorrow’s designers will not operate in a world where aesthetics alone define success. They will increasingly work within systems shaped by carbon targets, resource scarcity, traceability requirements and technological transformation. Understanding these dynamics can no longer be optional.
Innovation must become central to fashion education
Innovation is no longer a side conversation in fashion; it is rapidly becoming the sector’s survival strategy. The future of fashion will depend not only on creative talent, but on the industry’s ability to reinvent how clothes are made.
Across the textile industry, new technologies are emerging to reduce water consumption, eliminate toxic chemicals, lower energy use and improve material circularity. These advances are reshaping expectations around manufacturing and forcing brands to reconsider long-established production methods.
Among these challenges, textile dyeing represents one of the greatest opportunities for transformation. The sector cannot seriously discuss sustainability while leaving one of its most polluting industrial stages technologically unchanged.
The next generation of creative leaders will be those capable of bridging design, science and industrial innovation. Fashion schools therefore have an opportunity to rethink their role by encouraging interdisciplinary learning, strengthening links with sustainable textile innovators and exposing students to low-carbon production technologies from the very beginning of their studies.
Sustainability requires more than good intentions
One of the biggest challenges facing fashion today is the growing disconnect between sustainability ambitions and the economic reality of the industry itself. While environmental responsibility has become central to brand communication, much of the sector still operates according to business models built on speed, volume and cost reduction. Young designers entering the industry quickly discover that sustainable practices often collide with commercial pressures, short production timelines and highly competitive pricing structures.
At the same time, there are structural constraints within higher education that cannot be ignored. Creative arts courses across the UK have faced budget cuts, a lower funding priority compared to STEM disciplines, staff reductions, and the rising cost of maintaining workshops and specialist facilities. These pressures directly affect how far institutions can go in teaching technically advanced sustainability.
Developing genuine expertise in areas such as textile chemistry, advanced sustainable manufacturing or low-impact dyeing is resource-intensive. It requires laboratories, specialist staff, advanced equipment and long-term industry partnerships — elements that many fashion schools simply do not have at scale.
Without addressing these material limitations, sustainability risks remaining a concept that is taught in theory but only partially translated into industrial practice. For fashion education to evolve meaningfully, it must therefore be supported not only by curriculum reform, but also by investment, infrastructure and stronger collaboration between academia and industry.