The Next Thread: Who Owns the Future of Fashion?

Can new technology help independent fashion businesses thrive - or will it simply give the biggest players more power?
About this Event

Shoreditch Sandbox on Worship Street, E14 is a new space for making, experimenting and bringing people together around ideas, materials and creativity.

Can new technology help independent fashion businesses thrive - or will it simply give the biggest players more power? Come along to our upcoming Exchange talk and panel conversation.

East London has a long history of putting fashion, design and innovation together. Today, it sits alongside one of the UK’s most important technology clusters.

What happens when those two worlds come together?

Technology is changing how fashion is designed, produced and sold. New approaches to smaller-scale production, digital infrastructure, AI and circular business models are opening up possibilities that could allow independent designers and businesses to operate very differently.

But the same tools can help larger companies spot ideas, follow trends and bring products to market faster.

Could technology genuinely change the balance of power in fashion? And could East London be one of the places where that change happens?

As part of First Threads, Shoreditch Sandbox’s opening season exploring the area’s connections to fashion, textiles and creativity, this Exchange brings that question into the room.

Hosted by David Leigh, whose work explores the relationship between fashion, technology and independent business, the conversation brings together voices from across fashion, technology, circularity, policy and intellectual property.

Drawing on David's 'Fashion 2.0' thesis - his proposition that fashion has yet to undergo a truly systemic second iteration - and Circular Capital research, the panel will explore whether new approaches to production and circularity can give independent businesses more power. At its heart is a question of scale: could we build an industry in which more independent fashion businesses can remain small, agile and creatively autonomous - and still be commercially viable? Or whether scale will simply find a new way to win.

- Panelists
Jaffa Saba - multidisciplinary artist, independent designer and upcycler, whose practice centres around reconstruction and giving new value to existing garments and materials. He brings both a hands-on circular-fashion perspective and the independent creator’s experience of ownership, collaboration and working with larger fashion businesses.

Dr Lida Hujić - author, researcher and innovation strategist specialising in how idiosyncratic ideas diffuse into the mainstream and reshape culture and consumer behaviour. Creator of the the-first-to-know innovation diffusion model and author of The First to Know and The 2.5%: Small Group – Big Influence, her work spans fashion, emerging culture, market disruption and sustainable business.

Jenny Haigh - Head of Policy, Fashion & Textiles and Creative Economy at UAL, bringing the policy, institutional and creative-economy perspective.

Shana Chu - The Material Office - garment technology and production expert with over 15 years’ experience in fashion manufacturing. Former founder of fashion-tech platform Tailr, she now runs The Material Office, working with start-up and growth-stage brands across technical design, tech packs, sourcing, fit and production. She brings a practical perspective on how technology and more flexible production models can change the possibilities for independent fashion businesses.

Ruby Hotston - Stobbs - IP paralegal with a particular interest in how technology is changing fashion consumption, especially around rental and circular-fashion models.

Cait Ryan - Stobbs -qualified lawyer working in fashion/IP who previously worked in-house at Condé Nast and New Look, bringing first-hand insight from larger fashion, media and high-street businesses alongside experience in technology, data and AI policy.

- Led by
David Leigh - Fashion strategist, educator, and entrepreneur whose work explores how emerging technologies and new business models can enable a more independent, distributed, and circular fashion industry.

A Visiting Lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL, David works across fashion design and business education, bringing entrepreneurship, circular value propositions, and Industry 4.0 thinking to the next generation of creatives. He is the creator of Circular Capital - a research programme funded through UKRI's Connecting Capability Fund exploring how circularity creates commercial value - and the founder of xyz.xchange, a fashion-tech venture developing practical infrastructure for independent designers. Through his 'Fashion 2.0' framework, David champions a future where manufacturing, digital provenance, and AI allow smaller, agile creative businesses to thrive on their own terms.

What to expect

• A lively panel discussion led by David Leigh, bringing together different perspectives from fashion, technology and the wider creative economy.

• Real examples of new approaches to production, ownership and circular business

• Drinks and conversation afterwards with designers, creative founders and others from East London’s creative community

Who’s it for?

Designers, fashion students, creative founders, technologists, researchers, policy-makers and anyone interested in where fashion goes next.
Shoreditch Sandbox is a new space for connecting, sharing ideas, and bringing people together around creativity, materials, and community.

Come In. Connect. Share. Explore.

Tickets are free. We’re proud to keep our events accessible and open to all. (If you can no longer make it, please let us know so we can offer your place to someone else).