From botanical dyes and ancient practices to second hand garments donated by Traid - how the new ‘Material World’ exhibition and Kew Gardens explores the future of fashion as part of its new fest

Including a behind the scenes Q&A with Lottie Delamain, RHS award winning designer.

Temperate House at Kew Gardens. Image Credit: Kew Gardens

Fashion Roundtable attended the opening of the exceptional Kew Gardens ‘Material World’, which hosts its first ever fashion and textile-focused exhibition. It consists of a unique planted garden ‘Global Threads’ created by award-winning designer Lottie Delamain - to a commissioned collaboration with London College of Fashion and Kew’s Youth Forum lead by Kate Turnbull (The Secret Dyery, who showed her beautiful natural dyes at our recent event in celebration of Chelsea Flower Show), Carry Somers (Co-Founder of Fashion Revolution, whose London book launch we hosted last week) and artist Becca Smith.

By Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys

When I entered the Temperate House, I was immersed with the rich smells, vibrant flowers and captivating colours all organically produced by nature. It was incredible to experience the sensory journey and to observe first-hand, our connection as humans to the natural world and how this disconnect is often overlooked.

After being greeted by the friendly Kew team, I was led down a central walk-way within the iconic glass structure surrounded by unique plants, flowers and the sounds of nature. As I looked overhead, I saw a variety of winged forms floating and swaying in the high ceiling. Each unique form is made out of organic cotton, hessian and cheesecloth all dyed using a combination of madder, indigo, logwood and marigold natural dyes.

The sensual experience ‘Between Earth and Sky’ is designed by Nnenna Okore and Dubmorphology, with the aim to create an embodied experience, to shift minds and to reflect on how sustainable materials can shape a more harmonious environment.

I then continued on my journey down through the Temperate House, where I was greeted by Carry Somers who talked me through the ‘Threads of Canopy’, which is a large and tactile hanging textile map by Kew’s Youth Forum.

The botanically dyed piece, which sways gently in the wind, consists of naturally dyed embroidered threads, tree-based inks and hand-carved blocks for printing to celebrate Kew’s remarkable trees and its natural connection to dyes found in nature.

‘Threads of Canopy’ map. Image Credit: Kew Gardens

The North Octagon of Kew’s Temperate House has been transformed into an exhibition by London College of Fashion (UAL), MA Fashion Curating and Cultural Programming. The students display an array of garments, techniques and processes made from materials such as seaweed, mycelium and plant-based leathers.

It was great to see some of these unique materials being used in garment and textile construction, with the encouragement to be as experimental as possible and to move away from conventional aesthetics and cultural norms. This is all to support regenerative systems, bio-regional boundaries and repeatability rather than scaling up for mass production.

London College of Fashion, MA Fashion Curating and Cultural Programme Exhibition. Image Credit: Kew Gardens

London College of Fashion, MA Fashion Curating and Cultural Programme. Image Credit: Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys

On entry to the ‘Global Threads’ garden by Lottie Delamain, which is housed in the The Wolfson Octagon - I was instantly immersed into the impacts of fast-fashion and the results this has on our natural environment.

Each unique bed is constructed out of garments donated by Traid, which are all uniquely sorted into colours and themes. This immediately made me question garment waste, synthetic colour applications and the effects of garments and landfill on our eco-systems. The beds feature specific dye and fibre plants from each region in the world, complemented with tall-textile installations to highlight these botanical dye practices.

‘Global Threads’ garden by Lottie Delamain. Image Credit: Kew Gardens

Behind the scenes Q&A with Lottie Delamain:

1) Lottie, congratulations on being commissioned by the Kew Gardens Material World, 2025 show, where you designed a garden for their Temperate House that celebrates the storied global history of plants and textiles. How did you arrive at this concept? How hard was it to create your design in reality?

Thank you! In some ways, the garden is a follow up to the garden I did at Chelsea 2022 for Fashion Revolution, which explored the relationship between what we wear and what we grow.

The beauty of this garden was that being in the Temperate House, we were able to explore a much wider palette of plants, therefore giving it a global outlook. It’s always fun doing an installation rather than a ‘real’ garden which get bogged down in practical elements like bin storage and parking! Our key goal for this was high visual impact alongside a simple but powerful message – so colour was important, as was scale.

2) Much of the design is based on the use of contemporary motifs, and that includes planted islands that are made out of ‘textile waste’ to reveal the beauty in botanical colours. How do you think this relationship with colour can help to change our perception in the fashion industry?

I think we are all so obsessed with perfection – whether we realise it or not. We want a specific colour, a perfect match, the exact tone. Plant colour doesn’t work like that – there’s an element of the unknown about it, and it’s very hard to replicate the same colour exactly the same, twice. I think we need to embrace this a bit more, and have a more relaxed attitude towards working with what we have at our disposal, rather than seeking out a very specific thing, often at a big cost both to our wallets and then planet.

3) You are displaying some large scale art-works which highlight the beauty of plant-based colour and how this method can be adopted by the contemporary textile industry. Please could you expand on this?

These were designed by two students on the BA Textile course at Chelsea College of Arts – Mia Alexander and Maddie Warner. The project was part of their course, which was such a fantastic way to work with (and learn from) the next generation of talent. In my original design, the hanging textiles were woven like the textiles around the beds, but Mia and Maddie came up with something so much better! The works are a collaboration between the two as I loved both of their work so much – Mia’s bold graphic prints, and Maddie’s contemporary take on applique. They worked with Kate Turnbull (who I first worked with at Chelsea) to develop the dyes and pastes, and the result is better than I could have ever planned for.

4) What do you think are the biggest misconceptions people have about “natural dyes and fibres” that you hope your garden can help dispel?

I hope they will be seen in a more contemporary context – that with the right talent and skills they have a place in contemporary fashion, but also Design.

5) You talk a lot about reconnecting the relationship between what we wear and what we grow, encouraging the storytelling aspect and origins. Do you think that consumers are becoming more interested in this relationship?

Yes and no. I think there is definitely more awareness – about the relationship between plants and fashion, and fashion’s toxicity as a whole. And marketplaces like Vinted have opened up a new, and more sustainable way of shopping to people that might not have previously. But I think the fact still remains that people are used to cheap clothes and constant shopping (which is why Vinted has been such a hit) – supply chains and the origins of our clothes are still murky and I don’t think drive consumer behaviour for all but the most Conscientious.

6) How do you hope visitors will interact with the garden in terms of awareness: what do you want people to take away about fashion, textiles, waste and their own wardrobe choices?

I would love people to pause and see the thousands of fast fashion labels woven into those beds and think twice about their next impulse buy. And for people to be inspired by natural dyes and fibres, to not see them as fringe or a something for hobbyists to experiment with, but a spectrum of colour that has a valuable role to play in a modern fashion industry.

It is wonderful to see how the ‘Material World’ Exhibition at Kew Gardens, raises awareness to the many environmental and ethical challenges as an immediate result of the fast-fashion industry and its disposable culture. It is great to see viable regenerative solutions in both theory and practice from student-led research projects to industry engagement.

This aligns very closely with our project The Great British Wool Revival, which reconnects farmers with designers in the UK to support regional wool production, natural dyes methods and best-practice across the entire value chain. We hope that with this tool, this will help to guide creatives, designers and brands towards a more sustainable and regenerative fashion future, aligning with the many shared values featured in the ‘Material World’.

Link for tickets: Kew Gardens