Fashion, Reclaimed: Sustainable Fashion Week 2025
This September, Sustainable Fashion Week (SFW) returns for its fifth and most ambitious edition yet. The core programme runs from 27 September to 5 October, with fringe events taking place between 20 September and 12 October. Communities across the UK, Canada, and the USA will join together for a month-long celebration under the theme Fashion, Reclaimed. The message is clear: it’s time to take back control of our wardrobes, resist the churn of fast fashion, and imagine a more sustainable relationship with clothing.
Fashion, Reclaimed. Taking a stance against fast fashion. Photo credit: Sustainable Fashion Week.
Founded in 2020 by sustainability campaigner Amelia Twine (lead image), SFW has always been rooted in accessibility and inclusion. Twine is no stranger to the complexities of sustainability — she launched the online sustainable retail platform Give Wear Love in 2018, only to close it during the pandemic. That experience sharpened her focus. “I don’t believe sustainability is about luxury,” she explains. “The climate emergency affects us all, and we all get dressed in the morning. That means sustainability in fashion is relevant to everybody.”
Her vision for SFW is both pragmatic and hopeful. She believes that while systemic changes such as better legislation, regulation, and fairer distribution of profit is vital, individual and community action also has power. “We can use consumer demand to drive change. We can come together as a community and push for better.”
SOMER store in Bath, one of the national sustainable fashion hubs. The store will be hosting a clothes sales by Bath University School of Design Students.
This year’s programme reflects that philosophy. It spans 34 national hubs, including a flagship in Bath hosted by Future Fashion Works and Bath Spa University, alongside dozens of smaller “fringe” events. From botanical dye workshops in Birmingham to a children’s clothes swap in Bristol, the activities are designed to be as practical as they are inspiring. These small acts — mending, swapping, repurposing — demonstrate that sustainability need not be aspirational. It can be stitched into daily life.
For Selvedge, this resonates deeply. Sustainability is not an add-on or marketing device but a way of honouring the makers, materials, and traditions that give textiles meaning. To reclaim fashion is to slow down, to see value in the hem repaired with care, in the second-hand jacket carrying a story, in the hand-dyed cloth that deepens with time. It is about cherishing garments not only for how they look but for what they represent: skill, culture, resilience.
As Twine notes, the SFW network “demonstrates how coming together and reclaiming our power as citizens can be such a positive force in the face of challenge.” This autumn, whether at a hub, a workshop, or simply at home with needle and thread, every small action contributes to a larger tapestry: a fashion system reclaimed, and a future where textiles are treasured for their stories as much as their style.
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Further Information:
To explore the full programme or find a sustainable fashion hub near you, visit:
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Image Credits:
Lead: Portrait of Amelia Twine, founder of Sustainable Fashion Week