LivingLabs for Circular Regenerative Fashion: Co-creating Systemic Solutions Across the Global North & South

Living Labs provide real-life environments for co-creation, experimentation and learning, offering a powerful approach to addressing the complex challenges of the fashion sector.

The fashion sector faces major environmental and social challenges, from resource consumption and textile waste to pollution and unsustainable production models. Addressing these challenges requires not only new technologies and business models, but new ways of experimenting, collaborating and turning innovation into change in real life.

This event puts Living Labs at the centre of the transition towards more circular, regenerative and socially inclusive fashion systems.

Living Labs bring citizens, researchers, businesses, policymakers and civil society together to co-create and experiment with solutions in real-life settings, generating evidence, learning and practical pathways for change. The session will showcase concrete experiences from Living Labs across the ENoLL Network, demonstrating how they are addressing challenges ranging from repair and reuse and circular textile value chains to sustainable materials, artisan networks and community-led innovation.

Following keynote contributions from Claudia Giacovelli, UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)Textile Unit, and Matteo Ward, Fashion Entrepreneur, Sustainability Advocate and Communicator, the session will feature Living Lab practitioners from across the ENoLL Network: Salla Kuuluvainen from Laurea Living Labs – Baltic2Hand; Barbara Kieslinger from Centre of Social Innovation, ZSI – make-a-thek; Samia Chelbi from DigiArt Living Lab, Tunisia – BAF; and Silja Kostia from TAMK Living Lab.

They will present practical cases and lessons learned, followed by a roundtable discussion, From Fast Fashion to Systemic Change: Why Global Collaboration Matters, exploring how Living Labs can contribute to scaling solutions, informing policy, strengthening local value chains and fostering North–South and South–South collaboration through the global Living Lab community.