Waste Not: From fallout to future - Evening Viewing & Panel Discussion

Waste Not: Fallout to future is a journey through the wreckage of modern consumption and the radical possibility of its reassembly, showcasing designs manufactured entirely from waste.

This bold exhibition, part of London Design Festival and listed in City Wide: London Fashion Week 2025, introduces circular and regenerative design brands ReFactory and Exiled alongside legendary responsible design pioneer, Christopher Raeburn, and multidisciplinary artist, Katy Mason.

Through an immersive installation and design showcase, they present limited-run furniture, homeware, fashion, accessories and other one-off pieces, all created entirely from post-consumer waste recovered by leading waste management company, MYGroup – reframing this systemic scourge not as an end, but a beginning.

* Evening Viewing and Panel Discussion *

Join us for an evening of conversation, creativity and connection. Guests are invited to enjoy a drinks reception and a private evening viewing of the exhibition before gathering for a thought-provoking panel discussion.

Discussion topic: 'Is fashion's future second-hand?', hosted by Gemma Metheringham, founder of 'The Elephant in my Wardrobe'.

This discussion brings together pioneers and innovators determined to keep unwanted clothing out of landfill. Together, we’ll ask how the second-hand fashion movement can continue to grow – and what it might take to reshape fashion’s future.

Speakers and bios:

• Paola Masperi is a Digital Product Passport innovator and the founder of Madeby, an Innovate UK-backed technology platform harnessing Digital IDs and product passports to power the circular economy and drive transparency in fashion. Prior to this, Paola founded Mayamiko, an award-winning circular fashion label worn by Meghan Markle and recognised for its responsible, innovative approach. Through Mayamiko Trust, Paola championed women’s empowerment and sustainable economic models in Malawi, integrating social impact into ethical supply chains. With over a decade of hands-on experience building a fully circular brand, Paola is now a Circularity and Sustainability expert who helps fashion businesses assess their circularity, set visionary goals, and implement future-proof solutions.
• Kemi Oloyede is a multi-award-winning fine artist, fashion designer, educator and eco-conscious entrepreneur. After teaching in secondary and further education, she founded Sew London Project, a pioneering social enterprise that empowers communities through sewing, upcycling, and repair. Guided by her mantra “Reduce Waste and Repurpose Lives,” Kemi inspires both young people and adults to rethink their relationship with clothes and fashion. She also leads the Catch Them Young schools programme, introducing sustainability and creativity to the next generation. Through her work, Kemi champions circular fashion, reduces textile waste and proves that style and sustainability can go hand in hand.
• Lydia Bolton is a sustainable fashion advocate who promotes the need to reuse and repurpose textiles. Lydia does this work through content creation and partnerships with brands, as well as with her own sustainable fashion brand. Lydia's brand has been featured in British Vogue, Refinery29, EuroNews and The Face Magazine and has partnered with Reebok, Palladium, Nicce and others to help them educate and raise awareness for sustainability within fashion. Lydia's focus is on remaking and repurposing secondhand materials, ranging from deadstock to unwanted fabrics, giving them a new life. By reusing these materials, there is less water, energy and CO2 waste, helping create a better future for fashion and for ourselves. Lydia has been featured on WGSN as an influencer to watch for her work within sustainable fashion and encouraging others to join in.
• Rebecca O'Leary is Textiles Manager at Exiled, which creates fashion, accessories and lifestyle collections from recovered textiles and regenerative natural fibres. Every piece is guided by material story and the highest standards of craft. Scarcity is not a limitation but a principle – collections are shaped by what’s available, not by demand. Designed in the UK with artisan partners and a responsible supply chain, including virgin cotton production in Sri Lanka, each item carries provenance and purpose. Prior to Exiled, Becky was a lecturer and examiner in fashion design and ran her own loungewear, bridal and occasion wear brands.
• Gemma Metheringham started The Elephant in my Wardrobe in 2020 to challenge overconsumption and throwaway fashion after working in the fashion industry for over 30 years. The conversations that started there led her to quit her job, complete an MA in Fashion Futures and start a PHD. Her research explores the future of the secondhand fashion market and how it might reduce fashion’s environmental impact. Committed to sharing what she’s learning, Gemma writes, lectures, upcycles, mends for friends, advocates for radical consumerism and asks, ‘is fashion’s future secondhand?

Exhibition narrative

Waste isn’t just what’s left behind – it’s the fallout from a system breaking down.

Amid an era marked by conflict, unrest, division and environmental strain, waste is yet another manifestation of progress without responsibility.

Products are designed to be consumed fast and discarded just as quickly. We buy, we bin, we move on – one trend chasing the next, returns outpacing purchases, waste outpacing reason.

But the planet carries the weight of our abundance. Oceans churn with the lifetime of plastic we’ve thrown away. Forests fall for flat-packed furniture and fleeting trends. Metals, mined and forged into appliances, now rust in forgotten landfills. Textiles – the latest fashions of a year, or week, ago – pile high in rotting mounds.

Waste Not invites visitors to look directly at the materials they throw away – the very frontline of waste – then witness the often-unseen craft and skill required to deconstruct and reimagine them.

The exhibition features the raw design language of ReFactory furniture and homeware alongside the quiet precision of Exiled’s limited-run textiles and accessories. These collections are presented together with one-off pieces by responsible design legend Christopher Raeburn and multidisciplinary artist Katy Mason, alum of the Sarabande Foundation and founder of Trash Club.

Every item presented in the exhibition has been reclaimed and remanufactured with circularity and regenerative design in mind, using material recovered by leading UK waste management company, MYGroup.

Visitors are offered a glimpse of a future more hopeful still, as Exiled reveals its work in responsible cotton cultivation, fibre-to-fibre regeneration and fully traceable design through Digital Product Passports.

The exhibition and the designs presented propose a new type of making – one rooted in necessity. This isn't up- or down-cycling – it's disruption. An uprising. A refusal to let value die in landfill or the fire. Reframing waste dismissed by industry and society not as fallout, but future.

Exhibition spaces

1. FALLOUT

During a golden age of convenience, we find ourselves in a dark age of waste – the fallout from a system in conflict. An immersive space confronts, disorients and demands visitors face up to the problem.

2. MATERIAL TRUTH

The raw truth of overproduction and systemic discard is laid bare, with different types and sources of post-consumer and industrial waste presented as artefacts – distorted, sculpted and undeniable.

3. MATERIAL RECKONING

Collections of furniture, homeware, fashion, accessories and art are presented, crafted entirely from material once deemed worthless. Waste transformed into objects of utility, of beauty...of defiance.

4. FUTURE

The fallout is already here, but a future lies ahead for those ready and willing to transform and waste not. Brands know they can no longer afford to ignore their downstream impact – the choice now is not whether to act, but how.

5. LIVE SPACE (Select days / times)

Demoing the craft of circular making and regenerative design, from careful deconstruction to remanufacture – presenting waste not as abstract material, but to be worked with in the here and now.