Transparent Threads

Hosted in partnership with Replace Inner West, this collaborative exhibition brings together second-year Bachelor of Fashion Design students from The Fashion Design Studio (FDS), TAFE NSW and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to explore the hidden life of textiles beyond disposal.

Drawing directly from textile waste streams at the Replace Inner West facility, students have transformed discarded materials into a series of artworks that visualise the proportion of textiles that are reused, repurposed and recycled at Replace. Through material experimentation and creative interpretation, the works invite audiences to reconsider textile waste not as an endpoint but as a resource with the potential for new lives and new meanings. Each piece was then brought together to inform a larger textile installation which was constructed by students from the Certificate II, III and Diploma of Apparel, Fashion and Textiles at Lidcombe TAFE.

The exhibition offers a creative lens on the realities of textile recovery, making visible the scale of materials moving through the facility and the possibilities that emerge when waste is approached through design, innovation and collaboration.

The event will also feature a panel discussion hosted by Dr Lisa Lake, Director of the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles, with Fran Copelli of Replace Inner West alongside students and educators from UTS and FDS. The conversation will explore the students’ experience working with textile waste, the role of creative practice in shifting perceptions of waste and the potential for collaboration between education, industry and community to shape a more circular future for textiles.