Growing a Regenerative Textile Ecosystem in NYS

This lecture will discuss a new textile ecosystem rooted in bioregional economic development. Laura Sansone will introduce strategies for regional textile production focused on cooperative, regenerative models. She will address frameworks that deepen partnerships with local farming communities in NYS, enabling a distributed growth logic and a ‘commons’ approach to how we extract and regenerate resources from our lands as we produce our textiles. Laura will also share examples of Climate Beneficial™ Verified textile products that are designed through her company New York Textile Lab and the Carbon Farm Network, cooperative. 

Laura Sansone is a textile designer, activist, and consultant. She is the founder of New York Textile Lab, a design and consulting company that supports environmentally responsible textile methods, and regional systems of production.  Laura is currently a Part-Time Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design and the Executive Director of the New York Fibershed. She has developed initiatives that bring NY designers and farmers together with the goal of creating a decentralized, regenerative textile supply network. She is the founder of the Carbon Farm Network, a purchasing cooperative that connects designers to Climate Beneficial™ Verified fibers that are grown on NYS farms practicing Carbon Farming on their lands. In addition, she has designed woven textiles for the following companies: Maharam, New York, NY, American Silk Mills, New York, NY and Burlington House Fabrics, New York, NY.