June 17, 2025

Celebrating Visionary Design. Leah Gasson Wins the 2025 Ultrafabrics Sustainable Design Award

We’re proud to announce Leah Gasson as the winner of the Ultrafabrics Sustainable Design Award 2025 at this year’s New Designers show, the UK’s premier platform for emerging creative talent. This award champions students who are redefining the future of textiles through sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility.

Leah, a recent graduate of Loughborough University, presented ‘The Ephemeral Bride’, a project that tackles the environmental impact of single-wear garments in the bridal industry. The judging panel unanimously agreed that Leah’s concept was not only unique and beautifully executed but also offered a thoughtful and highly innovative response to a real-world sustainability issue. Her designs reflected a deep understanding of materiality, lifecycle thinking, and emotional storytelling, all while maintaining a strong visual and tactile appeal that would resonate with modern brides.

Inspired by the connection between humans and nature, traditional Japanese textile techniques, and the work of practitioners like Beatrice Oettinger and Zena Holloway, Leah draws deeply on personal history, particularly the influence of her gardening grandfather, to inform her material choices and creative process.

‘The Ephemeral Bride’ proposes an entirely new approach to bridalwear. Compostable and co-created with nature, the garments are designed to be buried after the wedding ceremony, eventually transforming into plants. Combining traditional weaving with grass root cultivation, Leah developed a variety of textile samples using natural materials including Japanese paper yarns from Habu Textiles, nettle fibre, raw alpaca, donated silks and cottons, and even handmade paper from recycled waste fabrics.

Throughout her process, she grew grass root bodices and embedded seeds into woven samples, successfully sprouting new plant life from her textiles. The garments become living artifacts, not just worn for a day, but designed to continue a symbolic journey of transformation after the wedding.

Leah explains, “Sustainability was the driving force for my project, influenced by the Cradle-to-Cradle model. I wanted to change the short use-to-waste life cycle of the contemporary wedding dress by shifting how brides view the end of its life. Compostable bridal wear creates a symbolic relationship, both the bride and her dress transform after the ceremony as they enter new stages of life.”

The Ultrafabrics Sustainable Design Award celebrates projects that go beyond environmental responsibility to embrace innovation and social impact. Leah’s work exemplifies this balance, demonstrating creativity with purpose, originality, and the potential to inspire meaningful change within the textile industry.

Leah will receive a £1,000 grant to support the next steps in her journey. She plans to use the funds to invest in a loom and essential weaving equipment, allowing her to continue exploring the future of compostable bridalwear. She also intends to pursue a master’s degree in sustainable textiles next year.

You can explore Leah’s work on her Instagram @_leahtextile_designs