Bath Spa and A Single Thread launch four-year sustainable fashion programme

Bath Spa University’s Future Fashion Works and A Single Thread CIC have launched a four-year sustainable fashion programme backed by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund, aiming to reach more than 250,000 people across the UK.

Dubbed Restitch the Future, the programme will develop a network of community-led high street hubs designed to make sustainable fashion more accessible, while creating a playbook for communities looking to establish their own local initiatives.

The programme follows the latest edition of Sustainable Fashion Week (SFW), which ran from September 26 to October 4 and brought together more than 347 grassroots activities across 41 regional hubs. Organised by A Single Thread, the 2026 edition focused on ‘Threads of Resistance’, encouraging communities to challenge overconsumption through repairing, rewearing and repurposing clothing.

Restitch the Future will build on that existing network, with activities including clothing swaps, repair workshops, upcycling, youth programmes, campaigns and skills-sharing opportunities. It will operate 32 community hubs annually and establish a further five to eight hubs in underrepresented areas, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The programme will also use SOMER, Bath’s community-based sustainable learning environment, to test approaches including year-round clothing swaps, repair cafés and upcycling workshops that can subsequently be shared across the wider network.

Alongside the community activity, Bath Spa University will lead research into the barriers preventing people from engaging with sustainable fashion, including affordability, access, representation and skills. The research will examine what drives lasting changes in fashion consumption and how climate-conscious choices can become more inclusive and accessible.

The programme is intended to extend the type of community activity demonstrated through SFW beyond an annual event and into year-round local infrastructure.

Amelia Twine, founder of A Single Thread CIC, said sustainable fashion is “too often” perceived as “expensive, exclusive or unrealistic”, adding that Restitch the Future would make it easier for people to “repair, reuse and rethink clothing” as part of everyday life.

Tamara Parsons-Baker, head of Future Fashion Works at Bath Spa University, said the project demonstrates “the power of collaboration between universities, communities and grassroots organisations” to tackle climate change.