Innovation Archives

Africa Textile Talks Day 1: Circular solutions for South Africa’s textile industry

Circularity was the focus of the first day of Africa Textile Talks 2025 on 29 July at the V&A Watershed in Cape Town. A broad range of industry players from small businesses and independent designers to representatives from national retailer...

August 18, 2025

How University of Pretoria students learn to craft a better future

Fashion Features

How University of Pretoria students learn to craft a better future

At the University of Pretoria, sustainability isn’t just taught — it’s practiced. From bread bags to denim offcuts, students are turning waste into tools for social change. The Department of Consumer and Food Sciences integrates Sustainable Development Goals into its...

June 18, 2025

Students use mohair to craft sustainable fashion futures

Features

Students use mohair to craft sustainable fashion futures

The Cape Town-based Design Academy of Fashion (DAF) launched a game-changing project in collaboration with Mohair South Africa this year. Focused on mohair as a locally sourced, circular, and sustainable fibre, second-year students attended masterclasses about textile construction and textile-making...

December 13, 2024

The Global Change Award opens to a new round of changemakers

Fashion

The Global Change Award opens to a new round of changemakers

The H&M Foundation is searching for a new group of innovators for its Global Change Award, offering a chance to win €200,000. The annual competition aims to achieve a net-zero textile industry by 2050 by awarding grants to changemakers. Past...

October 30, 2024

Futuristic Pagan by Chipo Mapondera and Sabina Mutsvati

Design Futures Africa

Futuristic Pagan by Chipo Mapondera and Sabina Mutsvati

Futuristic Pagan explores Shona spiritual practices and traditions through virtual reality. The space reflects a Shona dreamscape made up of traditional icons that represent the rituals and meanings related to communicating with the ancestors, and other guides and deities. The...

September 29, 2023

What lies beneath by Rufaro Magara and Ryan Harvey

Design Futures Africa

What lies beneath by Rufaro Magara and Ryan Harvey

Dive into a virtual ocean adventure in “What Lies Beneath”, a captivating prototype VR game that transports players to an underwater world with a pressing mission to save the seas. The game seamlessly blends education with entertainment, empowering the viewer...

September 29, 2023

Back To by Tarryn Tippens and Larnelle Bakala

Design Futures Africa

Back To by Tarryn Tippens and Larnelle Bakala

Back To is a short-format 360-degree film that explores cultural identity through sustainable design. This is the story of a woman named Yelena who is living in a post-apocalyptic world. Yelena tells us the story of how her life has...

September 29, 2023

Resurrection by Jackson Chifamba and Joel Chandauka

Design Futures Africa

Resurrection by Jackson Chifamba and Joel Chandauka

Join JaXX in an immersive experience of what it’s like to be a textile creative in Harare. Follow him as he goes to the Mbare market to thrift for second-hand clothes that he uses as material for the making of...

September 28, 2023

Bhero Kulture by Siza Mukwedini and Plot Mhako

Design Futures Africa

Bhero Kulture by Siza Mukwedini and Plot Mhako

For Bhero Kulture, Siza and Plot have created an augmented reality portal into the Mabhero clothing market in Harare, and an immersive zine that allows viewers to engage with various topics affecting the fashion industry in Zimbabwe. The zine invites...

September 28, 2023

Far and Wide by Larah Fisher and Keith Dliwayo

Design Futures Africa

Far and Wide by Larah Fisher and Keith Dliwayo

In this immersive 360 degree virtual reality music video, Larah and Keith have created different spaces of nature, accompanied by soundscapes, that represent different phases of climate change. Original music has been composed for the film experience of wandering through...

September 28, 2023

Fashion

What do coffee and seaweed have in common? They outshine cotton in sustainable fashion

Ever considered the carbon footprint of manufacturing your favourite cotton shirt? The average cotton shirt produces 2.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide – but a polyester shirt produces over twice as much (5.5 kilograms). It might come as no surprise that...

January 24, 2023

4 Circular designers share ideas for radically redesigning our world

Features

4 Circular designers share ideas for radically redesigning our world

In a new video series, What Design Can Do’s Make it Circular Challenge interviews four circular designers about the importance of circular design and the urgent need to radically redesign the world we live in. Never before have we produced,...

January 18, 2023

Join the What Design Can Do Challenge and use your creativity to forge a circular society

Features

Join the What Design Can Do Challenge and use your creativity to forge a circular society

Do you have an idea that contributes to a circular society? What Design Can Do and the Ikea Foundation are inviting creatives from around the world to pitch their circular solutions in the Make it Circular Challenge. The competition seeks...

December 14, 2022

Earthshot prize: five winners that will help solve major environmental problems

Features

Earthshot prize: five winners that will help solve major environmental problems

Climate change is one of the greatest threats ever to face humanity. With mounting storms, fires, floods and droughts and the annual disappointment of international negotiations, it’s easy to despair about how bad the future climate will be. But exciting...

December 12, 2022

World Circular Economy Forum 2022 will focus on African innovation

Features

World Circular Economy Forum 2022 will focus on African innovation

The World Circular Economy Forum 2022 will be hosted on the African continent between 6 – 8 December. It is focused on addressing the effects of climate change and on solutions in an African context. Despite having a negligible contribution...

December 5, 2022

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Tag: Innovation

Africa Textile Talks Day 1: Circular solutions for South Africa’s textile industry

How University of Pretoria students learn to craft a better future

Students use mohair to craft sustainable fashion futures

The Global Change Award opens to a new round of changemakers

Futuristic Pagan by Chipo Mapondera and Sabina Mutsvati

What lies beneath by Rufaro Magara and Ryan Harvey

Back To by Tarryn Tippens and Larnelle Bakala

Resurrection by Jackson Chifamba and Joel Chandauka

Bhero Kulture by Siza Mukwedini and Plot Mhako

Far and Wide by Larah Fisher and Keith Dliwayo

What do coffee and seaweed have in common? They outshine cotton in sustainable fashion

4 Circular designers share ideas for radically redesigning our world

Join the What Design Can Do Challenge and use your creativity to forge a circular society

Earthshot prize: five winners that will help solve major environmental problems

World Circular Economy Forum 2022 will focus on African innovation

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