The H&M Foundation and Fotografiska Stockholm, one of the world’s most prominent museums for contemporary photography, are joining forces in the quest to inspire and encourage positive change through the power of visual communication. The two-year collaboration launched in December 2021 with Fotografiska’s exhibition The Changing Room by visual artist Tobias Gremmler. Alongside it, H&M Foundation opened the inspiration space The Future is Here.
The Future is Here takes us further into the world of innovation and shows how our second skin – clothing – is transforming through the ground-breaking materials and technical solutions that are right now reinventing the fashion industry. Both physically and digitally, visitors can explore fabrics made of CO2, lab-grown cotton, algae dyes and textiles, leather made of wine leftovers, clothes of food crop waste, and the first machine that can recycle blend-material textiles at scale. It sounds like science fiction, but it is actual science. These innovations exist and are already in use.
The Future is Here conveys the mission we all share in viewing clothes as valuable resources and instills hope that a planet-positive fashion future is within reach because of the power of innovation. If given adequate support and opportunity to scale, only one of the innovations could save 80,000 million liters of water, which is the same amount 115 million people drink during a year. Another solution could reduce 720,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, comparable to the total life-cycle emissions of 120 million polyester T-shirts.
Elin Frendberg, Executive Director Fotografiska, said, “Together, we want to increase awareness of environmental and social issues and inspire positive change.”
