In September 2025, Waag will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its TextileLab. From within the lab, Waag conducts research into textiles and natural dyes, with the following key principles: open hardware, innovation & craftsmanship, technology & accessibility, and biobased & local.
We take you through 10 highlights from the past 10 years:
1. Did you know that Waag's TextileLab originated in 2015 from Textile and Clothing Business Labs (TCBL)? In this project, Waag innovated the European clothing and textile industry. Together with partners from all over Europe, Waag investigated how the clothing sector can benefit from new technologies, working methods, and revenue models.
2. In 2016 Waag launched its TextileLab, a textile academy educational program. In 2017 it co founded the educational programme Fabricademy. Researchers, artists, engineers, and creatives spend six months exploring the future of textiles and the clothing industry. Think of it as a place for craftsmanship, heritage, technology, digital manufacturing, shared knowledge, and biology.
Do you want to take part in Fabricademy? There are still places available for a number of modules in the upcoming edition! More information via textile-academy.org
3. In 2018 BioShades was launched and shared in a fully open source fashion. We taught a couple hundred people how to dye with bacteria in a distributed event, the open sourcing of bacterial dyeing research widely impacted the knowledge creation on this topic proving its importance till this day. We still get requests for info and details from artists that want to experiment with it.
4. In 2018, Waag and Atelier Néerlandais presented the exhibition Bio Meets Digital: Exploring technology in the realm of fashion ecology today. The exhibition was part of the Dutch cultural year in France and presented an innovative vision of the relationship between humans and nature.
5. Ista Boszhard and Cecilia Raspanti, founders of Waag's TextileLab, were named Future Fashion Pioneers in 2018. The VPRO Tegenlicht programme asked the public to nominate textile pioneers who design fashion, fabrics, or production processes that make the world more sustainable, social, and fair.
6. Every year, we buy clothes. We wear them, and then they end up in the landfill. This linear chain of use, with a beginning and an end for materials, puts a lot of pressure on the climate. Between 2019 and 2022, Waag and 27 partners in six cities investigated how waste flows can be new sources of material. The Amsterdam Reflow booklet developed at that time provides insight into the circular textile processes in the city.
7. In the Shemakes (2021) project, Waag and its partners explicitly invited women to become part of the sustainable fashion industry by offering them workshops and networking opportunities. The aim was to increase the number of women in the textile and fashion industry and improve the position of women in this sector.
8. From metal forging to Staphorster stipwerk: traditional crafts are under pressure. By combining traditional crafts with digital technology, Waag shows in its TextileLab how digital tools can reinforce traditional knowledge. Within Tracks4Crafts, Waag researches how the hacking of machines can create new opportunities.
9. Urban areas are increasingly being greened, supported by local policy. With Local Color, Waag is committed to adding an extra function these greener public spaces: by showing that this new space can be transformed into dye gardens for local production of textile dye.
10. In honor of Amsterdam's 750th anniversary, Waag and The Linen Project and a group of the most skilled craftswomen created a 100% Amsterdam garment for the mayor of Amsterdam. The cultivation of the natural materials, dyeing to the design of the garment: the textiles for this garment were produced entirely within the city limits.
Exhibition Chromatic Relations
Waag is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its TextileLab with the exhibition Chromatic Relations – Ecologies of Local Colors. The exhibition runs from 18 till 28 September and explores the urban environment as a potential source of natural colors. Among other things, the HaptiColor machine and the garment for the mayor will be on display. Entrance is free! Will we see you there?
More about the exhibition, the festive opening and additional programming.
Images (from top to bottom): Bela Rofe Fabri Amsterdam, Waag Futurelab en Wardie Hellendoorn
