Textiles of the future: a qualitative study of the Dutch textile and clothing industry of new materials.

Because of the social and environmental challenges that the global fast fashion industry is facing today, solutions proper to slow fashion practices are gaining importance. Values such as circularity, local production and the use of more environmental-friendly materials are reshaping diverse domestic industries. The present research involves a case study of a local production network that roots in the maker movement and experiments with diverse forms of circular business models. The case in this thesis is a start-up operating in the textile and clothing (T&C) industry in Rotterdam (the Netherlands), that explores the opportunities of producing textile made of the tomato waste in the Dutch horticulture sector. Participant observation of the project is combined with in-depth interviews with frontrunners in the field. Together, this leads to deep insight in the heterogeneity of circular business models that are used and can be used by the entrepreneurs and designers who develop new materials for the slow fashion industry on a local scale. A proposal for a circular a collaboration framework for circular innovations, The Tomato Collaboration Model, is made, justified, and discussed.