MELANGE is being delivered by a consortium of nine partners from seven European countries covering the interior textile value chain. Aalto University in Finland is leading the project, while Textile ETP will run its dissemination and stakeholder engagement activities.
Fabric colouration is one of the most resource-intensive stages in textile production, with conventional processes applying colour at the end of manufacturing to achieve replicability and uniformity.
This comes at a high cost in water, energy and chemicals, while the pursuit of near-unachievable uniformity in fibres, yarns and fabrics can also create challenges for circularity by wasting materials and resources through trial runs and discouraging the reuse of recycled and naturally variable materials.
MELANGE aims to address this by using design as a driver of sustainable competitiveness in the European interior textile industry. The project will advance low-impact fibre-stage colouration technologies, including spin, dope and solution dyeing, while treating colour variation as a signature of uniqueness rather than a defect.
Its approach takes inspiration from a heritage practice in Prato, Tuscany, where pre-coloured recycled fibres are blended by shade, avoiding re-dyeing and treating variation as a valued aesthetic. MELANGE aims to cut water and chemical use by up to 50% compared with conventional finishing-stage processes.
The project will focus on interior textiles, which account for roughly one-third of global textile production but are often overlooked in sustainability discussions.
It uses its “design locks” framework to address four barriers to change: aesthetics, production practices, business models and policy.
Its cross-disciplinary, practice-led approach will span the fibres-to-fabrics value chain, including analysing dominant colouration practices and sustainable heritage fibre-stage techniques, designing and prototyping textiles employing fibre-stage colouration, and testing new industrial practices from fibre to fabric.
MELANGE will also explore how business models, aesthetics and B2B marketing approaches can be transformed, while identifying and recommending industry standards and policies for change.
Lutz Walter, secretary general of Textile ETP, said: “While everybody focuses on clothing and fashion, next gen fibres and recycling, MELANGE will tackle two stepchildren of the textile sustainability transformation: interior textiles and colour management.
“We will provide interior textile designers with tools and best practices to make colour a lever for sustainability and demonstrate through our industry partners that these new design practices can be effectively integrated and scaled in the world of business.”
As part of the nine-partner consortium, Textile ETP will lead dissemination and communication activities for MELANGE, managing its website, newsletter and social media.
Textile ETP will also integrate MELANGE into ECOSYSTEX, an initiative focused on fostering collaboration among EU projects working on textile circularity and building a lasting European Community of Practice for innovation in textile circularity and sustainability.
