Join our textile supply ecosystem and bring deep value to the textile products you create!

New York Textile Lab is a design and consulting company. We design yarns and textiles that connect designers to fiber producers and mills to help grow an economically diverse textile supply ecosystem. The resources that we provide give designers agency to make better decisions about their social and environmental investments. Our textiles embody deep value through our sourcing and production practices. The fibers we use are grown on healthy, climate beneficial soil within our region, and we partner with mills and manufacturers that are local, transparent, and ethical.

NY Textile Lab believes that the worlds textile production should grow out of abundant, regenerative systems that emerge from collective thinking, rather than centralized systems that rely on extraction, scarcity and competition. Connect to the textile supply ecosystem with NY Textile Lab and thrive.

Partners of NY Textile Lab:

About Laura Sansone

Laura Sansone is a textile designer, activist, and consultant. She is the creator of New York Textile Lab, a design and consulting company that supports environmentally responsible textile methods, and regional systems of production. Laura is currently a Part-Time Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design. She has developed initiatives that bring NY designers and farmers together with the goal of creating a decentralized, regenerative textile supply network. Textile Lab’s NYS Regional Yarn Sourcebook is a collection of locally sourced and produced yarns that are intended to link apparel, product and interior designers to the regional network of farms and fiber processing mills. Laura is the founder of the Carbon Farm Network, a purchasing cooperative that connects designers to Climate Beneficial™ fibers that are grown on NYS farms practicing Carbon Farming on their lands. New York Textile Lab’s Carbon Farm Network, along with 5 other partners, has recently been awarded a Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant through the USDA’s historic investment in expanding climate-smart agriculture. The lead partner on this grant is the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). In addition, Laura has designed woven textiles for the following companies: Maharam, New York, NY, American Silk Mills, New York, NY and Burlington House Fabrics, New York, NY.

Manifesto

I studied textiles in both college and graduate school just a few short decades ago. When I was a student we learned about the innate characteristics of fiber materials; the elasticity of wool, it’s tendency to shrink and distort, the tooth that one feels when you crush a piece of silk in your hands, and the enduring strength of linen when it’s warped onto a loom. But we didn’t really learn too much about exactly where the materials came from, particularly industrial textile materials and clothing. There was a glossed over mention of the flax plant, the sheep, and the silk worm, and there was little attention dedicated to the actual farm or the geographic region where these materials grow and the farming communities that cultivate them.

Today, as designers, it’s our imperative to share information about the provenance of materials and the socio-economic effects of manufacturing. Decades of outsourcing, agricultural revolutions, and trade polices have given way to a textile industry that is centralized and highly reliant on extracted resources. We have found ourselves in an industry that lacks diversity in material choices: we have seen polyester and cotton monopolize the clothing and textile industry for more than a decade, together accounting for 85% of world fiber production.[1] Economic diversity is also threatened, as large conglomerate businesses monopolize the clothing and textile industry influencing policies and outcomes for the benefit of profit alone.

A shift away from fibers reliant on petrochemicals and big agricultural systems to biodegradable materials like wool and other natural fibers that are cultivated on smaller farms can bring benefits. Some benefits include; better farming practices that have regenerative outcomes, reduced consumption of resources, and a focus on local jobs. These strategies bring both environmental and economic diversity and better stewardship to our biosphere.

At Textile Lab, we see a new textile economy where:

Members of decentralized supply chains work together to build an interdependent ecosystem.

Supply chains foster economic diversity rather than monopolies

We reject practices that rely on extraction and scarcity and adopt those that regenerate and sustain.

Material diversity is embraced and celebrated as necessary to balancing our ecosystems.

Community and cooperation rise above isolation and competition.

The creation of textiles and textile products, are built on social and environmental value, not just economic profit.

Women are treated with respect and are recognized as important partners in restoring homeostasis to our natural and human made systems.

1. Simpson, P. (2011) Global Trends in Fiber Prices, Production and Consumption, Textiles Outlook International, 150, p82.

Which system map looks more resilient?

NY Textile Lab works to connect designers directly to farmers, mills and manufacturers to create a decentralized textile supply network.

In our industrial textile supply chains, the designer is disconnected from the farms where the fiber materials grow, and often designers do not have a relationship to the mills that produce their textiles. Our industrial supply chains are set up for efficiencies of scale which encourage a centralized growth logic which leads to opacity, greed, distrust and competition. If we work collectively, we can grow our supply chains into decentralized networks that foster interdependencies with mutual benefit, much like the patterns we see in natural, biological systems. Working in a decentralized supply network fosters transparency and trust. Interdependent networks enable designers to embed deep value in their products, beyond mere profit and for the benefit of people and the environment.

The New York Regional Yarn Sourcebook

The NYS Regional Yarn Sourcebook raises the visibility of the yarns and fibers that New York State farms are currently producing. It is both a reference book for design professionals to use when they source materials and a means to connect farmers, mills and designers together in a single resource. This book encourages a viable, interdependent supply chain that can help to increase revenue for both small businesses as well as small farms in New York State. The NYS Regional Yarn Sourcebook is updated annually and it contains:

-Yarns and hand knit samples

-Micrometer and tensile strength data for the featured yarns

-Glossary of terms for yarn and textile processing

-End use suggestions based on micrometer average

-Farm description and contact information

-Inventory and pricing

Carbon Farm Network

Our Carbon Farm Network is an interconnected group of fiber producers who use climate beneficial practices on their farms and climate conscious textile and clothing designers who develop yarns and textile products from carbon farmed fibers.

Climate beneficial practices actively rebuild soil health during the growing and processing of fibers. The restored health of our soil supports the sequestration of carbon which mitigates the harmful effects of climate change. As a designer, your sourcing practices can help to grow this proven solution.

The Carbon Farm Plans that are developed for our partnering farms are reviewed and administered by the Carbon Farm Network’s Carbon Farm Planner. The fiber is verified Climate Beneficial through the Fibershed Affiliate Program. Textile Lab is excited to be connecting designers to climate beneficial materials that have the potential to sequester carbon for the benefit of our climate.

If you're a farmer interested in learning more about the Carbon Farm Network initiative, or if you're a designer interested in using climate beneficial materials, check out the Carbon Farm Network Hub.

Memberships

for farmers

for designers