Amazonian design takes centre stage at London Climate Action Week

As the fashion industry continues to reckon with its climate impact, a new exhibition at London Climate Action Week is shifting the spotlight from rhetoric to regeneration, and from the global north to the heart of the Amazon.

Opening at Coal Drops Yard from 25–29 June, (re)weaving Amazonia’ is a flagship event of the LCAW King’s Cross Hub and now in its third year. This year’s edition is uniquely framed by the upcoming COP30 climate summit, which will take place in Belém, Brazil, deep in the Amazon region, a symbolic gesture mirrored in the curatorial direction of the exhibition.

The showcase, part of the broader initiative Brazil Creating Fashion for Tomorrow (BCFT), presents a rare, design-led view of Amazonia through the lens of fashion, craft and sustainability. It brings together Indigenous creators, diasporic communities and emerging designers to explore alternative models of production and aesthetics rooted in biodiversity, circularity and ancestral knowledge. The goal is not only to celebrate cultural identity but to challenge dominant narratives in fashion’s sustainability agenda.

Backed by a coalition including nstituto Arapyaú, Amazon Concertation, The Nature Conservancy, Apex Brasil, and the Brazilian Embassy in London, the project reflects a growing movement within Brazil to position the Amazon not merely as a site of environmental urgency but as a wellspring of creative and technological innovation.

For the fashion industry, where greenwashing remains a pervasive concern, the exhibition offers a grounded counterpoint: pieces and materials that demonstrate viable, culturally embedded alternatives to industrial fashion’s extractive systems. It also aligns with the UN’s Fashion Charter for Climate Action and builds on recent calls from Indigenous leaders at events like ChangeNOW and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for greater recognition and representation in sustainability discourse.

As the UK capital positions itself as a convening force on climate during LCAW, (re)weaving Amazonia reminds us that the solutions to fashion’s future may already exist, just not always in the places the industry has traditionally looked.