A Textile Garden for Fashion Revolution at the RHS Chelsea Flower ShowFashion Revolution showcases natural dyes and plantfibres at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022
In support of Fashion Revolution, garden designer Lottie Delamain has created the first-evergarden at the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show solely featuring plants that can beused to make or dye our clothes, showing us how ancient wisdom can be the height ofinnovation. A Textile Garden for Fashion Revolution will be part of the new ‘All About Plants’category alongside several other gardens, supported by Project Giving Back.
Throughout history, plants have played a fundamental role in fashion - as dyes, fibres, floral
motifs and in botanical folklore, connecting us to a place, a story or a culture. A Textile Garden
for Fashion Revolution provides a unique opportunity to showcase creative possibilities andinnovative thinking around how we can use the resources that are literally on our doorsteps tocreate more sustainable solutions. It will help to re-establish the connection between plants
and textiles, reveal the beauty to be found in plant-based dyes and fibres, and sow a seed ofcuriosity about what we wear.
The garden design is intended to imitate a textile, with planting in distinctive blocks of colour tocreate the impression of a woven fabric. Plants will be supplied by UK nurseries and growers
and will be chosen for their use as fibres or textile dyes in commercial or craft use and thegarden will feature a textile installation made entirely from plants by students of Headington
School Oxford. Shallow reflective pools represent dye baths, with fabric or fibres soaking in
natural dyes, and a series of paved seams will lead through the planting.
“We can have any fabric, material, ink, or dye shipped directly to our door. We have abottomless choice of materials from which to design and create. And we are wholly divorced
from the practices, skills and methods required to grow and produce these materials. This
became the founding principle behind the garden – I wanted to challenge myself to create
something using the resources we have readily available, using a restricted palette that would
force a new creative approach, that explored the lost connection between plants and textiles.”- Lottie Delamain, Garden Designer#WhatsInMyClothes?
Today’s fashion industry is dominated by synthetic fibres and chemical dyes. Polyester
manufacturing is an energy-intensive process, requiring large amounts of water and producing
high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, while wastewater emitted from its processing
contain volatile substances that can pose a threat to human health and the health of all livingthings.
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2Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Transparency Index 2021 found that only a quarter ofmajor brands publish time-bound, measurable targets on reducing the use of textiles
deriving from virgin fossil fuels.
More than 15,000 chemicals can be used during the textile manufacturing process,from the raw materials through to dyeing and finishing, our research found that only
30% of brands disclose their commitment to eliminating the use of hazardous
chemicals from our clothes.
Although textiles are the largest source of both primary and secondary microplastics,
accounting for 34.8% of global microplastic pollution1, with around 700,000 microfibres
being released in every wash cycle,2 Just 21% of brands explain what they are doing tominimise the shedding of microfibres.

Boucher and Friot, 2017
Napper and Thompson, 2016

The philosophy behind the garden is about seeing the potential in the resources we have
exploring how we can utilise them in more creative ways. Many of the plants are native
wildflowers, easily propagated and grown in the UK and undemanding in terms of water.
We would like visitors to our garden, as well as those who view the television coverage, to:• Feel inspired by the many plants that can be used to make natural dyes and fibres.
• Be encouraged to try dyeing with plants at home, or even create a mini-dye garden.
• Think about the plants that they might be wearing and ask #WhatsInMyClothes?
After RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the garden will be relocated to Headington School in Oxford
where Kate Turnbull, Head of Fashion and Textiles Design, has developed a new syllabus
which includes the study of plants used for textiles dyes and fibres. The garden will bereimagined in two parts - as a working dye garden for the Textile Design students, and as aColour Wheel garden, designed to inspire students across the school about the myriad roles
plants play in our lives.
“I have been exhibiting at RHS Chelsea Flower Show for over a decade with Pachacuti, theFair Trade and sustainable panama hat brand that I founded. Pachacuti’s 30th anniversary
coincides with this year’s show in May. I can’t count how many times I’ve thought how
wonderful it would be to have a garden showcasing the plants that can be used to make ourclothes. A Textile Garden for Fashion Revolution is the realisation of a long-held dream!” Carry Somers, Co Founder and Global Operations Director, Fashion Revolution.
Notes to editors
RHS Chelsea Flower Show takes place from 24-28 May 2022, with a press preview day andexclusive gala evening on 23 May. Download images for press here. For further information
about the garden, to request interviews and imagery, please contactpress@fashionrevolution.org or call 07545135015 for interviews on location.
Fashion Revolution
Fashion Revolution is the world’s largest fashion activism movement campaigning a global
fashion industry that conserves and restores the environment and values people above growthand profit. The organisation conducts research that shines a light on the fashion industry’s
practices and impacts, highlights where brands and retailers are moving too slowly andincentivises and promotes transparency and accountability across the supply chain.
Lottie Delamain
Lottie started working life in textile design and spent six years living and working in South-East
Asia working in fashion and homewares. Whilst living in cities like Saigon cemented her love ofpattern and colour, the high-density living, pollution and lack of green spaces left her feeling
divorced from nature and with a hunger to apply her design experience in a new context. On
returning to the UK, Lottie retrained in Garden Design at the Inchbald School of Design. Since
then she has been working on gardens around the UK, from small urban spaces to historic
estates. Lottie’s background in textiles informs all her work – pattern, form, texture, colour are
all central to her design thinking.
Lottie is a Pre-Registered Member of the Society of Garden Designers, and has been featuredin House & Garden, The Sunday Times and The Telegraph. She also writes a column forHouse & Garden, called A Life In Plants about the many roles plants play in the lives ofcontemporary British creatives. This is her first show garden.
Project Giving BackProject Giving Back (PGB) is a unique grant-making scheme that provides funding for gardens
for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021 inresponse to the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on UK charitable fundraising.