Source Fashion names Neuthread partner in circular fashion push

Source Fashion has put Neuthread at the center of a 12-month Charity and Design Partner collaboration, and the real test is whether this becomes more than a sustainability badge on the show floor. If the setup works, it could translate into actual orders, new supplier relationships, jobs and measurable textile diversion, which is where circular fashion stops being a slogan and starts behaving like infrastructure.

Neuthread is not a blank-page concept. The brand was developed in Teesside by Daisy Chain, the autism charity, and it made its London Fashion Week debut in February 2024. Creative Director Neeraj Sharma and Design and Corporate Manager Cara Baumann work jointly on the brand’s designs, giving the project a clear human core rather than the usual anonymous greenwash. Neuthread is also tied to MIDRI, short for Mend It, Don’t Rag It, a skills academy built around repair, reuse and extending the life of garments.

The bigger play sits in the numbers. Daisy Chain says Neuthread has already secured £1.5 million from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund to build a circular fashion manufacturing centre in the North East of England, with Tees Valley named as the base. The planned Neuthread Eco Manufacturing Centre is set to bring design, development, manufacture and e-commerce under one roof, and Daisy Chain says it will create training, volunteering and employment opportunities. That matters because circularity only scales if it is attached to real jobs and real production capacity, not just curated messaging.

Source Fashion’s role is where this gets interesting for the trade. The UK-based B2B sourcing show connects brands and retailers with verified clothing manufacturers, textile suppliers and global sourcing partners, which means it sits close to the point where buying decisions actually happen. Its January 2026 edition took place at Olympia London, and the show will move to Excel London for July 2026, giving Neuthread a bigger commercial stage to prove that a North East circular manufacturing model can compete for sourcing attention.

Daisy Chain frames the project as a way to give unsellable garments a new future and to open up life-changing opportunities for autistic and neurodivergent makers. That is the part worth watching over the next year: whether inclusion shows up in procurement, whether buyers place orders, and whether a fashion fair can help build the kind of circular supply chain that keeps waste out of bins and puts skilled people into work.