Rebecca Van Amber

How does someone reconcile their both love of fashion and the planet? Striving to make the fashion industry less harmful through teaching, research and engagement.

Dr. Van Amber is an expert in textile and apparel sustainability, research and development, and designing test methods and experiments for textiles and apparel with specific properties and end uses (e.g. human health, sports, and the outdoors), as well as wear trials involving human participants. Dr. Van Amber was a winner of the 2017 H & M Foundation's Global Change award's innovation challenge as a member of Deakin University's "Denim Dyed Denim" team, which aimed to tackle textile waste through creating coloured powder from old jeans. This powder was then used as a pigment to print and colour new fabrics.

Dr. Van Amber is currently a Senior Lecturer in the school of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University where she has been developing and then subsequently launched a new undergraduate degree, the Bachelor of Fashion and Textiles (Sustainable Innovation). The aim of this degree is to prepare graduates for emerging jobs within the Fashion and Textiles industry at this critical juncture of climate change, textile waste and a prevalence of unethical and unsustainable practices.  This new degree sits within the intersection of technology, design, art and science and is underpinned by critical thinking and communication skills.

Dr. Van Amber undertook her Phd and Masters of Consumer and Applied Sciences in Dunedin, New Zealand at the University of Otago in Clothing and Textile Sciences, with six of those years spent researching properties of socks and sock fabrics, and protein fibres such as silk and wool.

Industry experience
Dr. Van Amber has over 7 years of experience working in the fashion industry in both the United States and New Zealand, as a technical designer and operations manager, respectively.

Grants & Awards

Sustainability Victoria Circular Economy Innovation Fund Round 3 (2023) - Refashioning: Accelerating Circular Product Design at Scale, in partnership with Country Road Group, Courtney Holm and Julie Bolton
H & M Foundation Global Change Award (Innovation Challenge 2017) - Denim Dyed Denim, Deakin University

Public and media engagements

• Interviewed for Fashion Journal for Is there really such thing as an ‘ethical’ dupe? (16 Oct 2024)
• Co-authored an article for 360info.org Fashion Greenwashing: A deceptive Trend (2 Oct 2024)
• Interviewed for ABC Radio News Future Tense (16 Aug 2024)
• Interviewed for The National News on World Water Day and the No Wash Movement (22 Mar 2024)
• Co-authored an article for 360info.org on Sneaker Sustainability (22 Jan 2024)
• Interviewed for The Guardian on the most sustainable swimwear fabrics (28 Nov 2023)
• Interviewed for Choice.com Cotton vs. Bamboo Bedsheets (8 June 2023)
• Interviewed for SBS The News (12 May 2023)
• Interviewed for The Guardian on safely bleaching clothes at home (4 April 2023)
• Interviewed for The Guardian on using dye to refresh your wardrobe (24 January 2023)
• Interviewed for The Guardian on buying comfortable and durable women's underwear (11 October 2022)
• Interviewed for The ABC on fabrics that minimise sweat and body odour in summertime (9 November 2022)
• Interviewed for The ABC on the warmest materials to wear in winter (16 June 2022)
• Interviewed for The Guardian on reducing the environmental impact of polyester clothes (22 February 2022)
• Interviewed for The Guardian on the 2021 Baptist World Aid Ethical Clothing Report (19 October 2021)
• Interviewed for The Guardian on restoring shrunk fabrics (28 September 2021)
• Interviewed for The Age on silk pillowcases (17 February 2021)
• Interviewed for the Ocean Protect Podcast on microplastic pollution from clothing (August 2020)