Maker, bio-designer, researcher, & collaborator
Zena Holloway is a self-taught maker, researcher, collaborator and the founder of Rootfull. She cultivates textile by guiding plant root, as it grows, with templates that are intricately carved from beeswax. The process goes from seed to harvest in just two weeks and uses only organic and locally sourced materials; any excess shoot or seed is repurposed as animal fodder, leaving no waste behind.
Holloway’s West London studio is a grow-space and workshop where she innovates and explores the extensive capabilities of root. Through contemporary craft, innovation and invention, she bio-designs memorable artefacts that cultivate material intelligence and regenerative design.
“I’ve collaborated with some of the finest fashion stylists, creative directors, designers and thinkers. I’m firmly embedded in the creative industries and from these experiences the root textile has emerged. It’s an interplay of craft, design, sustainability, sculpture, biology, and storytelling — fusing disciplines that would otherwise remain separated.”
Supported by:
Shows & Exhibitions:
2025 Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, V&A Dundee (forthcoming)
2024 Heals, Festival of Light, 7th-27th October, Tottenham Ct Rd, London
2024 Material Matters, 18-21st September, London Design Festival, Oxo Tower
2024 Homo Faber 2024, 01-30.09.24, Venice, Italy
2024 Forum Arte Braga, 06.07.24 - 15.09.24, Braga, Portugal
2024 Future Fabrics Expo, 25-26th June, Magazine, London
2024 Ocean Talks by Boat International, 6th June 2024, Serpentine Gallery, London
2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, 21st - 25th May, London
2024 Surface Design Show, 6th-8th February 2024, London Business Design Centre
2023 Mills Fabrica, 1st October - 31st March 2024 - Kings Cross, London
2023 Formed X Future Heritage, 9th - 13th October 2023, Chelsea, London
2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023, Belgravia, London
2023 de le Cuona, for London Craft Week, Belgravia, London
2023 Collect Craft Fair, Somerset House, London
2023 Gallery 57, ‘Earth Materials’, West Sussex, UK
2022 Ground Work Gallery, ‘Deepwater’, Norfolk, UK
2022 Material Matters, for London Design Festival, Oxo Tower, UK
2022 YKSI Expo, & BioArt Laboratories for DDW, Netherlands
2022 Milan Design Week – root dress, Italy
2022 Raw Assembly – root dress, Melbourne, Australia
2022 Design Walk (MCBW)– root dress, Munich, Germany
2022 Culture Sphere Gallery – root sculpture, Germany
2021 Toast Rewilding Exhibit – root sculpture, London
Awards:
Creative Catalyst Programme, UK Innovate (2024)
Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal (2024)
QEST Scholarship (2024)
Surface Design Show finalist (2024)
Chelsea Flower Show Silver Medal (2023)
Aesthetica Art Prize (2022)
Green Concept Award (2022)
Toast rewilding competition (2021)
Rootfull: Founded by an
Underwater Photographer
Zena Holloway is an acclaimed underwater photographer and director, with a career spanning over 25 years working for publications including National Geographic, GQ, Dazed, How to Spend it and The Sunday Times. She has produced global campaigns for clients including Nike, Pepsi, Sony, and Greenpeace.
Over the years, she witnessed first-hand the damage being done to our oceans, from coral bleaching to plastic pollution. Curiosity led her to grow mycelium in her basement before encountering the tangled root system of a willow tree in her local river.
What if we could grow our clothes from seed? The idea took root and grew.
Holloway founded Rootfull in 2023 and draws on her experiences as an underwater photographer, to grow artefacts from root that reference the ocean and marine life.
