Texworld Will Be Held At Le Bourget next February And Prepares For Big Changes
How is Texworld responding to market dynamics and buyer demands? Adapting to change. The organisers have announced its return to Le Bourget Exhibition Centre from February 2025, remaining at Porte de Versailles during the summer editions. They have also announced their commitment to uniting synergies through a more diverse show, including jewellery, bags and other products, and insist on eco-responsibility as the way forward for what lies ahead.
Paris textile fairs were held with less traffic than usual this July. Apart from the proximity of the Olympic Games in Paris and the shock of the far-right’s lead in the first round of the French elections on 30 June, there is a big reason why Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris’s calm opening on 1 July was a reality: the market.
The textile market is evolving and every evolution brings with it a crisis in dynamism. For all players, it is time to think before act. We arrived at Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris with the illusion that the trade fair would be able to overcome the crisis with queues of visitors. This is what we are used to find every time we visit the fabric fairs in Paris. However, Paris was quiet on our arrival: silent streets, modest traffic… Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris opened the doors to the reality: less visitors but more important; need of synergy and colaboration; and eco-responsible commitment as the only way to face the future.
CHANGES ON THE EXHIBITION
At first glance, we saw a growth in the Apparel offer. We also saw how the Econogy symbol, created and presented for the first time at the last edition, guided us in our mission to find eco-responsible international companies.
To our surprise, more and more companies from India, Pakistan and China are beginning to offer orders of less than 100 units and a commitment to ecology and social responsibility that, if in previous occasions we were too squeamish, today we firmly believe because they show all papers, certificates, they want to be transparent.
To us, the most exciting place was Avantex. The Avantex sector featured over twenty suppliers offering innovative solutions for the digital and ecological transformation of the fashion industry, encompassing areas such as production, sourcing, digitization and more. This year it introduced a New Designer Hub, encouraging creative collaboration.
Avantex’s line-up included ReSources, with a selection of innovative materials and technical raw materials in phygital mode: by scanning the QR Code associated with the samples on display, visitors will be redirected to the Foursource networking platform for further information. Very interesting too.
INTERESTING ECONOGY TOURS
The Econogy Tours were very interesting. In them, Bern Müller, Director Relations & Sustainability at Rat für Formgebung – German Design Council, led us into the future through a tour where we could meet companies like Cradle-To-Cradle or TÜVRheinlad, where Luisa Balaban, Sustainability Business Development Lead in Western Europe in TÜVRheinlad, explained us that there are currently more than 200 certificates related to “sustainability” in one way or another worldwide. Obviously something will have to change. There is no point in continuing to create certificates that you have to pay to obtain if in two years’ time the European Union is going to launch its own Passport and its own laws in terms of eco-responsibility. Or is there? Interesting talk there!
“The integration of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) further enhances transparency, providing a standarized way to communicate the environmental impact of products. This is becoming increaingly crucial as new legislation worldwide mandates businesses to understand and disclose the full environmental ramifications of their products.” The new SustainAbility tool by TÜVRheinlad is there for that.
We also met the owner of Kiziari, a Japanese Fabric Sourcing Platform, who explained his way of working through artificial intelligence. According to the executive, luxury companies are already buying Japanese fabrics directly online thanks to new technologies. We are still sceptical about this reality: can we really buy a fabric without knowing its real behaviour, its real texture, its real colour? Because, let’s not fool ourselves, what we see on the screen can give us an idea of what we are going to receive, but in terms of fabrics, we are still a long way from AI ensuring that we get it right. That’s why we still need textile fairs: a digital sample is not the same as a real one.
We liked to meet the owner of Skosh, a 20 years company with industrial knowledge for ready to wear clothing, production, sourcing, quality control and exports. “Our vision is to create a company for quality and ethical production. We do not want to become a huge company, just do collections in small quantities with best quality and ethical practices.” – he declared.
NEAR SOURCING, PHYGITAL IN TEXWORLD
Buyers were be able to discover the offerings of some 50 companies from Portugal, Türkiye, Serbia and Morocco, and more, on the Near Sourcing Hub. The samples presented in this dedicated area are linked by QR Code to the B2B digital platform of Messe Frankfurt France partner Foursource. This feature enables visitors to obtain detailed information, or to be guided through a possible business contact via the exchange platform.
The Trends
Based on the cross-referencing and analysis of emerging signals detected in the artistic, economic and societal fields, Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris draws a wardrobe in four inspiring themes for fashion designers. Pattern design boards grouping the color universes around 3 “star colors”. The looks and silhouettes staged for each creative universe allow us to explore the trends for Autumn-Winter 2025-2026. All four universes were showcased in two Trend Forums: one at Texworld Paris for fabrics, the other at Apparel Sourcing Paris for finished products. Visitors were able to discover looks inspired by the fabrics and products selected by the show’s artistic directors. The Highlights Elite and Highlights Denim areas also offered a number of variations on these themes, with samples and scenarios to illustrate each.
#1 Confrontation. This first proposal sets the scene: by exposing the infinite potential of AI, it reminds us of our immaturity. It expresses the fragility of the human condition and its need for protection. The rather pure color universe is oriented towards vegetal nuances, dominated by ivory, soft green and woody palettes. The protective, fluffy textures – while borrowing from the geological world – convey the sensoriality of this theme.
#2 Seduction. « There’s nothing left but to enjoy the show! » The second phase of our fascination with these technologies that surpass us is seduction. Magic is at the heart of this theme, where life, in all its forms, is most visible. It emerges at the heart of the material, through organically inspired textures, human figures and mineral inlays. This “prolonged life” is expressed through a palette of carnal, languorous and embodied colors, but also with bright, floral and sweet tones.
#3 Alienation. The abandonment lasted only a short time: seduction no longer works, and [artificial] intelligence takes over. « We had believed that freedom meant no longer having to choose. It was quite the opposite. We abandoned our decisions. » The algorithm outpaces thought, takes over and occupies space… Matter is distorted and spread out… It steps out of the space in which we’re used to seeing it. The key colors are warm and assertive, and are applied to materials that express universes close to life, with draped textures and embroidery.
#4 Annihilation. Humans disappear, fade away and submit to AI. It’s the theme of erasure. « We have simply become insignificant […] Ejected from the equation. » Here, colors are absent, palettes disembodied, extremely mineral, metallic and dusty. Here, technical fabrics perfectly translate this quest for neutrality, with smooth, lacquered aspects: coatings find a privileged terrain of expression here with lunar, sedimentary-inspired relief effects.
« IMPERFaiCTION », the trend book for the Autumn-Winter 2025-2026 season explores the limits of Man in confronting the potential of AI.
Materra won the Avantex Fashion Pitch 2024
The Avantex Fashion Pitch jury has awarded the 2024 prize to Materra. The young British company, founded in 2019, designs solutions to support the cultivation of cotton adapted to climate change on a fair trade model. At the other end of the chain, it encourages fashion companies to source from the producers it supports, offering brands (Mango, Ecoalf, Positive Materials…) a service designed on a Cotton-As-A-Service model, guaranteeing a totally transparent supply chain with full traceability.
The final of the 7th Avantex Fashion Pitch competition, organised by Messe Frankfurt France, rewards the most innovative, sustainable and relevant projects for the future of fashion. Each of the eleven finalists – Darwie, Drippy, Finds, GoldenEye Smart Vision, Imki, Materra, Podium, Style Shifter, Swyco, Synovance and Trace For Good – was given five minutes to convince the jury, which was made up of Claudia Cesiro, start-up mentor and founder of The Ace Project agency, Élodie Lemaire Nowinski, historian, specialist in innovation and sustainable development in fashion and researcher at the Glasgow School of Art, Jayne Simone Estève-Curé, expert fashion and luxury consultant and Yoobin Jung, ventures associate sustainability at Plug and Play Tech Center.
“Our teams at Messe Frankfurt, like the members of the jury, were very impressed by the quality of the models presented at this 7th edition of the Avantex Fashion Pitch. In singling out Materra’s project, the jury chose to support an ambitious response to an urgent problem facing the fashion industry. It’s a decision we can only applaud.” – Mr. Frédéric Bougeard, President of Messe Frankfurt France.
