LONDON TEXTILE FAIR, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE FUTURE OF FASHION
Standfast and Barracks offer Design Prep, Sampling and Digital Production. Min order just 50m...
Owens and Kim: Design Studio and Digital Print Service...for Fashion Clients Worldwide...
The Sustainable Angle....Responsible Fabric Sourcing exhibit at the London Textile Fair
TEXINTEL REVIEW: The London Textile Fair, July 2018
The London Textile Fair, with over 470 exhibitors, closed yesterday, after yet another successful show. With a truly International offering of Suppliers and Designers, showcasing fabrics and prints from across the globe at the Business Design Centre, London.
As the issue of Sustainability gains momentum, the TLTF featured a new showcase:
The Future fabrics Expo: Focussing the Buyer’s mind on sustainable sourcing, an essential agenda for all Fashion businesses.
The Four Cornerstones of the Sustainability Exhibit were:
- Reducing of Water Useage
- Recycling Liquid and Solid Waste
- The Carbon Impact of the Textile Production
- Preservation of Bio-Diversity in the Textile Supply chain
Hosting this mini exhibition was the action group ‘Sustainable Angle’ promoting a variety of suppliers committed to reforming the Textile Supply Chain www.sustainableangle.org
Prominent among the exhibitors in this section was Chemiefaser Lenzing a leader in promoting, not only its Tencel Fibres, but also its commitment to the cause of sustainability.
Moving on through the Exhibition, but still following the issue of Sustainability was the presence of an ever growing number of Digital Textile fabric printers. The Textile industry is the 2nd biggest polluter, next to Oil, of our planet. Traditional Textile process uses a staggering 20% of the Worlds water!....Digital printing offers a sustainable print process that is both viable and economical in the use of scarce resources.
One of the most prominent of these was the Standfast and Barracks group, who featured a broad offer, including design conception, sampling through to full digital production, backed up by their extensive investment in Digital Printing technology.
Internationally, there was a new Digital printing Company Intechdigital from Hong Kong. Specialising in customised products, offering 7 day delivery on digital printed sewn product, such as bespoke tea towels.
On the fine fabrics front, Biddle and Sawyer were exhibiting, not only their extensive range of printed and dyed Silk fabrics, but also their new, enhanced, Digital Print Section. Here, B & S specialise in reactive Silk Printing for a wide range of Fashion, and Home Décor clients. Read more about B&S in our Digital Print Directory
Finally, having negotiated the 100's of International Fabric Suppliers, Texintel found a veritable jewel in the Design Exhibition. The Design Studio Owens and Kim who specialise in Fashion the sector and also offer an in-house Digital Textile Print Service. Serving many of the premier names in the Industry, O&K provide a complete and original design service, as well as a first class express sample service, to cater for urgent samples.
The London Textile Fair attracts over 6,000 visitors. The Trade only show offers a varied and relevant mix of International Designers and key Suppliers to the Textile Industry. Offering a unique opportunity for Professionals, Buyers and Specifiers alike to connect in central London.
The story of what happens when young designers access digital technology is still being written.
What once was a theoretical sustainability goal seems to have shifted into an active regulatory reality.
Is the Textile Market Finally Recovering?
After a difficult few years, there are genuine reasons for optimism. Duncan was candid about the challenges: "The market for textiles has been very difficult over the last three years. I'm not going to hide the truth there. But the tide is turning.“
A profound shift is currently reshaping the sector
Changing consumer expectations demand greater design diversity, faster turnaround times, and sustainable manufacturing practices.
To thrive, interior brands must adapt their supply chains, bringing production closer to the end consumer and moving away from bulk manufacturing.
Digital textile printing offers a definitive solution to these operational bottlenecks.
Digital transformation doesn't announce itself.
It accumulates - one innovation at a time - until an entire industry looks back and realises the ground has shifted beneath its feet. That's precisely where textiles stands today.
The conversations happening now about AI, automation, sustainability, and digital product passports are not theoretical. They are shaping decisions being made on factory floors and in boardrooms right now.
“By leveraging advanced digital textile printing, Marylene Madou has successfully merged traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology. Her approach offers a blueprint for how independent designers can scale their brands globally while maintaining a minimal environmental footprint.”
From Helsinki's printing mill to Paris's Le Marais, discover how Marimekko is scaling a design-led brand with purpose, craft, and bold innovation.
But what makes Marimekko's story compelling is not just its aesthetic legacy?
The textile industry is undergoing a vital transformation. As the insights from Techtextil and Texprocess reveal, the path forward relies on a combination of sustainable hardware, intelligent chemistry, and seamless digital workflows.
From Zimmer's industrial-scale energy reductions and Stratasys's on-demand 3D embellishments, to Kornit's single-step technical printing and the unified digital ecosystems of NedGraphics and Optitex, the tools for change are here. To stay competitive, brands and manufacturers must adopt these innovations, moving away from fragmented, wasteful processes towards a truly connected, circular economy.
Friedmans stands as a testament to the power of combining traditional textile knowledge with forward-thinking innovation.
“Operating from their UK headquarters, Friedmans now serves a diverse array of sectors, including swimwear, dance, entertainment, sportswear, interior decor, prosthetics, and even pet apparel. With a strategic supply chain that reliably serves clients worldwide”
The apparel decoration industry is decisively moving away from isolated, analogue production tools toward connected digital manufacturing environments.
"Kornit’s unwavering commitment to transformative technology continues to disrupt the status quo. For business leaders and innovators ready to capture the future of apparel manufacturing, the path forward is clear”
The Urgent Need for Sustainability at Scale
The transformation at Coats provides a vital blueprint for the wider textile and apparel sector. True sustainability cannot be achieved in silos. As Dearing emphasised:
“Cross-industry collaboration is the engine of meaningful change. Brands, machinery suppliers, chemical providers, and fibre producers must act as an interconnected ecosystem”
Today’s customers demand superior product quality, real-time data visibility, and lightning-fast turnaround times.
For large-scale garment decorators, managing these expectations while balancing seasonal demand fluctuations - such as the massive surges seen during Black Friday - presents a monumental challenge.
"Relying on transactional vendor relationships and outdated legacy equipment is no longer sufficient to secure long-term stability and growth.”
Printing method is never a secondary detail. It shapes the entire life cycle of a product, from concept to customer. In today’s fashion industry, where margins are tighter and speed matters more than ever, technical knowledge has become a competitive advantage.
“The future of textile design belongs to professionals who can combine creativity with execution, aesthetics with practicality, and vision with production reality”.
Are we witnessing the reinvention of Merch driven by adaptive, digital technologies?
The commercial opportunity presented by printed, personalised merchandise is already a lucrative revenue stream; it is the core driver of growth in a multi-billion-pound industry. And the mandate for print businesses is clear: automate, adapt, and offer undeniable added value, or choose to gradually lose market share.
Powderless DTF is an important area of innovation. It deserves research, investment, and thoughtful development.
“But at its current stage, it often feels like the industry is attempting to commercialize the concept ahead of the underlying chemistry and system readiness”.
All Apparel Manufacturers face an Urgent Mandate: “Automate or be Left Behind”.
Industry leaders like Super Nova Sports and Ryozo International were struggling with severe pre-press bottlenecks and unsustainable fabric waste. By integrating AI Sublimation Software into their workflows, these forward-thinking businesses eliminated manual variable data entry, boosted fabric efficiency to over 80%, and reduced delivery times by more than half, establishing a highly profitable, agile, and environmentally responsible production model.
The Future of Manufacturing belongs to those who Embrace Connected Digital Ecosystems
“Whether you produce garments, car interiors, or home furnishings, the transition from creative concept to production-ready product often remains fragmented. Design teams work tirelessly to develop compelling materials, yet technical teams struggle to interpret these visions without losing data along the way.”
The European digital wallcovering marketplace is expanding at an impressive rate.
“For print professionals and interior designers, this transition presents a distinct set of challenges. Achieving flawless colour consistency, managing complex substrates, and meeting stringent environmental standards are no longer optional extras; they are fundamental requirements for commercial success.”
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A swimsuit might start life as a sketch. By the time it reaches the shop floor, dozens of hands have touched it - designers, dye houses, printers, trim manufacturers, quality controllers. Each one interprets colour in their own way, under their own conditions, with their own tools. The result is often a product that looks nothing like the original vision.
Friedman’s is a UK-based wholesale specialist. Offering stretch textiles, digital print & foil effects, supplying designers and brands worldwide.
Print On Demand fulfilment platform enables anyone to create a drop shipping business, with integration into the most popular e-commerce platforms.
Prinfab® is an award winning textile print on demand service. Using industrial Epson™ print tech to deliver a high quality and consistent service to 30,000+ customers worldwide.