Richard Quinn’s creative and practical skills drive his vision. “I started using Epson technology as a student and continued using Epson’s technology when I founded my brand. It's always been a strong partnership and one that has grown alongside my business.” - Richard Quinn
Richard Quinn graduated from Central Saint Martin’s University, London in 2016.
Over the last six years he has built a highly successful fashion brand supplying VIP’s, celebrities, international retailers and clients around the world.
His talent was recognised very early in his career - winning the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British design in 2018. After just 2 years in business, this was an outstanding achievement for the young designer.
Richard’s creative and practical skills drive his vision. His hands-on approach is fundamental to his creative success, blending reinvented vintage patterns with powerful colour pallets with bold, tailored silhouettes. All of which is achieved from a small studio space in the heart of Peckham, London - where design and print (strike-offs and production) are created within hours not weeks. With Epson’s dye sublimation technology onsite, both sampling and production are in-house and deliver a print capacity of 100m per day. Giving the studio absolute control of all aspects of the creative process, from design to print.
Offering customised collections alongside bespoke garments, his floral prints and one-off pieces dress women from all demographics. His printed collections are diverse, playful and powerful.
“Here at Richard Quinn, we do all our colour tests in the studio through the Epson printers - which is really important to us because we move at such a fast pace. When we're looking at dye sub printers, Epson is our go-to print technology. We use the Epson SureColor SC-F9200 and the SureColor SC-F9300.”
“For us as a brand it's really important that all our prints have consistency, and they're accurate to what we see on the screen. I think the uniform way in which the Epson printers print the fabric allows us to use it not only for show samples, but for production as well. I started using Epson technology as a student and continued using Epson’s technology when I founded my brand. It's always been a strong partnership and one that has grown alongside my business.”
Going further Richard added:
“I think as a designer to have printers that you can test your fabrics on and print colour tests and strikeouts within your own space is quite unusual. And I think that's where the technology really benefits us. We can develop collections at such a fast pace - without having to send and outsource print to different countries. So, it also cuts down on emissions. Printing in-house offers us both commercial and environmental benefits.”
London Fashion week has previously been the launchpad for new collections. But Richard’s team once again decided to push the boundaries and offer a new, engaging format to their vibrant audience. Over the last few years online sales have accelerated across the fashion landscape, this digital surge demands new format for marketing and sales. It was time to inject new creativity to the launch agenda – content that could be used beyond the traditional catwalk.
Richard Quinn explained “This time we wanted to rethink it in a really creative way. The whole idea was to come up with a story and a new narrative, almost like a world of Richard Quinn, offering a cinematic take to create a fashion film.”
Richard’s brand is synonymous with luxury and opulence. His work redefines the boundaries of fashion and offers a refreshing and playful return to couture.
“Working to a cinematic brief created new opportunities and diversified the printed materials required: “This season we printed onto many different substrates - more than we ever usually would - because there's so many different elements to this film: garments, printed taxis, millenary, flooring and backdrops.”
“Almost everything that you see printed within the film was produced using Epson printers, which consistently deliver the high quality that we demand. We're able to print hundreds of metres per day so what usually would be quite daunting challenge was actually quite straightforward and easy to plan.” - Richard Quinn.
Balrothery, Ireland – October 2026 – Retink Graphics has added a second Epson SureColor R5000L latex printer to its Balrothery production floor, supplied by digitalprint.ie.
The investment follows strong returns from the company's first R5000L, which the team says paid for itself before they decided to expand.
Milan, Italy – October 2026– Epson will present its latest advancements in signage, UV printing and textile customisation at VISCOM 2026, taking place at Allianz MiCo Milan on 28-29 October.
Visitors can find Epson at Gate 3, Stand G14, where the company's specialists will demonstrate how its newest technologies are helping businesses expand into high-value applications through superior print quality and precise colour management.
As visual communication and personalisation markets continue to evolve at pace, Epson is positioning itself at the forefront of that change.
October 2026 – Epson has today featured the availability of the SureColor G9000, the first high-production, roll-to-roll Direct-To-Film (DTFilm) printer in its line-up.
Designed for commercial garment decorators and textile producers, the new printer addresses the industry's growing demand for greater speed, reliability and reduced hands-on maintenance, whatever the production environment.
The SureColor G9000 is built around a complete Epson ecosystem, combining Epson inks, printheads and software with Epson EdgePrint or Fiery Digital Factory RIPs
Watford = Hertfordshire- October – 2026 – Epson has announced that selected SureColor printers and inks are now covered by the 3M™ MCS™ Warranty, marking a significant step forward in the company's ongoing commitment to delivering durable, high-performance graphics solutions.
The certification reinforces the longstanding relationship between Epson and 3M, and underscores both companies' shared dedication to quality and innovation in the graphics industry.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd has reinforced its two‑ decade partnership with Epson by expanding the range of Epson wide format print technologies now available for live demonstration at its UK Client Engagement Centre (CEC) in Dunstable.
The move reflects Konica Minolta’s commitment to supporting the UK commercial print sector with a broader, more versatile portfolio and giving customers hands‑on access to leading solutions.
The Path Foward: Connect Every Link:
Design, colour, workflow, production, data. Each link now depends on the one before it, and the printers who will lead the market are those who strengthen the whole chain, not just the machinery at its centre.
So, this autumn, ask the bigger question on your own shop floor.
Not "Which printer?" but "How well does my business connect demand, design and production?"
Rebés's story isn't one of nostalgia - It's a working blueprint for how heritage manufacturers can stay indispensable in a market that rewards speed, certification, and specificity in equal measure. Four million metres of stock mean nothing without the digital printing capability to turn it into something distinctive.
A 150-year name means nothing without the R&D discipline to win a tender for antistatic, carbon-fibre-infused uniform fabric on the first attempt.
Image Credit: Tejidos Rebé
What if the next dress you wore never touched the factory floor?
This is no longer a fringe experiment. It is a maturing production model, backed by genuine material science, real circularity, and an AI-assisted workflow that is becoming more accessible by the month.
Her advice to designers and brands alike is refreshingly practical: start small, get hands-on with an accessible 3D printer, and build fluency before the technology becomes table stakes. The businesses that treat this moment with curiosity, rather than scepticism, will be the ones shaping fashion's next decade rather than reacting to it.
The 2027 FESPA Awards are now open for entry, and the message to businesses across textiles, apparel, interiors and beyond is simple: your work deserves recognition. Every gold winner featured here started in the same place every entrant does - with a project they believed was worth submitting.
As the only independent awards programme with 18 categories dedicated to print and signage, FESPA offers a genuinely global stage, with shortlisted entries displayed at FESPA Global Print Expo in Spring 2027.
Colour Is Too Important to Leave to Chance
Print will always be the part of the garment people see first.
But the sum of all parts — the fabric, the trims, the fasteners, the finish — is what determines whether a design actually delivers on its promise. Brands that continue to treat colour as a single creative decision, rather than a coordinated technical discipline spanning their entire supply chain, will keep paying for it in re-dips, delays, and disappointed design teams.
A Century of Textiles, and an Ever-changing World
Few companies can trace their roots back more than a century and still count themselves among their industry's innovators. Texia, headquartered in Monistrol de Montserrat, Spain, is one of them.
But the story of Texia is not simply one of longevity.
It is a story of continual reinvention. As the textile industry has grown more global and competitive, Texia has repeatedly reshaped its business, investing in technology, developing its own brands, and placing sustainability at the centre of its mission. In doing so, it offers a compelling example of how a heritage manufacturer can lead rather than follow through a period of profound industry change. Image Credit: Texia
What are we craving Ultimately?
The instinct to slow down while simultaneously optimising every measurable aspect of life isn't a passing curiosity. It's a structural response to a world that feels increasingly unstable, and it's reshaping what people expect from their homes, hotels, workplaces and healthcare environments alike.
For the design and manufacturing sectors, this means rethinking both product and process.
The Structual Shift is Real and its Already Here
Volumes are moving east, where digital production is accelerating rapidly. Consumer behaviour has shifted.
Demand is now driven by personalisation, shorter buying cycles, and an expectation of near-instant responsiveness. Regulatory pressure is intensifying, with supply chain transparency now a legal and commercial fact in many markets. And margins? They are under sustained, structural pressure.
This is not a temporary disruption. It is a fundamental reordering of how textile manufacturing must operate.
The Challenge: Standing Firm as the Industry Shifts
The wallpaper landscape has changed dramatically. Digital printing has lowered the barrier to entry, spawning countless direct-to-consumer brands and pushing much of the market towards faster, cheaper production.
At the same time, manufacturing in the UK has grown steadily harder - rising minimum wage, national insurance, energy and substrate costs all bear down on margins. Surface Print have embraced all of these challenges - and stand resolutely prepared for the future.
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 word "toxic" carries weight. It conjures danger, harm, and things best avoided.
“Yet in the textile industry - Where between 3,000 and 10,000 chemicals move through the supply chain, a reflexive fear of the term is one of our biggest obstacles to progress.”
This article distils the key takeaways and what buyers, designers, and brands should be asking right now.
What Is the Digital Product Passport?
At its core, a Digital Product Passport is a digital record attached to a physical product - For a printed textile product, this means the DPP would capture data on the substrate, inks and dyes used, the printing process and technology, chemical compliance, environmental impact (including water and energy use), supply chain traceability, and end-of-life instructions.
The Market Gap that Changed Everything
Future Fashion was founded in 2019, timed deliberately to coincide with a pivotal moment in global textile technology: the commercial launch of the EFI Reggiani BOLT Single-Pass digital printing system.
The founders recognised that single-pass architecture had fundamentally changed what was industrially possible - and that Pakistan's domestic market had yet to catch up.
Print is no longer defined by the inefficiencies that once characterised it…as advances in production processes and technology have significantly improved its environmental performance.
Taran Rai, Corporate Sustainability Manager at Epson explains why?
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.”
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”