9 Jul 2021 : From A for “avatar” to Z for “zero impact” – during Neonyt’s Fashionsustain conference from 6 to 8 July 2021, the status quo of the textiles and fashion sector was examined, innovation drivers identified and scope for action for the retail sector defined.
The multidisciplinary conference streamed more than 20 hours of inspiration and insights, panel discussions and fashion deep-dives live from the FFW Studio.
Participants included Grüner Knopf, Oeko-Tex, PwC and the Transformers Foundation.
The digital transformation is accelerating across the entire textile and fashion industry at an unprecedented pace.
This is requiring everyone involved to adopt a more agile mindset in order to be able to adapt in disruptive environments.
Holistic thinking is required – with regard to production standards, but also when it comes to the inclusion of the most diverse target groups. Fashion is a form of expression and identity. It is about political statements and a reflection of social issues.
“Even though we have certainly been noticing a sense of digital fatigue after three seasons online, there was no sign of it whatsoever during Fashionsustain,” said Thimo Schwenzfeier, Show Director of Neonyt. “Digitalisation is shaping a sustainable future and therefore also the international fashion scene; it is opening up brand-new synergies for the textile and fashion industry and extending the scope – as proven by the experts at Fashionsustain.”
State Of The Industry
The framework for Fashionsustain was set on the first day of the conference: as a starting point for the discussion on the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on textile and fashion production, Mariska Schennink, Sustainability Manager at Euretco Fashion, talked about the imbalance in the industry.
For Andreas Bothe, Head of CSR & Sustainability from Bay City Textilhandels GmbH, it is essential to ensure transparency along the supply chain: “You have to give people, consumers, the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes – to see where and how things are produced.”
The German supply chain law, or Due Diligence Act, is one of the approaches providing transparency along the textile value chain. Standards and certifications also play a key role in that – such as the German government’s textile standard “Grüner Knopf”, or Green Button: “For the Green Button, sustainability and innovation belong together,” said Dr Gerd Müller, Germany’s Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development. “Socially and ecologically manufactured products and companies that take responsibility for their own supply chain will be the norm in the future.”
In many respects, the crisis has acted as a catalyst for companies to adopt climate and sustainability measures – a bit like a dry run that has given them the chance to see how they can tackle a growing spectrum of ecological, social and governance challenges.
Green financing and impact investments are effective tools in this: “There is a huge pressure to transform the entire industry, including the fashion sector, into a sustainable industry,” says Ullrich Hartmann, Partner Compliance, Risk & Regulation in Financial Services at PwC. “At the end of the day, it’s a global process and a global approach.”
One specific approach to achieve more sustainability is cradle-to-cradle. In a masterclass with representatives from the textile industry taking place at the same time as Fashionsustain, EPEA – Part of Drees & Sommer compiled a white paper outlining specific scenarios. As a best-practice example, ISKO, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of materials for the denim industry, debuted a new technology at Fashionsustain that uses a process to separate cotton and polyester blends so the recycled raw material can be used to make a variety of new products, ranging from clothing to cosmetics.
Social criteria also include company management and the inclusion of different target groups. In reference to representation in the international fashion industry, Meriem Lebdiri, Creative Director at Mizaan, said: “Diversity basically tells the story of my life.” Lydia Maurer, founder of Nana Bodywear, took this inequality as an opportunity to establish her meanwhile second label and make the world though adaptive fashion more inclusive.
Innovating The Industry
There is a direct relation between digitisation and data volumes – big data that can help to understand assets like customer base or brands and optimise the customer journey.
“We strive to work in an even more agile way and to standardise and automate our processes,” said Patric Spethmann, COO at Marc O’Polo. “To concentrate our energy on value-adding activities, and to develop a technology landscape that supports our strategic vision for the foreseeable future.”
A technology landscape that Sam Fields, Director of Creative Technology at RYOT International, wasn’t seeing at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic:
“The fashion industry was in crisis and not really prepared for a fully immersive, digital age. Incorporating digital fashion in the future in a way that harnesses technologies like XR and blockchain will revolutionise the industry and ensure a greener, more sustainable future and increasing, highly profitable new sources of revenue.”
Damara Inglês, Designer of Extended Reality Experiences and Virtual Fashion, and Kim Berndt, founder of 3MBASSY, both agree that the fashion industry will eventually become hybrid and that digital fashion has limitless potential.
Fashion designer Esther Perbandt supported this statement with hard figures: “Digital fashion can reduce the amounts of waste compared to a physical product, can be worn a trillion times and has no expiration date. This technology can be used in almost every step of the product development, marketing and recycling.”
Technological progress is also leaving its mark on the denim industry and starts with the choice of the right fibres:
“Product development has become a DNA of the denim industry,” said Michael Kininmonth, Business Development & Project Manager at Lenzing AG, in a panel by the Transformers Foundation. But there is also potential for innovations in the finishing of denim products:
“There is space for improvement and adoption, especially when it comes to certain technologies like ozone and laser,” said Maurizio Morosini, Global Marketing Manager at Tonello.
Ozone finishing is a bleaching process for denim that reduces environmental impact and processing costs as well as processing time.
There are many technological solutions that make transparency in textile production more efficient and visible.
For Lukas Pünder, Co-Founder & CEO of Retraced, it’s all about having the right data at the right time: “The transparent communication of the value chain of a product and its impact need to become key to the consumers’ shopping experience.” And Marian von Rappard, founder of Dawn Denim, is certain that transparency alone will no longer be enough: “The next generation of consumers will be asking very different, more in-depth questions, and they will be asking for the data to back things up.”
Oeko-Tex is leveraging precisely this data and, together with sustainability consultancy Quantis, has developed a tool with which companies and production facilities can digitally calculate their own water and CO2 footprints:
“Companies are already collecting data for other certification purposes, so why shouldn’t they also use them to determine their water and carbon footprints?” said Angela Adams, Global Apparel Lead at Quantis.
Sönke Giebeler, Head of Business Development at Oeko-Tex, added: “These days, the collection and management of data is extremely important, not only for us, but for the entire industry, for the supply chain and even for labels.”
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?
Speciality print leaders from five Southern European countries will meet in Porto next month for the eleventh FESPA Southern European Congress, taking place on 11–12 November at HF Ipanema Porto, Portugal.
The two-day event, which is organised by five FESPA member associations – FESPA France, FESPA Italia, FESPA España, APIGRAF (Portugal) and the FESPA Hellas Association (Greece) – gives members of the community in Southern Europe the opportunity to benchmark their own strategies against peers facing similar conditions, as well as compare notes with neighbouring markets on customer expectations, workforce shortages, investment and new technology.
Batley, West Yorkshire – October 2026 – Roaches International, a member of the British Textile Machinery Association (BTMA), has dispatched its largest integrated order for textile laboratory equipment to date.
A total of 19 testing machines weighing more than two tonnes have been delivered for a new laboratory being established by Indonesia's Alia Digital Printex, underscoring the British manufacturer's capability to supply complete testing facilities rather than individual instruments alone.
Mortsel, Belgium – October 29th 2026 – Agfa Inkjet Solutions has announced Experience Day 2026, a hands-on event dedicated to demonstrating how advanced inkjet printing and precision finishing can work together within a single, integrated workflow.
The event will take place on Thursday, 26 November 2026, from 09:00 to 15:00 at Agfa Headquarters in Mortsel, Belgium.
Developed in partnership with Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems, Experience Day 2026 will give print service providers a first-hand look at how combining print and finishing technologies can boost productivity, broaden application possibilities, and open up new business opportunities across sectors including signage, display, packaging, and corrugated production.
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.
Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg – October 2026 - The CHT Group has announced the expansion of its dyes portfolio with two new additions: BEMACID Brilliant Blue F-WN for polyamide and wool, and BEZAKTIV Solar Yellow ONE for flexible dyeing processes.
The launch reinforces CHT Group's commitment to delivering high-performance, sustainable colorant solutions for the global textile industry.
Both new dyes address growing demand among textile manufacturers for products that combine color brilliance, process reliability, and responsible formulation.
Staffordshire, UK – October 2026 – Staffordshire Signs & Graphics Ltd has announced the installation of a new DLI-3325 flatbed printer, supplied by China Print Supplies UK Ltd.
The investment marks a significant step forward for the business, enhancing its production capabilities and expanding the range of signage solutions it can offer customers.
The installation follows months of careful planning, with the new machine now in place and undergoing fine-tuning and staff training ahead of full commissioning
Corby – Northants – October 2026 – Keencut Ltd, a leading innovator in the cutting and finishing equipment industry, has today highlighted its Evolution3 Lift & Hover technology, a breakthrough system designed to make material positioning faster, easier and more accurate than ever before.
The new technology allows operators to adjust, align and achieve perfect positioning with precise control, all through simple single-person operation.
By streamlining what has traditionally been a multi-step, often cumbersome process, Keencut is addressing a long-standing challenge faced by professionals across the sign-making, graphics and framing industries: achieving exact cutting precision without compromising on speed or efficiency.
Istanbul – Turkiye – October 2026 – Optimum Digital has announced that Kilim Home, an established Turkish carpet manufacturer serving international markets, has invested in its direct-to-carpet printing technology.
The move strengthens Kilim Home's production capabilities and marks a significant step forward in the company's ongoing embrace of innovation within digital carpet manufacturing.
Frankfurt am Main, Germany – 27 October 2026 – Heimtextil, the international trade fair for home and contract textiles, has announced the launch of the Functional Futures Lab, a new showcase curated in partnership with Future Fabrics Expo.
Taking place from 12 to 15 January 2027 in Hall 4.1, the exhibition will spotlight materials engineered to meet the evolving functional demands of architecture, interior design and hospitality, from thermal regulation to flame resistance and durability.
The Functional Futures Lab will present both visionary prototypes and commercially available solutions, with each exhibit's stage of development made transparent through Technology Readiness Levels
Shanghai, People's Republic of China – October 2026 – KARL MAYER will present a comprehensive portfolio of advanced warp knitting and warp preparation technologies at ITMA ASIA 2026, taking place from 20 to 24 November at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) in Shanghai.
The company's presence spans two exhibition halls, with warp knitting innovations on display in Hall 4.1, Booth C18, and warp preparation solutions featured in Hall 3, Booth
Bolzano, Italy – 26 October 2026 – Durst will participate as Leading Sponsor at Viscom 2026, taking place on 28 and 29 October at Allianz MiCo Milan.
In the year marking its 90th anniversary, the South Tyrolean company returns to the leading event for the Italian visual communication market with a new format, a new location, and the Italian debut of a new printing technology.
Durst's presence at Viscom underscores the company's commitment to maintaining close dialogue with customers, prospects, and industry professionals.
Clay Cross – UK – July 2026 – Resolute highlights its new DTF Pneumatic Twin Platen Heat Press, a professional-grade heat press designed to help print shops increase output, improve consistency, and reduce downtime across high-volume production runs.
The machine's dual-platen design allows operators to prepare the next garment while the current one is being pressed, significantly reducing idle time and increasing throughput.
This makes it particularly well-suited to print shops running large direct-to-film (DTF) and transfer print operations, where speed and consistency are critical.
Pattern Room Launches New Pattern Room Experience, Making Online Design-to-Pattern Faster Than Ever
Victoria, Australia, 27/10/2026 – Pattern Room, the online pattern-making studio founded by Australian pattern maker Julia Watts, today announced the launch of its updated platform, introducing a new guided design pathway, an in-house sampling service, and an expanded catalogue of styles for apparel businesses worldwide.
The update is designed to make it faster and easier for designers, garment technicians, and manufacturers to move from concept to production-ready pattern, without the friction that has traditionally slowed the early stages of garment development.
Athens , Greece – 23 October 2026 – UFABRIK has extended its European distribution network into Greece with the appointment of TSEKMERES GS, an established supplier to the country's textile, screen and large-format digital printing industries.
The agreement brings UFABRIK's digital textile portfolio to a market where UV and Latex technologies remain dominant, but where dye-sublimation is emerging as a significant area of potential growth.
The partnership will focus on providing high-quality textiles for silicone edge graphics (SEG) applications, alongside a wider substrate offering for the Greek market.
São Paulo, Brazil – October 2026 – FESPA has announced that FESPA Brasil 2027 will take place from 1 – 4 March in the Blue and White Pavilions of Expo Center Norte, São Paulo.
The leading digital printing exhibition will bring together the sector's biggest global players to showcase the latest solutions across packaging, textiles, signage, and personalised products.
As one of the most visited exhibitions organised by FESPA, FESPA Brasil 2027 will give visitors access to complete solutions and technological innovations spanning print shops, packaging and labels, textile printing, personalised products, 3D printing, and signage and wide format, among other sectors
New York City, USA, October, 2026 – NedGraphics, a global leader in textile and apparel design software, today announced the official launch of NedGraphics 2027, a major software release designed to bring creativity, technology, and production closer together through a more connected and flexible digital ecosystem.
At the center of NedGraphics 2027 is OPTINEDCloud, a new cloud storage and asset management environment integrated across key NedGraphics applications.
OPTINEDCloud gives design, approval, and production teams a centralized space to store, organize, visualize, share, and manage product development files.
Mönchengladbach, Germany – Monforts will showcase its latest advances in finishing, coating and energy-efficient processing at India ITME 2026, as the region's textile manufacturers increasingly look beyond volume production towards higher-value fabrics.
The German finishing machinery specialist will exhibit in Greater Noida , India at stand A5 in Hall 1 from December 4-9.
Milan, Italy – October 22nd 2026 – Agfa Inkjet Solutions today announced it will present its award-winning Jeti Bronco H3300 HS live at Viscom Italia 2026, taking place 28–29 October at the Allianz MiCo Convention Center.
Visitors can see the hybrid wide-format printer in action at Stand 8 B17/C20, where Agfa will demonstrate its capabilities for sign and display businesses seeking greater productivity without compromising on image quality.
The 3.3-metre Bronco H3300 HS delivers print speeds of up to 450 m²/h while maintaining high image quality, combining the flexibility to handle both rigid and roll media in a single hybrid platform.
Berlin, Germany – 21 October 2026 – NVIDIA today announced that Europe's leading ecosystem partners are adopting the NVIDIA DSX™ AI Factory Platform to build AI factories that minimise water consumption for cooling and use less power for the same AI output.
The platform also helps partners bring new capacity online faster and adapt workload power consumption to support grid reliability.
NVIDIA DSX is a full-stack AI factory reference architecture, co-innovated with the world's leading infrastructure companies, in which compute, networking, storage, software, power and cooling are codesigned as one system.
East Sussex, UK – October 2026 – Vivid Laminating Technologies has announced that Pureprint Group, a leading print and marketing services business, has selected its multi award-winning Veloblade technology for use across its operations.
The decision underscores a shared commitment to innovation and efficiency within the print industry.
Imst – Ostreich – October 2026 – DyStar, a global leader in textile chemistry and innovative solutions, has announced its pivotal role in helping Textildruck Imst (TDI) achieve successful certification of the German "Multitarn" camouflage print.
The achievement, reached within a matter of months despite an ambitious timeline and exceptionally stringent requirements, enabled production to commence on schedule as part of a strategic collaboration with Getzner Textil.
The certification process demanded rigorous standards across colour performance, durability, infrared signature, and safety compliance.
From the outset, DyStar supported TDI by supplying the necessary products, technical expertise, and hands-on application support required to meet these demanding benchmarks.
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.
Leicester, UK – October 2026 – VeriVide is an official RAL Distributor in the United Kingdom, giving UK designers, specifiers and manufacturers direct access to the complete range of RAL colour standard products.
The appointment reinforces VeriVide's commitment to supporting the architecture, interior design, and industrial design sectors with reliable, globally recognised tools for accurate colour communication.
South Normanton – UK – October 2026 – Sun Chemical, a global leader in printing inks, coatings, and pigments, today reinforced the importance of looking beyond colour when selecting dyes for printing inks, urging formulators and manufacturers to weigh performance data alongside colour accuracy to achieve reliable, long-lasting results.
While colour remains a defining factor in dye selection, Sun Chemical emphasises that performance properties are equally critical to a dye's overall suitability for an application.
These include lightfastness, which is shaped by dye concentration, binder composition, substrate, and testing conditions; resistance properties, such as bleed resistance and over-lacquering resistance; and migration behaviour, which can vary depending on the substrate, coating, and storage conditions.
United Kingdom – October 2026 – Textile Skills Centre has announced a new Design to Print Competition in partnership with Prinfab, the UK's leading digital fabric printer.
The competition invites UK schoolchildren aged 5 to 18 to submit original textile designs or artwork for the chance to see their work professionally printed onto fabric.
The initiative aims to give young designers a tangible, industry-standard outcome for their creative work, while introducing them to the practical realities of textile design and digital printing.
Telford, UK – October 2026 – Ricoh UK has announced the return of Print Evolution Live, its flagship industry event, for a fourth consecutive year.
Taking place on 10-11 November 2026 at Ricoh's Telford site, the event will once again bring together leaders from across the print sector to explore the strategic shifts shaping the industry's future.
Karachi – Pakistan – October 2026 – ZIMMER AUSTRIA successfully concluded its participation at IGATEX PAKISTAN 2026, one of the region's leading exhibitions for textile and garment technology.
The event highlighted a growing shift among Pakistani manufacturers toward high-value technical textile production, a trend that aligns closely with ZIMMER AUSTRIA's innovative solutions.
Throughout the exhibition, ZIMMER AUSTRIA demonstrated the capabilities of its #magnoroll and #colaris technologies, both designed to support manufacturers moving into advanced technical textile segments, including coating, printing, and specialty fabric production.
Southend – Essex – October 2026 – Vivid Laminating Technologies Ltd has announced the successful installation of its multi award-winning VeloBlade Nexus cutting system at Guardian Exhibition and Display, a leading name in the exhibition and display industry.
The installation, completed last week, equips Guardian Display with one of the most advanced cutting solutions available, reinforcing the sector's ongoing shift towards greater automation and precision.
Uxbridge, UK – October 2026 – Perfect Colours will host a Celebration in Colour event on Thursday 5 November at the Xerox UK IC Centre in Uxbridge, giving attendees a first-hand look at the new Proficio colour presses in action.
The event will showcase the capabilities of the Proficio range, with live demonstrations featuring a striking collection of fluorescent colours designed to push the boundaries of what print professionals can achieve with colour technology.
Goor – Netherlands – October 2026 – ColGraphix, a company at the forefront of innovation in the transfer paper industry, today announced the appointment of Gijsbert Harmsen as its new Senior Account Manager.
Harmsen brings with him a wealth of industry expertise and an extensive professional network, strengthening ColGraphix's position as it continues to lead the market into a more sustainable and efficient future.