LATEST UPDATE

Cooling Effectiveness Shows No Significant Decline in Purple Fabric After Tests Simulating Intense Sunlight Exposure

A purple fabric has remained cooler than white cotton in tests, despite its dark colour, and may prove more effective at cooling the body than traditional light-coloured fabrics. Still in the early stages of development, the material has potential for workwear worn by construction workers, farmers and others spending long hours outdoors in strong sunlight.

Other Updates
Top Stories
 
CIRCULARITY / RECYCLING / SECONDS / WASTE

The Coming Age of Smart Garments Demands a New Waste Doctrine

Advanced textiles that monitor health, motion and environment are moving out of laboratories and toward retail shelves. These hybrid garments carry conductive metals, mixed polymers and embedded electronics that existing recycling systems cannot handle. Regulation, disassembly standards and material transparency must arrive before commercial rollout begins in earnest across global consumer markets and outpaces the infrastructure meant to contain it.

 
FLASHPOINT: CLIMATE
Material Innovation / Bezos Fund

Breakthrough textile materials have received $34 million in new Bezos Earth Fund grants, backing research into bacterial fibres, spider-silk-inspired biodegradable materials, coloured cotton and cotton seedbank restoration. The funding targets materials that can match rayon, silk and cotton while improving cost, performance and environmental outcomes across fashion and textile supply chains.

Climate Action / Ethiopia Project

Climate resilience, productivity and workplace safety are being advanced across Ethiopia's leather, textile and garment sector through a new ILO-Japan joint initiative. The one-year programme targets 40 factories across five cities, integrating Japanese expertise, digitalised safety tools and a women's leadership development programme to drive sustainable and inclusive industrial growth.

 
 
 
FOCUS: COTTON

Climate Pressure Forces a Reckoning Across Pakistan's Cotton Belt

Fragmented pilot projects have long defined regenerative agriculture efforts in Pakistan's cotton sector, but mounting climate and market pressures are exposing the limits of that approach. Drawing on a recent industry roundtable, Abou Bakar, Country Representative – Pakistan, CottonConnect, explains what a coordinated national framework would look like, and why farmer incentives and traceability now sit at the centre of that conversation.

 
 
 
SPOTLIGHT EDITIONS: SELECT 4
 

"Quote Unquote"

Katherine Neuman
Katherine Neuman
Founder
House of Wandering Silk
For our brand specifically, we sit at an interesting point where half our market is in India and half is outside (mostly in the West) and both markets are very, very different. We find flexibility in being able to design for one market or the other, or somewhere in the middle and so haven’t had to cater drastically to Western ‘luxury’ market expectations. That said, of course, we keep in mind what the market will invest in, and have to adjust accordingly.

"Quote Unquote"

Marcelo Paytas
Marcelo Paytas
Director
INTA – Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria
The greater challenge lies in the connection between knowledge generation and practical adoption. Extension systems often operate with limited resources, while many producers face difficult economic conditions and high investment risks. Under climate uncertainty, adopting new technologies is not simply a technical decision—it is an economic one.
 
 
FOCUS: LEATHER

Major Reorganisation Positions Fierecongressi as a More Competitive Force in Global Exhibition Markets

A major internal reorganisation, aligned with a growth strategy and a substantial infrastructure investment programme, has reshaped Fierecongressi's operational model. The restructuring establishes a dedicated Internationalisation Area, merges two business units into a single Fairs Business Unit, and introduces a product-oriented structure to strengthen the company's competitive position in the global exhibition and congress market.