Spotlight Women of the Loom
Handloom Livelihoods Women of the Loom

New Programme Tests Whether Artisan Labour Can Command Luxury Prices Globally

For generations the value of heritage cloth reached global markets while its makers stayed anonymous, a separation the Atelier now tries to close by attaching names to work.

For generations, master artisans across India and the Global South supplied luxury markets while their names stayed hidden behind export houses, intermediaries and non-disclosure agreements. A new incubator asks whether that labour can carry its own name and command luxury value. Susan Walker, whose nonprofit Ibu operates from the American city of Charleston, explains how visibility and price might converge.

[The texfash Spotlight series runs through the week.]
Earlier Editions
 
 
CIRCULARITY / RECYCLING / SECONDS / WASTE

Fashion Has Discarded 110 Million Tonnes of Textile Fibre a Year with No Biological Recovery Path, Case Studies Find

Completed case studies from a multi-year programme have shown that biological decomposition processes, including enzymatic hydrolysis, bacterial fermentation, and microbial activity, can convert discarded textile waste into biodegradable and biocompatible materials. Pilots in Ghana, the Netherlands, and Germany have mapped a pathway that routes fashion's discards through breakdown processes rather than landfill or incineration.

 
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"

Megha Agarwal
Megha Agarwal
Founder
Studio Maeve
The recognition and growing interest in sustainable and slow fashion have created greater visibility and efforts are in the right direction; however, this alone does not translate to better livelihood. There is still a gap between celebrating craftsmanship in marketing narratives and ensuring that artisans receive fair compensation, stable work, and long-term economic security. As designers and entrepreneurs, we must ensure this translates to the well-being of the people who create these products.

"Quote Unquote"

Olga IF
Olga IF
Founder
Modavision
A very important element is audience participation through real-time voting. In a certain sense, real people become part of the process of international recognition of designers, rather than only closed professional industry structures. Another important factor is the idea of healthy creative interaction between countries. This interaction is not built around commercial pressure but around cultural expression and design vision, creating a space of respect and mutual interest between participants.
 
 
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.