It ain't fashion, if it ain't sustainable
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TOP STORY
Event Roundup / IILF 2026

11 February 2026

 7 minutes

IILF 2026 Exposes Gap Between Boardroom Sustainability and Tannery Floor Reality

The fair's expansion into newly constructed exhibition halls at Chennai Trade Centre failed to address fundamental organisational issues, with similar product categories scattered across disparate locations forcing extended navigation.

Chennai's IILF 2026 exposed contradictions shaping India's leather industry: innovative chemical systems alongside organisational failures, Trump tariffs suppressing demand yet prices holding firm, and sustainability frameworks that never reach tannery workers. The 'Leather Carnival' demonstrated both the sector's professionalisation and its struggle to reconcile traditional identity with market realities.

  • Vasan Suri
 Analysis
Latest: Updates
Inclusive Design / Fitting Rooms Report
For people with physical disabilities, virtual fitting rooms are evaluated not by novelty, but by how confidently, conveniently, and comfortably they fit into everyday clothing decisions.

Virtual Fitting Rooms Reveal What Drives Adoption Among People With Physical Disabilities

  • Richa Bansal

10 February 2026
Retail Watch / Services Report
Retail is increasingly where fashion’s sustainability commitments are tested in practice, through everyday decisions on product handling, services, transparency, and how customer interactions shape long-term environmental and commercial outcomes.

Service-Based Retail Is Redefining What Sustainable Fashion Really Demands

  • Special Correspondent

9 February 2026
Other Top Stories
 
Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Spring Edition
CIRCULARITY / RECYCLING / SECONDS / WASTE
Rsesearchers have found a new, sustainable material for sandblasting denim. They found that the grit obtained from grinding mussel shells has better abrasive qualities than other materials used in the textiles industry.

Discarded Mussel Shells Can Replace Garnet Abrasives in Industrial Denim Sandblasting Processes, Study Finds

Researchers from the University of the Basque Country have demonstrated that ground mussel shells can function as an effective and more sustainable abrasive for denim sandblasting. The study shows the waste-derived material delivers comparable abrasion to garnet, reduces material consumption through reuse, and avoids environmental and health drawbacks linked to traditional finishing methods.

Staff Writer
 
FLASHPOINT: CLIMATE
Material Innovation / The Alternatives
Scaling sustainable materials depends on system readiness, aligning innovation with sourcing, infrastructure compatibility, governance, and compliance across value chains.

From Fibre Innovation to System Readiness: What It Really Takes to Scale Sustainable Materials

  • KD Sharma
 Commentary

15 January 2026

As climate risk, regulatory scrutiny, and supply-chain volatility intensify, the question facing the industry is no longer whether alternative materials can be developed, but whether they can be scaled with reliability, accountability, and long-term resilience.

GHG Emissions / Localisation
Industry groups have referenced the paper when examining how localised production and renewable energy could intersect with existing supplier networks and certification mechanisms for sustainable apparel manufacturing.

Lifecycle and Microfibre Assessment Finds Regional Manufacturing Can Outperform Global Polyester Supply Chains

  • Staff Writer
 Update

5 November 2025

Locally produced circular sportswear could have a smaller environmental footprint than a conventional polyester garment reference, a new lifecycle and microfibre assessment has modelled. Renewable-energy use, shorter transport routes, and circular design choices together could reduce climate impacts and microplastic emissions, the researchers have contended.

 
Morocco Fashion Tex 2026
COLUMNS
 
EXCLUSIVES
 
Saudi Fashion Tex 2026
FOCUS: COTTON
The rise in imports reflects short-term domestic supply constraints and competitive global prices, particularly for higher staple-length cotton.

‘MSP Isn’t Distorting Prices’: CCI Head on Imports, Yields, and the Road to Cotton Stability

The single largest cotton trading company and a public sector undertaking under the Union Ministry of Textiles, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), established in 1970, undertakes price support and commercial purchase operations to safeguard the economic interest of farmers in the cotton growing regions and to ensure its smooth supply to the textile industry. A Q&A with its Chairman-Cum-Managing Director, Lalit Kumar Gupta.

Richa Bansal
From sowing to spinning, every segment of India’s cotton value chain is under stress, affected by rising costs, outdated technology, and fragmented policy oversight across ministries.

Frayed Futures: India’s Cotton Crop Unspooling Fast

  • Richa Bansal
 Report

3 November 2025
 
 
SPOTLIGHT ARTICLES: MOST READ
 
SPOTLIGHT EDITIONS: SELECT 4
Cotton for Good 2024 7 Oct 2024
One Crop, One Fibre, Many Stories
 
 

Highlights: Sea Change

"Quote Unquote"

Swapneshu Baser
Swapneshu Baser
Managing Director
Deven Supercriticals Pvt Ltd
The central engineering challenge was not making an existing dyeing process faster but eliminating the fundamental reasons why both conventional and prior-art CO₂ dyeing processes are slow. In conventional water-based dyeing, time is consumed by diffusion-limited exhaustion, repeated baths, fixation, washing, and multiple auxiliary chemical steps.
MORE: A New Dyeing Architecture Challenges Established Textile Process Orthodoxy

"Quote Unquote"

Satish Panchani
Satish Panchani
Director
True Colors Ltd
When we created coordinator roles, we consciously trained women back in 2017. Some of them have stayed with us through marriage, motherhood. We provide around a year of maternity leave with full pay. For us, culture is not just words. Many people who join True Colors make it their last job, because they find growth, security, and an environment that values them.
MORE: The Next Print: How True Colors is Designing its Future
 
FOCUS: LEATHER
The AILPA 2025 exhibition underscored Kolkata’s emergence as a global platform connecting Indian manufacturers with international leather buyers.

India’s Leather Industry Repositions as Global Buyers Converge on Kolkata

Kolkata’s hosting of AILPA 2025 represented more than an industry event—it symbolised India’s recalibration within shifting global trade currents. Amid market disruptions and evolving tariff landscapes, the city emerged as a key platform connecting manufacturers and international buyers, highlighting the sector’s growing capability, design sophistication, and readiness for the premium export market.

Vasan Suri
Lineapelle 2025 demonstrated that the industry is ready to communicate in a different way. The collaboration between UNIC, Lineapelle, La Conceria, Is It Leather?, and voices like Volkan’s marks the beginning of a more open, consumer-connected era. But collaboration must extend to influencers, educators, and storytellers, people who can speak the language of the next generation of consumers.

The Power of Storytelling, Community and Leather’s Next Chapter

  • Blake Garavaglia
 Commentary

14 October 2025
 
 
ATTENTION: DENIM
 
COMPANY NEWS / PRESS RELEASES
 
Young India Fashion Survey 2025