LATEST UPDATE

SWITCH-Asia Project Ends With 36 Sourcing Commitments and 50,000 Young Consumers Engaged Across India

A four-year European Union-funded project coordinated by Fairtrade International has concluded after reaching more than 9,500 cotton farmers and 700 textile manufacturers across India, with a primary focus on Tamil Nadu. The initiative delivered digital sustainability tools, capacity-building programmes, and market links between Indian suppliers and European buyers.

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

Goods Need 90% Certified Fibre Content to Qualify Under Newly Launched Textile Processing Standard

A new certification route now brings previously ineligible textile fibres into the Global Standards system, subject to independent verification against recognised third-party criteria. Global Standards, the non-profit behind the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), has developed the standard from decades of certification experience, and eligibility now extends past the organic sector.

 
 
 
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"

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.