Specials

A coalition including Better Cotton, Cotton Incorporated, Cotton Australia, and the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol has issued new guidance on responsible life-cycle assessment use. The publication From Data to Impact: How to Get Cotton LCAs Right calls for LCAs to be applied alongside verified field data to deliver credible, transparent, and farmer-informed sustainability progress.

As global supply chains undergo legal and environmental scrutiny, Cambodia’s garment sector stands at a crossroads. Persistent labour challenges, climate shocks, and governance weaknesses threaten its export competitiveness. In this candid interview, Andrew Crawford, Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, explains why swift structural reform is essential for survival.

Europe’s hemp story has shifted from policy to performance. Farmers can now grow and process fibre, yet consistent buyers remain scarce. Between luxury weavers, mass-market converters and new industrial users, the market is searching for direction. Its future will depend on whether certification and diversification can turn enthusiasm into genuine, recurring demand.

Europe’s hemp boom has filled fields but left factories waiting. The region now grows tens of thousands of hectares of fibre crops, yet only a handful of facilities can refine them for textiles. Hemp’s challenge is no longer agronomy but engineering — how to build the machinery, skills, and scale that make a crop an industry.

Across Western Europe, fields of hemp are re-appearing beside the region’s long-trusted flax, but technical familiarity has yet to catch up with acreage. Farmers possess the land, machinery, and ambition—yet remain unsure how to turn stalks into stable income. For now, cultivation outpaces coordination, leaving Europe’s textile revival rooted more in hope than experience.

A new era of textile innovation is unfolding, driven by digital tools, material transparency, and collaborative thinking. At the heart of this transformation is Mijke van Ballegooijen, CEO of Byborre, whose platform challenges conventional production and design systems. She explains how empowering creators and rethinking supply chains can reshape the industry’s creative and environmental future.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping agriculture by offering smarter ways to monitor pests and optimise pesticide use. A new initiative demonstrates how rural communities can harness cutting-edge technologies to strengthen farming practices, protect health and build innovation capacity. The project also highlights how collaborative partnerships can bring long-term economic and community benefits outside urban centres.

The Netherlands is pursuing ambitious circularity targets through extended producer responsibility, aiming to raise textile reuse and recycling rates while driving systemic reform. A collective framework is helping coordinate producers, recyclers, and innovators, even as legislative pressure grows and cross-border harmonisation efforts intensify under forthcoming EU regulations. In this context, Sekhar Lahiri, Director of Stichting UPV Textiel, discusses the challenges and opportunities shaping the transition.

Counterfeit fashion has grown into a multitrillion-dollar menace, eroding brand equity, exploiting labour, and endangering consumers. Regulators have struggled to keep pace, leaving loopholes wide open. Now, a partnership between SMX and CETI in Lille seeks a systemic shift: embedding proof directly into textiles, turning Europe’s compliance drive into global leadership.

Tunisia’s textiles and apparel industry stands at a turning point, balancing cost pressures with rising global expectations. At this year’s ITF Intertex Tunisia, conversations will extend beyond traditional strengths, focusing on sustainability, innovation, and regional integration. Managing Director Serhan Pul explains how Tunisia aims to reposition itself as a competitive, responsible, and future-oriented partner in global trade.