From the Sector

Suominen Chief People and Communications Officer (CPCO) Minna Rouru has announced her decision to leave Suominen to take on a role in another company. She will leave Suominen at the latest on August 26, 2026. The CPCO succession process has been initiated and will be announced in due course.

“I would like to warmly thank Minna for her significant contribution to Suominen’s transformation. Her expertise, commitment, and positive mindset have been instrumental in advancing our cultural change and strengthening our organization. I wish Minna all success in her next professional projects,” says Charles Héaulmé, President and CEO of Suominen.

Nancy Kowalski has been named new president and CEO of INVISTA, a Koch company, effective March 1, 2026. In this role, she’ll be responsible for continuing to adapt and improve business models across INVISTA, a global manufacturer of chemical intermediates, polymers and fibers used in parts for the automotive industry, medical equipment, airbags, food packaging and clothing.

Nancy has 22 years of expertise across INVISTA in a variety of its business lines and its global supply chain. She joined INVISTA as a director of corporate reporting in 2004 and went on to hold leadership roles in treasury, global finance and global supply chain.

She was most recently executive vice president for INVISTA’s global nylon business, with operations in China, Europe, and the United States, leading its overall profit and loss management and overseeing Nylon Sales and Marketing, the strategic management of feedstock procurement and purchasing processes for the company.

After more than 30 years of service to Koch, Brook Vickery, president and CEO of INVISTA, has announced his retirement, effective March 1, 2026. Brook joined Koch in 1991 as an instrument engineer for Flint Hills Resources. He joined INVISTA as its global operations leader in 2023 and then became president and CEO in January 2025.

Brook has been fundamental in helping transform Koch’s operational models both at Flint Hills and INVISTA. His ability to build culture, apply Principle Based Management™, and deliver results and operational reliability will continue to create long-term value.

Marco Bruno is the new Global R&D Head for the nonwovens business at Avgol, an Indorama Ventures company. With more than 20 years of experience in the textile and nonwovens industry, including extensive expertise in high technology textile substrates, the manager brings deep knowledge in nonwoven and textile-related applications. He is one of the inventors on more than 10 international patent filings covering advanced breathable functional materials and innovative material engineering developments in the nonwoven field.

At Indorama Ventures’ Avgol nonwovens business, Marco’s key goal is to further strengthen the company’s collaboration with up- and downstream partners across the value chain, ensuring that innovation translates into tangible, high value benefits for customers.

Being an active member of the company’s cross-business R&D community globally, he will also work closely with colleagues developing next-generation fibers for nonwovens and those focusing on the further enhancements of surfactants for technical and personal care applications.

As part of Indorama Ventures’ market-led innovation approach, Marco contributed to solutions that meet industry trends and help customers to respond to the needs of many end consumers in the baby diaper, adult incontinence and feminine care industry. 

The company’s latest efforts to develop a comprehensive portfolio of soft nonwovens addressing different customer needs will be presented at INDEX, taking place in May in Geneva, Switzerland.

Effective from January 1, 2026, Volker Gingter, has been appointed the new Managing Director of A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Mönchengladbach, Germany, and will steer the fortunes of the leading dyeing and finishing technology company going forward.

Gunnar Meyer stepped down as Managing Director on December 31, 2025, and will remain with the company in an advisory capacity until his well-earned retirement in July 2026.

Mr Gingter started his career as an electrician in 1997 at Sucker-Müller-Hacoba, also headquartered in Mönchengladbach, and first joined Monforts in 2000 as an inhouse commissioning engineer. Between 2010 and 2013 he worked at Esprit on a new European warehouse before rejoining Monforts as Engineering Service Manager. He became Head of the Service Department in 2020 and in 2025 also took charge of the Spare Parts Department.

He is now looking forward to meeting the worldwide Monforts network of customers and suppliers personally at the forthcoming Techtextil 2026 exhibition in Frankfurt.

“Today’s volatile worldwide market situation will be a challenge, but I am ready to navigate Monforts through this demanding time,” he said. “The Techtextil exhibition serves as an excellent platform for networking and meeting with key players and provides a great opportunity to meet many customers and potential new ones. Keeping good relationships with customers is essential and it is our aim to fulfil their expectations when investing in our products.”

A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1884 and today is a leading supplier of textile dyeing and finishing machines as well as coating devices. The company is a market leader in stenters, continuous dyeing ranges, sanforising ranges and special executions for denim and for the finishing of technical textiles.

As of December 2025, Mr Matthias Schwetzel, MBA, has taken over management of OETI - Institute for Ecology, Technology and Innovation GmbH – from retired Robert Löcker, MBA. He brings more than 15 years of international leadership experience in the environmental and testing services sector, including at Eurofins, and has in-depth expertise in strategic management and change management in global markets.

Baptized Very Middle Ages, the new trend book from Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris outlines the directions that will guide – in a world under pressure – the Spring-Summer 2027 collections. It will be unveiled from February 2 to 4, 2026 at the Paris-Le Bourget Exhibition Center. 

Geopolitical tensions, social expectations, digital transformations, shifting markets... At a time when fashion (and the world) is going through strong turbulence, Very Middle Ages chooses to look to the future by invoking a reinvented past. Not as a nostalgic refuge, but as a magnifying mirror of our contemporary tensions. 

This new edition of the Trend Book offers ideas to help creators combine imagination and a desire for renewal while developing the Spring-Summer 2027 collections. It explores a universe often dark, mixing protection, conflict, magic, and augmented identity: a reworked, digital, imagined Middle Ages used as a metaphor for current upheavals. 

Four creative Universes to “rearm” imagination 
Directed by Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud, the artistic directors of Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris, this document is based on the reflections of a collective of stylists, designers, writers, and artists brought together around one question: how do you create in a world that doubts its own ability to imagine? From this question comes a vision made of four narratives showing different points of friction between reality and expectations: a return to primitive function, comforting digital illusions, warrior attitudes in the face of crises, and the constant expansion of the “digital self”. 
 
Rather than a fixed projection, Very Middle Ages offers a sensitive, instinctive (and sometimes unsettling) reading of the Spring-Summer 2027 season. An invitation to rethink clothing as a tool of protection, affirmation, resistance, or transformation, in a world where the borders between real and virtual, natural and artificial, past and future have never been so blurred. 
 
#1 Digital lordship. This first theme elevates the giants of Silicon Valley to the rank of all-powerful overlords. Individuals, voluntary vassals of these contemporary digital empires, give up intimacy and freedom in exchange for an illusory safety. Protection and control: two expectations expressed in a fashion made of layered, highly functional pieces. Symbolic shells of heavy fabrics, textile-like armor (metal-coated finishes), rigid ribbed knits treated in steel gray, charcoal black, with silver holographic accents. 

#2 Nuclear sorcery. Although this colored universe brings a form of “reenchantment,” it resembles an aesthetic of illusion. Technology (AI), which threatens to bring a new obscurantism by numbing reasoning, is paradoxically felt as an artificial comfort. The silhouettes here are full of soft deception, protective and velvety materials (iridescent organza, translucent fabrics, foamy knits, light mohair, “second skin” jerseys), in an atmosphere of techno magic, between enveloping cocoon and “digital aura.” The palette moves between spectral purples, carmine red, opaline, and “radioactive” greens. 

#3 Speculative crusade. This creative sequence calls on the (human) history of an endless quest for unsatisfied domination. A martial and dark direction built on conflict. The silhouettes are very “armored” – technical, combat-inspired – or made with hybrid materials, visceral textures in an organic and warlike palette: dark reds and browns, textured blacks, military khaki, burnt chrome... 

#4 Data inquisition. This final direction explores a society of suspects under surveillance. In this world of constant inquisition, any difference, any eccentricity or nuance is instantly condemned. Personal identities are absorbed and intimacy disappears in favor of the collective. Clothing becomes an interface, a second skin, an extension of the digital self. The garments can be adjusted with interchangeable modules. All of this in an icy blue, algorithmic aesthetic. 
 
Words to discover in February 
These four themes are enriched with moodboards and color palettes built around three “star colors” followed by six shades. Each theme, imagined as a design capsule or creative direction, will be showcased at the fair in the area dedicated to trend forums in Hall 2. This immersive setup will allow visitors to discover the looks created by the artistic directors using materials and finished products selected for each world based on strong sensory intentions. Louis Gerin will also present the full details of this work during a dedicated conference to give creators solid creative perspectives for imagining the Spring-Summer 2027 fashion season. 

December 9, Lenzing AG announced that Rohit Aggarwal, Managing Board Member and Chief Executive Officer of Lenzing AG, has informed the Supervisory Board of his decision to resign from his position due to personal reasons, effective 31 January 2026. To support a smooth transition, Mr. Aggarwal will remain with Lenzing AG as an advisor to the company until end of September 2026. 

Following Mr. Aggarwal’s departure, Lenzing AG will be led by a three-member Managing Board. As part of the company’s continued organizational development and in support of its refined premiumization strategy, Lenzing AG will establish an Executive Committee (ExCo) consisting of six members. The ExCo will include the three members of the Managing Board and will be complemented by Lenzing's senior commercial managers Patricia Sargeant (Nonwovens Fibers), Yann Lepage (Textile Fibers) and Anton Putz (Pulp). The introduction of the ExCo is designed to support Lenzing’s strategic focus on commercial opportunities in high-performance fiber segments with the objective of reinforcing the company’s position as the leading integrated premium supplier of regenerated cellulosic fibers. 

The process to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer has been initiated by the Supervisory Board and an appointment will be announced at the appropriate time. 

Patrick Lackenbucher, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, comments: “On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I would like to thank Rohit Aggarwal for his commitment and for the progress achieved under his leadership, including the successful execution of the performance program, a sharpened strategic focus, and improved profitability. Structural profitability remains a key objective, and the Managing Board will continue its relentless focus on improving Lenzing's competitive position, its financial performance and long-term value creation in order to strengthen Lenzing’s position as a global market leader in sustainable cellulosic fibers.” 

Based on the business performance to date and the current market outlook, the Managing Board confirms the EBITDA guidance 2025 and expects year-on-year growth in EBITDA in 2025.

ITA Master's student Janne Warnecke investigated tension differences over the fabric width in the weaving process and thereby contributed to quality assurance; ITA Bachelor's student Jasmin Roos found a basis for the development of recyclable yarns and textiles. For these developments, they were awarded the Walter Reiners Foundation's Promotion and Sustainability Prizes on 27 November. Peter D. Dornier, Chairman of the Walter Reiners Foundation, presented the awards at the Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference (ADD-ITC) in Aachen, Germany.

Thermoplastic elastomers as a recyclable alternative to elastane
The increasing importance of a circular economy for conserving resources and minimising negative environmental impacts requires innovative recycling concepts for textiles. The increasing use of elastane poses a particular challenge in textile recycling. Even small amounts of elastane cause difficulties in established recycling technologies such as thermomechanical recycling, for example by clogging filter media or decomposing into potentially toxic degradation products.

Jasmin Roos won the Sustainability Award for her bachelor's thesis on the topic: ‘Potential of thermoplastic elastomers for thermomechanical textile recycling as an alternative to elastane: Experimental evaluation of PET/TPC blends’ with prize money of €3,000.

In her thesis, Jasmin Roos, supervised by ITA scientist Ricarda Wissel, took an in-depth look at the development of sustainable solutions for recycling elastic textiles. The innovative approach aims to replace conventional, non-recyclable elastane with melt-spun yarns made from thermoplastic copolyester elastomers (TPC). This can not only improve recyclability, but also contribute to reducing environmental impact, as harmful solvents can be dispensed with in yarn production.

The main objective of her work was to evaluate the suitability of blends of TPC and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for joint thermomechanical recycling. Blend and melt spinning tests were carried out on a laboratory and pilot scale at the ITA facilities. Jasmin Roos succeeded in producing blends of different proportions of PET and TPC, based on typical elastane proportions in textiles, and successfully processing them into yarns on a melt spinning line – a crucial aspect for closed-loop recycling. The results of her bachelor's thesis thus form a promising basis for the development of recyclable elastic yarns and textiles.