From the Sector

Rice University mechanical engineer Vanessa Sanchez is developing knitted structures in which sensing, movement and mechanical behaviour are programmed into the textile rather than attached as separate components. Her project, “Programmable 3D-Knitted Soft Robotic Textiles for Human-Centered Mobility,” has received a Toyota Programmable System Innovation Fellowship.

Rice points to applications including vehicle seats that reshape around occupants, garments that assist walking and soft safety systems capable of responding to impending impacts.

The work uses knitting as a manufacturing architecture. By varying yarns, stitch geometry and local structural behaviour, the textile can be designed to produce functions that conventional soft-robotic systems may achieve with separate sensors, actuators or rigid elements.

Three-dimensional knitting is particularly important because form can be created during manufacture rather than assembled from multiple flat components. That approach could reduce seams and interfaces while retaining the softness and conformity expected from textiles.

Sanchez will use the fellowship to develop the programmable structures further and explore mobility-oriented applications.

Kappahl is launching its Autumn 2026 campaign across all markets on 16 September. Built around the existing “We Are Family” platform, the campaign presents a wardrobe of pieces intended to be easy to combine and relevant beyond short trend cycles.

The assortment spans womenswear, XLNT and menswear, with knitwear, denim, tailoring, lace and outerwear. The coat has a specific heritage role, linking the current collection to the company’s origins in Gothenburg in 1953, when founder Per-Olof Ahl opened a store focused on coats.

Editorial relevance: Medium – a current brand-positioning and retail story supported by a product capsule.
s.Oliver has launched a new hero campaign, “Casual Since Forever,” featuring Heidi Klum meeting a younger version of herself from the 1990s. The concept uses the time shift to reinforce the brand’s positioning around enduring casual style.

The campaign is accompanied by a limited-edition vintage capsule that reinterprets 1990s references through casual basics and vintage-inspired designs. The pieces are being sold online and in selected s.Oliver stores, turning the campaign narrative into an immediate product and retail activation.

Established fashion brands increasingly use archive aesthetics and cultural nostalgia not only for communication but as a direct product-development and traffic-driving mechanism.

Indorama Ventures is supplying fabrics woven with deja™ recycled polyester yarn to Thai label KH Editions. Two looks and accessories from the ten-look Spring/Summer 2027 collection will be shown in New York on 15 September during New York Fashion Week.

The collaboration builds on Indorama Ventures’ RECO programme, launched in 2011 and expanded into RECO Collective in 2023. The initiative combines recycled materials and industry support with emerging designers, aiming to demonstrate that circular inputs can meet the quality and aesthetic requirements of internationally presented fashion.

For the wider value chain, the project is a useful example of material innovation being connected to design, brand building and market access rather than remaining a stand-alone recycling story. Commercial scaling will ultimately depend on consistent quality, available volumes and the ability of recycled yarns to work within established fabric and garment production.

Hamburg Textile Week will present 14 projects from Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden from 1 to 11 October 2026 under the theme “Stoffe mit Zukunft” – Fabrics with a Future. The program focuses on new materials, processes and technologies, including textile energy systems, bio-based materials and interactive fabrics.

Projects range from SkySails kites that generate electricity from high-altitude wind and revoltech’s hemp-residue-based LOVR material to “Talking Textiles,” which translates touch into sound in real time. A Stühmer|Scholz exoskeleton uses textile components as the interface between body and technology. Other exhibits include a curtain woven with thin-film solar cells and work on bio-based dyeing.

Design Zentrum Hamburg is joined by the FABRIC – Future Fashion Lab for talks and workshops, with HAW Hamburg, AMD Akademie Mode & Design, Made auf Veddel and Greenpeace also participating. The format brings research, design, production and circular-design questions into one city-wide textile program.