From the Sector

The Middle East’s industrial sector is synonymous with high-risk environments, particularly in oil and gas production. Workers face hazards such as flash fires, chemical splashes and electric arcs—all within the context of demanding conditions, including sweltering heat and long shifts. In response to these challenges, flame-retardant (FR) fabrics with stretch properties are emerging as the next generation of protective workwear, delivering comfort, safety and durability.

Traditionally, FR fabrics prioritised protection over comfort. However, the increasing demand for ergonomic clothing has driven a shift towards stretch solutions. Thanks to innovations in textile engineering and the influence of modern fashion, these fabrics now combine unparalleled flexibility with the stringent safety standards required in high-risk industries.

Stretch fabrics such as Carrington Textiles’ Flametougher 290AS Flex and Flameflex 300AS demonstrate how this transition is not just a luxury but a necessity. Flametougher 290AS Flex, for example, incorporates 19.5% CORDURA® nylon 6,6 for exceptional durability and strength, blended with 78% cotton for lightweight comfort. At just 290gsm, it ensures workers maintain mobility without compromising on protection.

Meeting the needs of Middle Eastern workers, Flameflex 300AS, weighing 300gsm, provides a perfect balance of durability, flexibility and flame resistance. Its 83% cotton and 14% polyester composition ensures longevity, while 2% EOL fibres enable enhanced elasticity—critical for workers in physically intensive roles such as oil rig operations or refinery maintenance.

Flexibility in workwear isn’t just a matter of comfort, it’s a matter of safety. Restricted movement can lead to fatigue, reduced compliance with safety standards and accidents. Stretch FR fabrics excel in adaptability. Whether it’s a worker scaling scaffolding on an oil platform or handling maintenance in a petrochemical plant, garments made with stretch FR textiles allow for the unrestricted movement critical to performing tasks safely.

The rise of these type of fabrics also owes much to the fashion industry. Decades of innovation in stretch garments for everyday use have created a ripple effect in workwear. Workers increasingly expect the same level of comfort and fit in their protective clothing, and manufacturers are responding.

Source Fashion, Europe’s leading responsible sourcing show, has announced an inspiring line-up of keynote speakers for its upcoming event, running from 18th to 20th February 2025 at Olympia London. On Wednesday 19th February, a full day of thought-provoking sessions will be headlined by industry visionaries including All Saints Founder Stuart Trevor, award-winning social entrepreneur Safia Minney MBE, and Andrew Xeni, Founder of Nobody’s Child.
 
The sessions will explore critical themes shaping the future of fashion, from sustainability to circularity and transparency, aiming to equip visitors with actionable insights to transform their brands and business practices.
 
Session Highlights:

• The Urgency of Transparency
  • Speaker: Andrew Xeni, Founder, Nobody’s Child, Fabacus and Soreto
  • Time: 11:00 AM
  • Synopsis: As transparency becomes the cornerstone of sustainability, Andrew Xeni will discuss how brands can lead the charge in accountability and ethical operations. From unveiling supply chain practices to empowering consumers, this session highlights the role of transparency in building trust and driving meaningful change in the fashion industry.
•  A Clothing Company That Doesn’t Produce Clothes
  • Speaker: Stuart Trevor, Founder, All Saints & Stuart Trevor
  • Time: 1:30 PM
  • Synopsis: In a groundbreaking fireside chat, Stuart Trevor will showcase how his company is pioneering circularity by transforming pre-owned clothes into desirable fashion pieces. By rethinking the traditional industry model, Trevor will illustrate the potential of upcycling to combat waste and redefine sustainable style.
• Ecosystem Thinking in Fashion: Redesigning for Regeneration
  • Speaker: Safia Minney MBE
  • Time: 2:10 PM
  • Synopsis: In a dynamic panel discussion, Safia Minney will explore strategies to adopt circular and regenerative models, scale these practices, and foster collaborative supply chain solutions. Featuring contributions from experts across industries, this session is set to empower visitors with practical tools for transformative change.

 The keynote sessions will be complemented by speakers from industry-leading organisations such as John Lewis, Vivo Footwear, Pepsi Co, Kingfisher, and environmental NGO WRAP. The full programme will be revealed in the coming weeks.
 
Join the Conversation
Source Fashion 2025 invites fashion professionals, sustainability advocates, and industry leaders to connect, learn, and lead the transformation of the fashion industry.
 
As Europe’s leading responsible sourcing show, Source Fashion brings together a global community of brands, suppliers, and thought leaders to shape the future of ethical and sustainable fashion. Through cutting-edge events, expert-led sessions, and innovative showcases, Source Fashion champions transparency, circularity, and collaboration in the industry.

About Stuart Trevor
In 1983, Stuart Trevor was a finalist in the Paul Smith/Mont Blanc competition and in 1985 he won designer of the year at The Smirnoff Fashion awards “Menswear Day”. Aged 19 he became the first designer and main buyer for REISS. At 28 he founded All Saints and many of the clothes that continue to feature every week in the top 10 bestseller list of the high-street brand today, were designed by Trevor himself over 20 years ago.
 
About Safia Minney
Safia Minney, MBE, FRSA, is an award-winning social entrepreneur, consultant and advisor. Safia is recognised by the World Economic Forum as an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur and is a leading influencer and international speaker on sustainable fashion, sustainable supply chains, ethical business and climate action.
 
Safia founded REAL Sustainability CIC in 2019, to promote awareness and action for sustainable living and leadership. In 2022 REAL launched Fashion Declares – a bottom-up, industry wide movement to promote rapid action to redesign the fashion industry to operate within planetary boundaries.
 
About Andrew Xeni
Andrew Xeni is a visionary technology and retail entrepreneur. After building successful fashion manufacturing business suppling leading UK high street brands, Xeni went on to create eco-conscious 2023 Drapers Retailer of the Year (<£100m), Nobody’s Child, of which Marks and Spencer is a strategic investor and shareholder.
Merging both retail and technology, Xeni also founded award-winning retail tech companies Fabacus and Soreto.
 
As CEO of Fabacus, a DaaS (Data-as-a-Service) technology platform for revolutionising the licencing and retail industries, Xeni has established partnerships with a number of leading businesses within the sectors, including, Fanatics, UFC, Epic Games, Ubisoft and IMG, part of Endeavour.
 
This year, seeing the growing consumer demand for sustainably, Xeni pioneered the UK-first Digital Product Passport in a collaboration with between Fabacus and Nobody’s Child, in partnership with Coinbase.
 
Xeni is backed by a number of leading financial institutions, including iNovia Partners, led by former Google CFO, Patrick Pichette, as well as New Look founder, Tom Singh. In addition to managing a diverse portfolio of businesses, and sitting as Chairman for Nobody’s Child and Soreto, Xeni is an active angel investor.

Unveiled at the forthcoming Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris trade fair, from 10 to 12 February at the Paris-Le-Bourget Exhibition Centre, the trend book for the Spring-Summer 2026 season opens up new creative worlds where emotion attempts to regain the upper hand over pure materials.

Entitled Néocène, the new forward-looking journey proposed by Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud, the artistic directors of Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris, explores a world undergoing profound change. Conceived against a backdrop of severe economic, social and environmental tensions, this document is the result of cross-referencing and analysing emerging signals detected and interpreted by a panel of stylists, designers, graphic artists, authors and scenographers. In four major themes, it sets out an aesthetic framework to help fashion designers and buyers develop their spring-summer 2026 collections.

1 wardrobe, 4 universes
A new era without humans, the Néocène is a clean slate, an indefinable horizon that obeys only the laws of physics. New shapes, new colours: each theme in this trend book reflects a creative universe organised around specific materials and 3 “star colours” in 6 intermediate shades. Presented in the introduction, these colours provide a glimpse of the palette for the collections to come.

#1 Quantum.
In this universe of atoms, everything is just energy, chance and freedom. This first proposal plunges back into the heart of substance with fluid, heated and incandescent materials, on the edge of solid and liquid. The soft textures and expanded forms are particularly at home here, and express themselves in a radiant, sunny colour system: spicy flavours, tones of tan and caramel are very present.

#2 Gravity.
“The structure of the universe [...] An invisible interdependence.” This theme plays on the multiple meanings of gravity: a heaviness that is both physical and emotional. Mineral and sandy materials, repetitive or sequential geometrical patterns, all find their place here, as do aqueous aspects and biomimetic and animal-inspired forms. The colour palette here is clearly diaphanous and serious, natural and diffuse.

#3 Relativity.
This proposition should be seen as a deepening of the previous theme, until the propositions are reversed: “Ugly has become beautiful [...] Stillness accelerates”. A world of oxymorons in which graphic motifs express a mummified vegetal world, supported by lines shaped like imprints, draped textures, embroideries intended as traces of an anterior world. The colours are those of ash, tattoo ink, animal... The blues and mauves are dark and intense.

#4 Magnetism.
In stark contrast to the other universes, this axis exalts order and renewal, and brings lightness, even fragility, to the creative approach. Transparency is assertive, as are floral motifs and curved, ample and comfortable lines. The colour palette is in tune with the emotion of the theme: marshmallows, sweet flavours, peach and blush pink are at the heart of the theme.

A new layout to maximize synergies
The return of the Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris shows to Halls 2, 3 and 4 of the Paris-Le-Bourget Exhibition Centre is accompanied by an exciting new space organisation to make the buying experience even more efficient and inspiring. At the heart of hall 2, the Trends Forum will captivate visitor with its four dynamic themes, and will also house all key services, including the Agora for engaging conferences and lively round-table discussions, as well as inviting restaurants. In terms of products and services, some Texworld and Apparel Sourcing sectors have been brought together to promote synergies, with coherent areas devoted to women's clothing (Hall 4) and outdoor-sportswear-casualwear (Hall 3). This layout not only makes the Apparel Sourcing offering easier to navigate but also optimises the entire sourcing process, providing a more streamlined and productive experience.

The Cleanzone, the trade fair for cleanroom and purity technology, hygiene and contamination control, took place in Frankfurt am Main on September 25 and 26, 2024. The Cleanzone Award is presented at the trade fair to recognize groundbreaking advances in innovation, automation, sustainability and efficiency in the field of cleanroom technology. This year, the award went to the German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (DITF) and the Dastex Group GmbH for the development of a test method for cleanroom garments - the ReBa².

With the Realistic Bacterial Barrier (ReBa²) test method, the DITF offer a new biological method for determining the bacterial penetration for cleanroom garment textiles. Particularly in the manufacturing of sterile pharmaceuticals, bacteria, skin flakes and fiber particles that can originate from persons and their clothing pose a risk to the products manufactured in the cleanroom. Special cleanroom garments have the task of minimizing this risk. To assess the barrier function, the “bacterial penetration” is determined, among other properties. This provides information on how many bacteria from the human skin flora pass through the cleanroom garments to the outside when worn.

The ReBa² test method largely reproduces the situation when wearing cleanroom garments and thus enables a meaningful determination of the bacterial penetration. It is also possible to consider numerous test scenarios. In addition to the influence of intermediate garments worn under the cleanroom garments, the sweating process or the pre-wetting of the cleanroom garments by liquid splashes in the manufacturing process or by disinfectants can also be tested. The method was developed at the DITF in collaboration with the Dastex Group GmbH.

eBay announced its inaugural Pre-Loved Fashion Week, in partnership with Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and British Fashion Council (BFC).

“Endless Runway” will feature pre-loved looks from CFDA members Ralph Lauren, Brandon Maxwell, Catherine Holstein of Khaite, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta of Eckhaus Latta, and the late Virgil Abloh of Off-White. The show on Sept. 5, a day before the Official New York Fashion Week Schedule kicks off, is followed by daily drops on eBay curating the best pre-loved fashion from top designers. The London edition will take place on Sept. 12.

Curated by fashion creative Wisdom Kaye and hosted by fashion writer Liana Satenstein in New York, the Endless Runway shows are accessible to U.S. and U.K.-based shoppers via eBay Live. The Endless Runway shows will make eBay’s wide selection of pre-owned designer clothing and accessories immediately shoppable, while tapping into the global demand for circular fashion.

Endless Runway will be the first entirely ‘pre-loved’ runway show at NYFW. eBay will continue to showcase its selection by releasing ‘Daily Edits’ every day of NYFW that feature pre-owned pieces from designers showing their new collections in New York.

John Lewis has announced a trial where customers can bring their garments, accessories and a selection of homeware back to life through an in-store repair service. To launch the trial, John Lewis and Johnsons (part of Timpson Group) are joining forces to bring their expertise for this new offering to customers.

From reviving your wedding dress, to restoring the zip on a luxury clutch or adjusting a pair of curtains, the service will offer repair and alterations, laundry, dry cleaning and more.

Launching in selected stores from 22 July, the service will accept any brand allowing customers to drop off items to be fixed, altered, cleaned or restored, and come back to collect them after they have been given a fresh lease of life for years to come.

Extending a garment’s life by just nine months can reduce its carbon, waste and water footprints by up to 30%*. Prolonging the life of clothing is a key pillar of the circular economy, and with more consumers embracing the culture of mending and repair, recent research found that more than a third of UK adults plan to increase household repairs, rather than buying new**. This is also the case with our customers, with nearly half seeing a lifespan guarantee to repair or replace any item as the most appealing added service.

The trial will launch in five John Lewis branches: Oxford, Liverpool, Cheadle, Milton Keynes and Welwyn.

John Lewis will learn what customers want during the 16 week trial - such as the type of services customers look for, type of garments most repaired and the demographics of customers seeking the repair service - in a test and learn approach.

* WRAP, Valuing Our Clothes: the cost of UK fashion
** Aviva, Ramping up: repairs, renovations and recycling

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games are just around the corner and a global sports frenzy is underway. However, intense summer workouts often lead to sportswear absorbing excessive sweat, becoming clingy and cumbersome, causing discomfort and potentially impacting performance. A research team from the School of Fashion and Textiles at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed the iActive™ sportswear range which features a root-like liquid transport system and a skin-like active perspiration dissipater and utilises nature-inspired, anti-heat textile fabrics to expedite sweat removal, effectively reducing the weight and stickiness of activewear caused by sweat accumulation during exercise.

The human body has millions of sweat glands that are vital for regulating body temperature by dissipating sweat for evaporation to cool the skin’s surface. With unabating greenhouse gas emissions, the number of very hot days annually is expected to increase significantly. This will lead to elevated energy consumption and increased sweating during physical activity and outdoor labour. Even when wearing highly breathable clothes with good sweat-wicking properties, individuals may still experience discomfort due to excessive sweat accumulation.

A research team led by Dr SHOU Dahua, Limin Endowed Young Scholar in Advanced Textiles Technologies and Associate Professor of the School of Fashion and Textiles at PolyU, has invented the iActive™, intelligent, electrically activated sportswear with a nature-inspired active perspiration function.

Its nature-inspired technologies, including low-voltage-driven artificial “sweat glands” created by skin-like anti-heat textile fabrics and a root-like branching liquid transport system that aligns with the body’s sweat map, can actively and programmably remove sweat to a perspiration dissipater at the lower region of the sportswear. The all-textile sweat dissipater is compact and operates at a safe output voltage of approximately 5-9V, and its battery is easy to detach from the clothing, making it convenient for users to repeatedly wash the clothing by hand or in a washing machine to maintain hygiene. When the human body’s sweat rate is low, iActive™ can still be used independently without the battery.

Based on the optimised wettability pattern and gradient, the research team utilises a skin-like textile fabric to transport sweat one-way quickly and dissipate it from the inside to the outside. This feature reduces the stickiness and weight of clothing, improves breathability and ensures the garments remain dry and comfortable to wear. Experimental findings indicate that iActive™ creates a breathable and dry skin microclimate by dissipating sweat at a rate that is three times faster than the maximum human sweating rate. This innovation can also prevent discomfort from coldness and moisture after a workout. In comparison to traditional fabrics, the textile materials in iActive™ are 60% lighter and 50% less clingy when soaked, providing the wearer with all-round comfort and enabling sports enthusiasts and athletes to perform at their best.

Furthermore, a mobile app further aids personalised sweat management by wirelessly adjusting the sweat level of iActive™. This innovation is versatile and can be seamlessly integrated into a variety of textile materials to facilitate sustainable mass production. Beyond sportswear, iActive™ is also well-suited to protective clothing and workwear for individuals engaged in prolonged, high-intensity physical labour and outdoor occupations, including healthcare professionals, construction workers, firefighters, law enforcement officers and others, thereby significantly enhancing their work performance.

Dr Shou Dahua stated, “The extreme weather and high temperatures resulting from global warming have elevated the importance of heatstroke prevention and cooling measures on a global scale. Drawing on the vivid phenomena of thermal insulation and directed liquid flow in nature, we aim to foster innovation and sustainable advancement in garment manufacturing by inventing intelligent clothing and materials to address global challenges. We seek to harness the power of technology to infuse fresh perspectives into the traditional clothing industry, thereby enhancing its competitiveness.”

His research team has also developed a premium fabric named Omni-Cool-Dry™, drawing inspiration from volcano dwelling beetles. This fabric not only provides ultra-fast sweat dissipation and ensures all-day comfort with its dry and breathable features under dynamic thermal conditions, but also reflects solar radiation and emits body heat into the cold universe, enabling passive cooling. The team is working hard to leverage the benefits of both inventions to further enhance the sweat-dissipating and cooling capability of iActive™ sportswear.

Dr Shou Dahua, a core member of the PolyU Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems and the Research Centre of Textiles for Future Fashion, has recently been bestowed with the 2023 Distinguished Achievement Award by The Fiber Society for his outstanding contributions to the fields of personal thermal and moisture management, intelligent wearables and soft robotics. The accolade is presented annually to an individual researcher worldwide. He has also received international innovation awards, including consecutive TechConnect Global Innovation Awards in 2021 and 2022. Moreover, his research papers have been published in various internationally renowned academic journals including Science Advances, PNAS, Advanced Functional Materials, and Advanced Energy Materials. Dr Shou will be chairing The Fiber Society Spring 2025 Conference at PolyU.

Multiple global regulations set to take effect in the coming years have made traceability an imperative for retailers and brands. These include the Digital Product Passport, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, and the New York Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, to name a few.

While companies are aware of the importance of traceability, research indicates that they are not prepared to comply with upcoming legislation. A recent KPMG survey highlighted that 43% of executives at major enterprises had no visibility or were “largely unclear” about the performance of their Tier 1 suppliers. At the same time, only 28% of companies had clear visibility into Tier 2 suppliers.

TradeBeyond’s recently published Supply Chain Traceability Guide, the latest installment of its Retail Sourcing Report series, highlights the myriad challenges that companies face in implementing effective traceability programs. This report is relevant for all industries, and is especially topical for the apparel and footwear sectors, which are under increasing scrutiny to enhance traceability to ensure sustainability.

The report highlights retail’s slow progress in achieving transparency, as evidenced by the Fashion Transparency Index, which found that the average transparency score across 250 of the world’s largest brands and retailers was just 23%. That suggests that progress on transparent disclosure of social and environmental data is still lagging.
 
The report shows that brands fall short on most key measures of sustainability and traceability, including publishing a responsible code of conduct and providing visibility into their Scope 3 carbon footprint. The United Nations Economics Commission found that only a third of the top one hundred global clothing companies track their own supply chains. One of the obstacles is complexity. More than two-thirds (69%) of fashion companies report that complexity of their global business networks is an obstacle to visibility.

In addition to a lack of visibility, false sustainability claims are also rampant. Greenpeace found that in the apparel and footwear sector, 39% of sustainability claims are false or deceptive. Lack of third-party verification of ESG measures is also rampant.

The highest scoring brands in the 2023 Fashion Transparency Index included luxury brands such as Gucci and retailers such Target Australia, Kmart Australia, OVS, and Benetton. These companies back up their commitment with solid action on multiple measures of traceability.

Along with legislative requirements, consumers are a key driving force pushing companies to improve their traceability initiatives. McKinsey research found that 66% of consumers consider transparency to be a key factor when making a purchase decision and 73% of consumers would pay more for products with transparency into production and sourcing.

The report also highlights key challenges to overcome in the journey to traceability, including effective communication between stakeholders, compliance with new regulations, technology barriers, and data complexity.

On the positive side, the industry is responding with sophisticated technology, including software systems that incorporate artificial intelligence and blockchain-enabled traceability, which provide the required visibility and compliance.

Traceable fiber technology, which allows for traceability from the material origin of a product until its end-life, provides the option of a “fiber-forward” rather than a “product backward” approach to achieving traceability.

Aside from the regulatory and consumer drivers, there is a strong business case for implementing traceability, which includes cost savings, operational efficiency, brand protection and reducing supply chain risk. As such, TradeBeyond expects a rapid evolution in traceability programs across industries, especially in those that lag in best-practices.

While there has been considerable progress in recent years toward accurately tracing the complete origins of products, much more needs to be done. Brands and retailers must intensify their efforts to stay compliant with escalating regulations and align with evolving consumer preferences.

Source Fashion, which takes place at Olympia London from 14th - 16th July 2024, continues to grow its presence of international exhibitors from new sourcing regions, including representation from southeast Asia and Africa.

The first Malaysian manufacturer to be represented at the trade fair is Kualesa Apparel. Kualesa started as a small seed of an idea, with a big ambition and an even bigger purpose. The brand has evolved from a simple set of values to a producer of great-looking and comfortable bamboo apparel that’s challenging fast fashion. Kualesa offer flexible MOQ’s ranging from 250 pieces to high production capacity of 50,000 pieces a month.

Fairs and More Inc from the Philippines returns to the show for a third time, bringing a pavilion of Filipino manufacturers and makers.

The show also welcomes its first ever Nigerian manufacturer, Beyond Clothing. Beyond Clothing is a garment factory, that specialises in crafting premium custom clothing, branded uniforms, corporate uniforms, and sublimated t-shirts. The range also includes promotional apparel, workwear, and PPE personal protective apparel for hospitals.

Returning to Source Fashion, Texpro Corp (a branch of Kassab Group) from Tunisia has grown rapidly to become a fully integrated apparel manufacturer certified with GOTS, BSCI, BCI, and OCS covering the complete production cycle focusing on sustainability through the process from fabrics to manufacturing, washing and dying. The company specialises in denim and flat garment manufacturing and the product portfolio includes casual dresses, shirts, jackets, pants and coats for men, women and kids. Texpro Corp are increasingly partnering with customers to ensure high consistent quality on the products and invest in innovation to help improve the environmental impact by consistently delivering responsibly produced products.

Visitors will also discover International Trade Center (ITC), who is returning with a pavilion that includes a debut area for Ghanian producers. With manufacturing in Ethiopia, Shints Co Ltd. is a global producer of high-performance outdoor clothing and camping equipment.

A strong contingency from Europe includes over 25 UK exhibitors, representation from France, Italy and Spain, and a selection of Portuguese exhibitors including Ttantos Textiles, FLM Textil, SMSenra and Lagofra.

Nearly 30 countries, including Peru, Cambodia, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Italy, and Greece will be represented. Large pavilions from China, India and Turkey have also been confirmed, as well as Tanzania, Madagascar and Nepal.

From 20 to 22 July 2024, Innatex will once again host international green fashion labels presenting their collections for Spring/Summer 2025 at Messecenter Hofheim Rhein-Main near Frankfurt. The motto of the upcoming trade fair, ‘BLOOM’, emphasises the confidence in more sustainable solutions despite challenges in the green fashion industry.

The organiser is seeing an increase in enquiries from first-time exhibitors and design dicoveries who work with remnants or waste from the textile and other sectors. The summer fair aims to emphasise this form of circularity.

In keeping with this, three of the five Design Discoveries selected so far are located in the area of textile waste reduction. Tentation uses discarded tents to create modern, mostly outdoor-compatible pieces. While Halt.clothing stands for an innovative upcycling concept, the underwear label Avonté works with deadstocks. Softclox with flexible soles and the very feminine women's fashion Verlinne from Romania enrich the special area.

The trade fair is responding to feedback from buyers and, in cooperation with the Hesse Retail Association, is offering a special expert panel on the last day of the event to provide effective sales strategies. Innovative sustainable space concepts have been developed in collaboration with the Akademie Mode & Design AMD Wiesbaden. The students of the Interior Design degree programme use old materials from the INNATEX trade fair construction.