Heliotex – Studio Pauline van Dongen
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS
Textiles have always covered our bodies, but what if they could also power the things around us? Heliotex (formerly known as Suntex), from designer Pauline van Dongen, is a challenge to what people think fabric can do.
Heliotex is basically a way to combine organic photovoltaics with lightweight, flexible fabrics. The result is sunshades and canopies that generate energy and look good at the same time. These fabrics move, fold, and breathe with their surroundings, unlike rigid solar panels. They think of renewable energy not as something that needs to be hidden away, but as something that is beautiful, soft, and fits in perfectly with the rest of the world.
“We focus on outdoor applications like textile facades, festival tents, and shade structures… Of course, we also foresee indoor applications like curtains and sun shading.”
Pauline van Dongen
The fact that Simon Angel included the project in this season’s SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS forum puts it in a bigger story: textiles are no longer passive. They are tools for making big changes in the system. Heliotex shows how fabrics can go beyond traditional categories by working at the intersection of design, architecture, and energy. It is similar to Wetlands Matters and Plantfur.
The effects of van Dongen’s work on the fashion and textile industries will be huge. The textile industry can grow if textiles can collect energy. Sustainability stops being about doing less harm and starts being about giving more value, like comfort, beauty, and clean energy all at once.
The lesson is practical but lofty: sustainability should feel like a part of everyday life, not something that is added on. Heliotex shows that renewable energy can be touchable, welcoming, and even luxurious. This is a call for people who work in fashion and textiles to think of fabrics not just as things we wear, but also as the buildings we live in.
H2 | SI
THIS MIGHT BE ALSO INTERESTING FOR YOU:
MUNICH FABRIC START – September 25 closing report
At its 56th edition, MUNICH FABRIC START reinforced its clear positioning. Over two days, the Munich textile trade show brought the fashion industry together with its four show-in-show formats.
Materials as Agents of Change with Simon Angel
Each season, the Sustainable Innovations forum brings together projects that provoke, inspire, and challenge assumptions. This year is no exception, with work ranging from bio-luxury couture to energy-generating textiles and regenerative materials grown from wetlands.
AUTUMN.WINTER 26/27 FABRIC HIGHLIGHTS & MATERIAL NOVELTIES – PART X
For the first time in Germany, S2G XR (Style 2 Garment eXtended Reality) will present a live demo of its 3D textile configurator at booth A4.20 Not a teaser.
Living Matter: Bio-Luxury for Future Materials
Indigo, a colour with a lot of history, is the main focus of this project. Denim has always meant strength and durability, and its roughness is linked to work and usefulness.
BLUEZONE NEWS FOR SEPTEMBER 2025 – PART VI
At DNM Denim, the journey continues. Inspired by nature’s cycles and guided by Flow Theory, the company moves from Challenge to Focus, and now to Freedom—the phase where potential becomes power.
BIOTEXFUTURE: How to Make Textiles from Fossils
The program is a group of businesses and universities working together to find scalable, bio-based alternatives.
Additionals Trends Autumn.Winter 26/27 – Part 8
This collection embodies softness, simplicity, and flow – from soft-touch labels and stretchable materials that move with the body, to a calming palette of pastel tones and organic, natural fibers.
Wetlands Matters – by Marc Wijkmans
Wijkman’s idea came from a simple but important observation: animals carry seeds across ecosystems in their fur.
AUTUMN.WINTER 26/27 FABRIC HIGHLIGHTS & MATERIAL NOVELTIES – PART IX
The designs embrace various trend themes – sometimes subtle, sometimes expressive – and lend each fabric its own distinctive character.
MUNICH FABRIC START September 2025 – Outlook
The countdown is on: in just three weeks, Munich will once againbecome the epicentre of the European fashion and textile industry. During the first week ofSeptember, MUNICH FABRIC START Exhibitions GmbH will unite all key fashion segments underone roof, reaffirming its position as one of Europe’s leading textile trade shows.