The most important fabric trends for Autumn.Winter 2024/25, lectures and discussions on the most relevant industry topics as well as plenty of networking opportunities: after three days, Germany’s largest and most important fabric trade show, MUNICH FABRIC START, with over 1,100 collections on display, came to an end yesterday, Thursday. The international and, compared to pre-covid times, restrained transcontinental travel behaviour of the fashion industry and the general changes in the market are also partly reflected at MUNICH FABRIC START – the fundamentally positive mood on the part of exhibitors and visitors at the trade show, which took place for the first time at an early July date, proved that the trade show location Munich is set for fabric sourcing.

After three days full of program, networking, inspiration and fashion business, the 52nd edition of the international trade show MUNICH FABRIC START came to an end yesterday, Thursday. The anniversary edition of the denim trade show BLUEZONE, which celebrated its 20th birthday this summer, the onestop sourcing platform THE SOURCE and the innovation hub KEYHOUSE closed their doors for this season on Wednesday evening after two days.

Trends: what we will see in Autumn.Winter 24/25

Due to its much earlier summer date for the first time this year, MUNICH FABRIC START once again increased its relevance as a place for early trend research. The five exclusively developed, central aesthetic trends for the winter season 2024/2025 are united under the leitmotiv “each other” and were staged over a wide area in the foyers of the MOC: Highland Hybrids: a patchwork of nature, tradition and performance; Mystic Beings: the fantasy world of elves, heroes, monsters and robots; System Cringe: a movement that calls for action; Kinky Classics: provocatively extroverted with style and Past Forward, a retro-futuristic point of view. “In the past, entire worlds of colours and materials were excluded from the outset for women because they were not compatible with our outdated ideas of the beautiful and weak gender. And it is precisely these colours and materials that women are now conquering. For the first time in the history of fashion, women are now wearing the colours of concrete, anthracite charcoal and mud and materials like bacon saddle leather, stiff raw denim and scratchy tweed,” says Carl Tillessen, CEO of DMI, summarising the most striking shifts. The DMI Fashion Day, which took place the day before the show at the MOC, also celebrated a successful premiere, creating synergies for visitors and exhibitors alike.

Edutainment – future-oriented and sustainable application scenarios

In addition to the extensive trend information for Autumn.Winter 2024/25, the show offered a diverse program of lectures with panel discussions, inspiring keynotes and lectures. Around 35 agenda items and over 50 speakers ensured a comprehensive edutainment experience. Future-oriented sustainable material developments – from research to the finished product – were discussed by Simon Angel, Sustainable Innovations Curator, with Nicole Espey from Biotexfuture, among others. VirtualKnitting, Mycotex, AlgaeTex, BioTurf, BioBase, CO2TEX and BioCoat are just some of the innovations that were presented and discussed. Everyone agreed that it is important that industry and research work closely together in a network to really make progress. Otherwise, research projects remain in research and do not make it to market – “the Death Valley of research” as Espey called it. The upcoming and partly already implemented legal regulations as well as their concrete effects on the entire fashion and textile industry took up a large part of the discussion. In three application-oriented sessions and discussion rounds, Rolf Heimann, Chairman & CEO of the Hessnatur Foundation, showed how and where companies can start in their supply chain to promote recyclable products and processes and how these can be integrated into corporate practice.

Kim van der Weerd, Intelligence Director of the Transformers Foundation, presented the new guide “An Apparel Supplier’s Guide to Key Sustainability Legislation in the EU, US and UK”, which was launched on Thursday. It presents twelve international regulations and their requirements that companies can expect in the coming years – with a clear focus on textile manufacturers. “It is a large number of regulations for suppliers to fulfill in the near future. My advice: look at it as a holistic business change. It will not only involve the sustainability teams, but also HR, sourcing and others”, Kim van der Weerd summarised the legislative changes coming to the industry at the panel accompanying her keynote with Danijela Cafuta (Lenzing AG), Rashid Iqbal (Naveena Denim NDL) and Ilishio Lovejoy (Simple Approach). During the panel “Newtopia – Reconstructing the Jeans of the Future from Scratch”, Panos Sofianos discussed the future of denim with Jordan Nodarse (Bossa), Romain Narcy (Ereks & Era Denim Group), Hamit Yenici (Hich Solutions), Christina Agtzidou (Tom Tailor Group) and Marco Lucietti (Sanko Holding ISKO Division):

“Bast in general is a good competitor to the good old cotton. I think bast has a great future. But I see it from a mainstream side as well – it is still very expensive and it’s difficult to implement. Mills should make it more approachable,” Christina Agtzidou brought up a rethink at fibre level. Marco Lucietti called for an even broader shift: “We have to shift the paradigm towards consumption. It’s not just about reduce and reuse. Now is the time of NOT using any new materials of virgin fibers. We have to close the loop and make recycled products accessible to the market.”

“We need to create more fashion that costs money. This is about the question: what value does fashion have for us? And what is it worth to us to buy a sustainable product? We all have to work towards a different way of thinking, so that we also pay for things according to their value again,” Karin Schmitz, Business Development Director Peclers Paris aptly summarised the status quo of the current discussions in the industry during her trend lecture.

ConneXXion – 20 years of BLUEZONE

BLUEZONE celebrated a special anniversary summer: in addition to 150 years of the jeans patent, 70 years of Orta and 50 years of the Ruedi Karrer Jeans Museum Zurich, the aim was to celebrate its own round birthday – 20 years of BLUEZONE – in a fitting manner. More than 100 denim and sportswear specialists transformed the completely booked Munich Zenith area into a blue hotspot and showed the relevant fabric developments for the coming autumn. The MUNICH FABRIC NIGHT on Tuesday evening provided a worthy setting for the birthday party – the DJ Crew Geschwister Schall heated up the party-hungry MUNICH FABRIC START and BLUEZONE guests in the open air with beats and bites.

Panels and talks with Women in Denim, Mohsin Sajid and The 5 Denim Senses of AMD Düsseldorf, additional installations such as the photo exhibition “The World’s best Denim Fades” by Bryan Szabo, founder of The Indigo Invitational, the exhibition by designer Ksenia Schnaider and a special presentation by “The Jeans Museum” Zurich, through which Ruedi Karrer himself gave guided tours, made the Zenith area much more than a place to order. Ten denim trends were presented in the BLUEZONE: Old Money, Cover Up, Special Operations, Starsystem, Generational Baggies, Nope Indigo, S-Art-orial, Unbleached Nature, Lowriders and Belts ‘n Buckles. Curator of the denim trends at BLUEZONE is Tilmann Wröbel, Creative Director & Founder Monsieur-T. Denim Lifestyle Studio. The closing words and at the same time key take-away of his trend presentation were: “We are not expected to sell only pants anymore.” This became more than clear in the ten trend themes, because denim is present in fashion everywhere and in every facet and style – from tops, blazers, jackets and suits and outdoor with jackets and coats to haute couture gowns.

One-Stop-Innovation & One-Stop-Sourcing

At KEYHOUSE – the innovation and sustainability hub of MUNICH FABRIC START – everything once again revolved around technological and ecological progress. The Sustainable Innovations as a special presentation area for outstanding new developments on the borderline between start-up and scalability were once again one of the absolute visitor magnets of the show. The ReSource Area in Hall 2 of the MOC was also all about sustainability. The meta-platform for certified  ecologically and socially produced fabrics and accessories has been showcasing the green solutions of the show’s exhibitors in one place for over ten years now, thus enabling visitors to engage in targeted sustainable sourcing.

“The mood in the market is good. The development of 3D production is a big topic in the industry – especially on the first day of the show we noticed this in the operation at our stand, which we were very satisfied with. On the second day it could have been a bit more crowded. The potential of 3D manufacturing is so great, even companies that were still sceptical a year ago now see the need for it,” says Fabian Grünwald, Key Account Manager at Assyst, pleased about the industry’s increasing openness to technology.
For the second time, the show-in-show THE SOURCE took place on 18 and 19 July as an integrated area of MUNICH FABRIC START and rounded off the MUNICH FABRIC START ecosystem in the direction of apparel manufacturing. Around 60 selected apparel manufacturers showed their product and service lines in Hall 8 of the Dampfdom in Motorworld and thus directly adjacent to the MOC and the Zenith area.

Hard Facts & Figures

On a total of 42,500 square metres, MUNICH FABRIC START in Munich brought together the fashion and denim industry in eight areas – Additionals, Per4mance, ReSource, Fabrics, Design Studios, BLUEZONE, KEYHOUSE / Sustainable Innovations and THE SOURCE. Over 1,100 collections from around 900 international suppliers to the textile and apparel industry were presented by internationally renowned exhibitors such as Algaeing, Assyst, Cadica, Calik, CNC, Denim Authority, Isko, KBC, Kurabo, Liberty, Lisa, Naveena Denim, NDL, Orta, Royo, Saitex, Sharabati, Sorona, Takisade, Tessuti, WeNordic and Yünsa.

With a total of 10,800 visitors from 56 countries – most of them from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey as well as China, but also from Japan, New Zealand and the US – from relevant brands and retailers, including Adidas, Akris, Anna van Toor, Armedangels, Baldessarini, Betty Barclay, BMW, Brax, Calvin Klein, Calida, Cambio, Camel Active, Comma, Drykorn, Escada, Esprit, Gerry Weber, Holy Fashion Group, Hugo Boss, IB Company, Inditex, Katag, Lagerfeld, Living Crafts, Lodenfrey, Luisa Cerano, MAC Mode, Marc Cain, Marc O’Polo, Mey, More & More, Murkudis, Olsen, Olymp, Orsay, Otto, Oui, Peek & Cloppenburg, Puma, QVC, Riani, S. Oliver, Schumacher, Seidensticker, Strellson, Talbot Runhof, Tommy Hilfiger, Tom Tailor and Uli Schneider among others, the number of visitors was slightly down overall in a competitive market environment.

Looking to the near future, MUNICH FABRIC START is now focusing on three important dates that have already been fixed: firstly, reVIEW Autumn.Winter 24/25 will take place for the first time at Motorworld on 13 and 14 September 2023 – and thus covers the previous time period of MFS and BLUEZONE – offering the industry a late ordering date in Munich as usual. Only ten weeks later, preVIEW will take place on 28 and 29 November 2023, offering a first opportunity to order the Spring/Summer collections for 2025. Finally, the industry will gather again for MUNICH FABRIC START and BLUEZONE from 23 to 25 January 2024.

FURTHER VOICES:

Technology, A Key Driver

Technological innovation, a key industry driver, will further shape production processes over the next five years. Automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) will redefine production efficiency. Automation will enhance efficiency, reduce manual labour, and minimise production errors, leading to quicker turnarounds, amplified production capacity, and cost reduction.

AI will enable trend prediction, production optimisation, and quality control enhancement. Textile producers will leverage AI tools to analyse data and make informed sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution decisions. By connecting devices and systems, IoT will provide the following:

• Real-time control and monitoring of production processes.
• Thus improving quality control.
• Reducing waste.
• Boosting productivity.

Demand for luxury and premium textile products will rise over the next five years. An increase in consumer financial stability and an expanding middle class in emerging markets like China and India will drive this trend. In addition, the shift in consumer behaviour due to the COVID-19 pandemic towards prioritising comfort, quality, and durability over fast fashion will likely persist.

The Rise of Local Production

The pandemic also highlighted global supply chains’ vulnerability, causing production and delivery disruptions. The coming years will see a rise in local production as brands seek to reduce dependency on foreign suppliers. This shift towards local production will bring quicker turnarounds, lower transportation costs, reduced carbon footprint, and greater control over the supply chain. It will also stimulate local economies by creating job opportunities and nurturing local textile industries.

However, local production comes with challenges, including potentially higher costs than overseas production and the need for a skilled workforce. Nevertheless, the brands that successfully adapt to these shifts and meet evolving consumer needs will flourish in the upcoming years. In addition, the textile industry’s transformation presents an opportunity to address long-standing issues such as environmental sustainability, ethical production, and supply chain transparency, promising an exciting future.

In conclusion, the textile industry is poised for a significant evolution in the next five years, propelled by consumer behaviour, global trends, and technological advancements.

The textile industry is poised for a significant transformation in the next five years. Its evolution presents an opportunity to address long-standing challenges such as environmental sustainability, ethical production, and supply chain transparency.

All in all, it is an exciting time for the textile industry, and the next five years will undoubtedly shape its future.