Texworld NYC Showcased Diverse Sourcing Destinations, Sustainable Materials and Top Trends
The latest edition of Texworld NYC, Apparel Sourcing NYC and Home Textiles Sourcing widened its geographic diversification and sustainability solutions.
From July 16-18, thousands of visitors flocked to New York’s Jacob K. Javits Center for the co-located sourcing shows organized by Messe Frankfurt. In combination, the trio of shows offered access to over 750 suppliers representing a wide range of categories, from textiles to trims, hosiery to home goods and sequin fabrics to sportswear.
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Exhibitors hailed from more than 24 countries, including the United States, Peru, China, Turkey, Singapore, Germany, Poland and Egypt. Visitors could also visit pavilions for key sourcing destinations such as South Korea, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan and India. This edition marked the first time the U.S.’s second largest supplier Vietnam hosted a pavilion, showcasing safety workwear, denim, accessories and more.
“From Vietnam, the U.S. is one of the biggest markets,” said Tran Hoan Phu Xuan, chairman and CEO of garment manufacturer Fashion Link. “Recently, the U.S. is the biggest market that we export to from Vietnam, but we are not [interacting] directly with the customers, we are [going] through agents more, so that’s why we are here. And also, Vietnam is changing a lot to add new value to the buyers and brands, so we want to show those stories here.”
Also expanding the offerings on the floor, Printsource returned as a co-located event, giving product developers access to studios and designers for pattern creation.
Visitors also explored trends for Fall/Winter 2025 curated by Doneger/TOBE. Under the concept of Transcendence, which centers on “going beyond the ordinary,” the trend agency laid out four key themes: utilitarian and industrial Brutalism, nature protecting Eco-Romanticism, culturally eclectic Fusionism and functional and technological Scientism. The returning trends section of the show floor detailed each of these ideas with a selection of fabrics. Creative director Kai Chow also hosted a talk and an Explore the Floor tour of the trend showcase.
Making it easier to transform inspiration into collections, Texworld NYC partnered with Material Exchange on the digital Trend+ experience. By scanning QR codes on the physical samples, buyers could get more information and order fabric samples virtually. They could also interact with Material Exchange’s AI assistant Frank the Bear for help. A digitized version of the trend showcase will be accessible on the Material Exchange website until next trend season.
To help buyers locate sustainable options, the show introduced two new specialty sourcing categories. Making its debut at Texworld NYC was Messe Frankfurt’s Econogy platform. A portmanteau of economy and ecology, Econogy was created by the trade show organizer to standardize sustainability activities across its entire network of Texpertise textile shows.
“You can only be successful with sustainable solutions when you at the end also earn money. Otherwise, it’s nice to have a sustainable product, but you have no business case behind this,” explained Olaf Schmidt, vice president of textiles & textile technologies at Messe Frankfurt Exhibition, during a talk at the show about the new Econogy concept.
To apply for the Econogy Certified signifier, exhibitors uploaded certifications and information about how they are addressing the Sustainable Development Goals, and a third-party firm vetted their application. Among the exhibitors at Texworld, around 330 were approved as Econogy Certified suppliers. Another new addition was a Deadstock booth ID, for which around 150 exhibitors qualified. The goal of both of these segments is to make sustainability more visible at the shows and transparent.
“We can’t make the textile industry more sustainable; we only can support the industry…by [showing] and providing sustainable products and sustainable solutions,” said Schmidt.
For the second time, the show included a Next-Gen Innovation Hub for hands-on, tactile exploration of emerging material samples from 15 different companies. Visitors could touch and feel faux leathers made from bio-based inputs like mushrooms and microorganisms, plant-based textiles made from kapok and bamboo, and bio-based elastomers. This show area has grown since it debuted at the January edition of Texworld NYC, and the expectation is it will continue to develop.
Per Thomasine Dolan Dow, materials innovation and design director at Material Innovation Initiative, which curated the hub with Texworld, this presence at a mainstream show furthered the organization’s efforts to expand the exposure for new materials. “The more we can normalize and get people accustomed to seeing these innovations, the better,” she said, adding that outside the material innovator “bubble” there is not always awareness of these solutions. “Everyone’s shoulders relax a little bit when they get here, because this is such a breath of fresh air, it really feels hopeful,” she said. “People are just completely mesmerized by the inputs and how these things are made.”
A new Exhibitor Pitch area of the show floor gave the mic to suppliers and associations—including some of the Next-Gen Hub participants—to speak directly to attendees. The educational experience also featured well-attended panels and presentations across Textile Talks and a Lenzing-sponsored seminar series, which together tackled topics ranging from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to consumer behavior and trends.
“When you begin to organize a panel conversation at a show like Texworld, it’s important to first consider what the hot topics are in the industry, what perspective and knowledge you can share, and finally who the experts are that can really add value to a conversation,” said Walter Bridgham, senior business development manager, home and interior, at Lenzing. “The goal is to educate people and to help them either move a little faster toward their sustainability and innovation goals or advise them on how to avoid pitfalls.”
Click here to learn more about Texworld NYC, Apparel Sourcing NYC and Home Textiles Sourcing.
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