What's next in innovation ? Part 1

As a food for thought before the summer break and a little teaser of what awaits you at the next Première Vision show mid-September, here are two articles on the very latest in textile and smart‑technology innovation. It may be the perfect time to let these ideas drip in over the holidays—or bookmark them for after the break (an emptied mind is easier to refill!)—as they’re meant as much to inspire as to address practical needs.

Out of the plethora of available solutions, it can be a challenge to know which are trustworthy, scalable and, above all, up to the required quality standards. While diversification is essential—not for the sake of innovation, but to free from fossil fuels and build resilience in a volatile industry and uncertain times—it’s hard to decide which solutions to adopt, what strategy to pursue and where best to invest time, money and expertise.

The goal of the Première Vision teams is to provide guidance on the supplier’s know‑how and the nuances and particularities of each solution. 

This article won’t be exhaustive, but aims to present, in a structured way, innovations that deliver performance and functionality, are ready for seamless integration into your supply chain, and may already support full transparency via internal impact‑calculation data.

©Feinjersey Fabrics Dfine / Première Vision

Cost competitiveness remains the proverbial chicken‑and‑egg dilemma. Investment needs to flow towards fibres and start‑ups to help them scale and become price‑competitive, thereby securing long‑term offtake agreements. Yet only a handful of major brands have the capacity and/or appeal for real financial risk; most start‑ups must seek government or private capital, often via banks bearing the risk. This is why Fashion for Good’s report Great Unlock: Closing the Innovation Commercialisation Gap Through Project Finance Solutions, champions “creative financial strategies”. One of the latest examples showing how cross-sector collaboration remains key to resilience is that of Spiber, a pioneer in bio-fabricated fibers. The co-creation of the BioCircular Materials Alliance—with Goldwin Inc., Eileen Fisher, DyStar, the Kering Group, and Pangaia—illustrates how biology is enabling a reinvention of circularity itself.

The Alliance brings together leading brands, manufacturers, and innovators—with the main idea to regenerate and revalue waste—may it come from textiles, agriculture, or forestry—transforming them into desirable materials through microbial fermentation and other advanced processes.

With a shared vision for a sustainable and circular bioeconomy, the Alliance fosters collaboration, research, and innovation to address some of the most pressing challenges in the industrial use of biomaterials, like:

• the recycling of mixed-material products;
• the impact of chemical treatments hindering recycling;
• the lack of global standards and systems.

The Alliance members includes 11 brands, (among them StellaMcCartney, Vollebak a.o): 7 textile manufacturers, textile dye and chemical manufacturers Archroma and Dystar, as well as key industry organisations like Fashion For Good. Keeping end-of-life and circularity in mind from the start, is the key vision of HeiQ AeoniQ™ a versatile cellulosic yarn, developed to replace polyamide and polyester, without the critical microplastic release. Made from a blend of Circulose®, non-valorised agricultural waste and bacterial cellulose, each ton of HeiQ AeoniQ™ "can potentially save five tons of CO2 emissions". Austrian company Dfine Feinjersey already uses it in high‑performance knit collections, benefiting from synthetic‑like properties combined with closed‑loop circularity, and Hugo Boss is integrating them since 2023 regularly, from iconic polo shirts to limited edition Change sneakers.

©Concordia Textiles / Ozen Mensucat / Feinjersey Fabrics Dine / Première Vision

We’ll have the pleasure of hosting Dfine Feinjersey on our stage to discuss how green chemistry and biotechnology drive innovation, within their challenges and points of attention. 

> Discover the programme <

Recycling is another cornerstone of circularity. It’s at the very heart of the work of many industry players at the show, and we’ll be focusing on a few working on the crucial textile-to-textile recycling gap. 

©Spiber INC, A-Girl's / Première Vision

While it is coming from post-industrial and not post-consumer waste, Earth Protex™’s Tex2Tex™ thermo‑mechanically recycled polyester now feeds into Carbonfact’s LCA platform, making impact data readily accessible and simplifying brands’ shift from fossil‑based or linear recycled sources to truly closed‑loop solutions. Transforming post-consumer or post-industrial cotton-rich textile waste and wood from sustainably managed Swedish forests into a high-quality dissolving pulp, OnceMore® by Södra is working with a network of partners, showcasing the importance of collaboration for success. A new exhibitor from Portugal's Pedrosa Group at Première Vision Paris, Circlo™ crafts premium recycled fibres, bespoke yarns and knitted fabrics from their own cutting‑room waste. Blended with other natural or man‑made fibres (such as Circulose®), their 360° circular approach is fully traceable and impact‑measured.

Speaking of turning waste into value, at the ANDAM Innovation stage you’ll meet, among the 10 companies these ones, all working on this « upcycling » process, in a certain way :

• Petshka, which chemically recycles complex PET waste into polyols for technical fabrics, sportswear and performance coatings.
• ER Ocean Recherche, turning marine biomass into high‑quality textiles and canvases
• Supercarb, converting food waste into fire‑retardant, anti‑static, antibacterial, moisture‑wicking products
• Smobya, using microbial tech to upcycle food‑industry by‑products into traceable biomaterials

And finally, this year’s winner is Losanje, who enable the industrialisation and the democratisation of upcycling! Their automated method cuts CO₂ emissions by over 90% and water use by a factor of 10,000—no material constraints, fully industrialised.