Fashion
AI, design and trends to drive Heimtextil 2026 forward
Global challenges, economic uncertainty and a strained consumer climate challenge the textile industry. At the same time, digital technologies such as AI rapidly change markets and business models. Heimtextil reflects these transformations and provides inspiration and guidance in a complex market environment. In 2026, the world’s leading trade fair will launch a new hall concept that optimally combines product groups and covers the entire spectrum of textile and non-textile interior design. “In challenging times, Heimtextil offers the industry a stability. Heimtextil translates social movements into tangible business opportunities. Together with the industry, it continuously evolves in line with market needs – in terms of content, strategy and structure. With the new hall layout, we create a business tool that increases visibility, strengthens synergies, brings supply and demand together in a targeted manner and opens up new markets. This enables strong leads, new business potential and industry exchange,” says Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles and Textile Technology. The hands-on content program on the Texpertise Stage in Hall 6.0 also provides clear answers and practical tools for future business success – featuring expert insights ranging from customer engagement and differentiation to AI-driven design.
Heimtextil 2026 positions itself as a stabilising force in uncertain times, merging craftsmanship with AI innovation under the theme ‘Lead the Change’.
With 3,100 exhibitors from 65 nations, it unveils a new hall layout, trend arena, and immersive design experiences that redefine sustainability, creativity, and the future of home textiles.
Between tradition and AI: Heimtextil Trends 26/27
They are the heart and the key source of inspiration: Heimtextil Trends 26/27 reveal where the industry is heading. In 2026, the curated Trend Arena will find a new home in Hall 6.1 – surrounded by the segments Bed, Bath & Living and Textile Design. Together with the design platform Alcova Milano, a visionary hotspot emerges that showcases progressive megatrends for retail, industry and contract business. Under the motto ‘Craft is a verb’, Heimtextil Trends 26/27 connect traditional craftsmanship with AI-driven technologies. The interplay of high-tech and handcraft gives rise to new impulses – from natural influences and handmade materials to AI-generated colours.
Textile interior design of the future: ‘among-all’ by Patricia Urquiola
World-renowned architect and designer Patricia Urquiola sets new standards in textile interior design: with her immersive installation ‘among-all’ in Hall 3.0, she creates a textile
experience for all the senses, combining aesthetics, comfort, functionality and sustainability. The installation demonstrates how AI-driven design addresses individual human needs and enables innovative spatial concepts for design, retail and hospitality. ‘among-all’ highlights the emotional and visual power of textiles and invites visitors to be inspired, pause and connect.
Hotspot for holistic interior design
In Hall 3.0, Heimtextil brings together essential interior design product segments – from wallpaper and carpets to curtains, privacy screens and sun protection. The area Interior Design Concepts: Windows, Wall & Floor opens up textile and non-textile solutions for future-oriented interior design to interior designers, architects, decorators, and planners. Key players such as Forest Group, Höpke, Linder, Marburger Tapetenfabrik, Paulig, Sarlas, Tanriverdi, The Wallfashion House and York Wallcoverings will present their latest collections here. The DecoTeam and its members will once again create a creative joint presentation, complemented by the Design Lounge powered by DecoTeam. Participating brands include A.S. Création Tapeten, Brink & Campman, Haro, Kadeco, and Kobe.
Sleep & Meet: New brand area for specialist bed and mattress retailers
Together with the German Mattress Industry Association (Fachverband Matratzen-Industrie e.V.), Heimtextil strengthens the Smart Bedding segment with the new Sleep & Meet area in Hall 4.0. Here, leading brands from the mattress sector will showcase their portfolios together – including Auping Germany, Bettwaren Stendebach, Dormiente, Ergomed, EuroComfort Group with Badenia, Brinkhaus and Lück, Femira, Frankenstolz, Hüsler Nest, Rummel Matratzen and Schwarzwald Schlafsysteme. Sleep & Meet connects bedding retailers, hospitality and volume buyers with relevant companies and business contacts in an exclusive setting – supporting new product range strategies and consumer developments.
Strong offering for the international contract business
With Interior.Architecture.Hospitality, Heimtextil 2026 presents an extensive programme for architecture, interior design, hospitality and the healthcare sector. The Interior.Architecture.Hospitality LIBRARY in Hall 3.1 showcases a curated selection of functional textiles – complemented by a talk spot for professional exchange, exclusive formats and product innovations. Heimtextil brings together manufacturers, planners and decision-makers and demonstrates how textiles can open up differentiation and business potential in hospitality, healthcare, office and retail design.
Rising demand: expanded range for the carpet and flooring industry
The Carpets & Rugs segment continues to grow and will extend across four hall levels (11.0, 11.1, 12.0 and 3.0). It will be complemented by the new product group Flooring & Equipment, featuring non-textile floor coverings. Together, the two segments form the central hub for the global carpet and flooring industry on the exhibition grounds – accompanied by a tailored content programme. Buyers benefit from greater variety, new synergies and relevant business contacts.
From fibre to end product: the widest variety of decorative and upholstery fabrics
In Halls 3.1 and 4.1, Heimtextil 2026 showacses the world’s largest range of upholstery and decorative fabrics as well as European weaving mills – from high-quality decorative fabrics, upholstery and contract fabrics to genuine and imitation leather. International manufacturers such as Dickson Constant Sunbrella (France), Edmund Bell (Great Britain), Manuel Revert (Spain), Vanelli Tekstil (Turkey) and Vescom Velvets (Netherlands) will be there. The preliminary stage offer Fibres & Yarns creates additional synergies for manufacturers, weaving mills and design. Industry leaders such as Angles Textil (Spain), Indorama Ventures Fibers (Germany) and Korteks Mensucat (Turkey) round off the range along the textile value chain.
Quality meets volume: Europe’s largest stage for home textiles in every dimension
Heimtextil combines exclusive quality products with high-volume private label solutions, covering order quantities of every scale. In 2026, the Global Home (Halls 8.0, 9.1, 10.1, 10.3) and Global Home Excellence (Halls 9.0, 10.2) sections will be optimally positioned. International producers and country pavilions, including those from China, India, Pakistan, Taiwan and Vietnam, will present solutions for global demand and benefit from high visibility and short distances. International manufacturers also bring a strong private label offering in the mattress segment to Frankfurt – underlining Heimtextil’s relevance as a global sourcing platform. Through its strategic connection to Carpets & Rugs, Heimtextil connects complementary product ranges and unlocks new business opportunities for retailers, manufacturers and volume suppliers.
Heimtextil will take place from 13 to 16 January 2026.
Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (MS)
EU officials said the measure aims to address unfair competition faced by EU sellers, alongside concerns over consumer health and safety, widespread fraud, and environmental impact linked to high volumes of low-value imports. Around 93 per cent of e-commerce flows into the EU are expected to fall under the scope of the new duty, the Council said in a press release.
EU Council has agreed to impose a fixed €3 (~$3.52) customs duty on small parcels valued below €150 entering the bloc from July 1, 2026.
The temporary measure targets e-commerce imports, addressing unfair competition, fraud, and safety concerns.
It will apply mainly to goods sold by non-EU sellers registered under the Import One-Stop Shop and remain until a permanent customs reform takes effect.
The €3 rate will apply to goods sold by non-EU traders registered under the EU’s Import One-Stop Shop for VAT purposes. The Council clarified that this customs duty is separate from a proposed handling fee being discussed under the broader customs reform and the EU’s multiannual financial framework.
The temporary duty will remain in force until a permanent system agreed in November 2025 comes into application, which would remove the €150 duty-free threshold altogether and subject all such goods to standard EU tariffs. The European Commission will periodically review whether the duty should also extend to goods sold by traders not registered under the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS).
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)
Translated by
Nicola Mira
Published
December 12, 2025
On Thursday December 12, the Paris commercial court decided on the future of French premium ready-to-wear retailer IKKS. At the end of a receivership procedure involving several purchasing bids for IKKS, the court has approved the offer by Santiago Cucci, who was named president of the group’s holding company HoldIKKS last year, and Michaël Benabou, co-founder of event sales site Veepee.
The court’s decision has put an end to months of uncertainty for IKKS’s employees. According to figures drawn up by the receivers at the end of August, the group’s staff numbered 1,287 worldwide, 1,094 of them in France. At the time, the group had 473 stores between France and 11 other countries, plus headquarters in the town of Saint-Macaire-en-Mauges and offices in Paris.
IKKS gave a design make-over to its collections in summer, and in September it applied for receivership, after the group’s main shareholders, US investment funds Avenue Capital, CarVal Investors and Marathon Asset Management, expressed their wish to sell the company.
The IKKS group, which operates the eponymous brand as well as One Step and ICode, is still a leading international ready-to-wear retailer in the premium segment, operating several hundred retail outlets (between directly owned and franchised stores, and concessions) in nine countries. The path to new ownership has been complex, since the group was split in several entities, and none of the purchasing bids referred to the group as a whole.
The winning bid’s details
Cucci and Benabou have convinced the court after recently revising their bid upwards. Initially, the bid related to 141 stores, 88 of them directly owned, and 391 company employees.
The deal was clinched after the bid was extended to include 219 stores in France: 92 of them directly owned, 100 franchised, plus 27 Galeries Lafayette concessions. The employees associated to the directly owned stores are 546.
Benabou and Cucci, a former senior executive at Levi’s and a strategic advisor to G-Star, have taken over the IKKS business and are planning to operate a more streamlined store fleet. They will focus on womenswear and menswear, while childrenswear has been put on hold.
The dossiers given to prospective buyers indicated that the IKKS brand accounted for 80% of the group’s revenue, that 64% of its revenue was generated by womenswear, 21% by childrenswear, and 15% by menswear. When the company applied for receivership, direct retail accounted for 77% of revenue, e-commerce (both B2B and B2C) for 20%, and the remaining 3% was generated through the wholesale channel.
Rejected bids
The bid by sustainable fashion brand Faguo, which had been revised to include 15 stores and 30 jobs, was rejected. French group Beaumanoir (which owns womenswear brands Morgan and Caroll) had teamed up with Faguo, offering €1 million to buy the IKKS brand name and some of the stores.
Another rejected bid was put forward by Salih Halassi’s company Amoniss, a shareholder in Pimkie which recently acquired Christine Laure and Chevignon. It initially bid for a minimum of 168 stores and 393 employees.
BCRI Holding, which recently bought Café Coton, initially offered to buy 67 stores with a total of 426 employees. While AA Investments (owner of Smallable, L’Exception and Bonne Gueule) was interested in IKKS’s intangible assets. Verdoso, new owner of The Kooples, withdrew its bid before the November 28 hearing.
Since none of the bids related to the Icode and One Step brands, and to IKKS childrenswear, some of the latter’s stores in France have now closed. The new owners are therefore concentrating on the IKKS brand, out of a group fleet that had 550 stores as of the end of 2024, though streamlining measures started in H1 this year.
The brand’s employees are now hoping IKKS will be able to regain momentum as a recognised name in the premium ready-to-wear segment.
Copyright © 2025 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.
A circular by the central bank said the policy update follows the decision reached at the 186th meeting of the Scrutiny Committee on Foreign Loan/Supplier’s Credit of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA). The aim is to facilitate industrial growth.
Bangladesh Bank recently announced that authorised dealers may now allow their industrial importers to import capital goods on a usance term of up to three years under supplier’s or buyer’s credit.
The aim is to facilitate industrial growth.
However, usance period for import of spares will not be more than 360 days in all cases, a circular by the central bank said.
”The usance tenure shall also be applicable to such imports by industrial enterprises operating in export processing zones or private export processing zones/economic zones/hi-tech parks and other areas designated as specialised zones by the government. However, usance period for import of spares will not be more than 360 days in all cases,” the circular added.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
Trump moves on D.C. golf courses with notice to nonprofit
Nifty 50, Nifty Midcap 150 Emerge As Top Indices In November: Report
How the new kickoff rules opened doors for some of the league’s most dynamic players
-
Politics6 days agoThailand launches air strikes against Cambodian military: army
-
Sports1 week agoAustralia take control of second Ashes Test | The Express Tribune
-
Politics7 days ago17 found dead in migrant vessel off Crete: coastguard
-
Fashion5 days agoGermany’s LuxExperience appoints Francis Belin as new CEO of Mytheresa
-
Tech1 week agoWIRED Roundup: DOGE Isn’t Dead, Facebook Dating Is Real, and Amazon’s AI Ambitions
-
Politics6 days agoZelenskiy says Ukraine’s peace talks with US constructive but not easy
-
Politics1 week agoIndia and Russia set for major trade discussions today
-
Tech1 week agoMIT researchers “speak objects into existence” using AI and robotics