Features

In Guatemala’s crowded ropa cruda markets, women dominate the trade, running stalls that support households in an economy where informality exceeds 70%. Surveys reveal their ownership, participation and wages outpace national averages, forcing a reconsideration of how circular value is defined — and who benefits when discarded garments gain a second life.

Guatemala’s secondhand clothing industry is frequently portrayed abroad as little more than dumping. Field surveys show otherwise: almost nine in ten imports are reused, while waste remains limited. Unsorted ropa cruda powers markets, creates work, and sustains women traders. As new rules emerge, the fight is over who defines—and controls—circularity.

Europe’s hemp story has shifted from policy to performance. Farmers can now grow and process fibre, yet consistent buyers remain scarce. Between luxury weavers, mass-market converters and new industrial users, the market is searching for direction. Its future will depend on whether certification and diversification can turn enthusiasm into genuine, recurring demand.

Europe’s hemp boom has filled fields but left factories waiting. The region now grows tens of thousands of hectares of fibre crops, yet only a handful of facilities can refine them for textiles. Hemp’s challenge is no longer agronomy but engineering — how to build the machinery, skills, and scale that make a crop an industry.

Across Western Europe, fields of hemp are re-appearing beside the region’s long-trusted flax, but technical familiarity has yet to catch up with acreage. Farmers possess the land, machinery, and ambition—yet remain unsure how to turn stalks into stable income. For now, cultivation outpaces coordination, leaving Europe’s textile revival rooted more in hope than experience.

Despite separate textile collection becoming mandatory across EU member states from January 2025, fragmented implementation and enforcement gaps undermine circular economy progress. Industry experts reveal how regulatory inconsistencies and misaligned policies are preventing meaningful recycling outcomes across European markets.

Chemical recycling attracts billions in investment promises while proven mechanical methods remain underutilised. With 73% of collected textile waste still landfilled or incinerated globally, industry experts question whether technological tunnel vision is preventing immediate impact and realistic circularity solutions.

Europe's textile recycling industry generates only €1.54 billion annually despite processing millions of tonnes of waste, highlighting systemic economic challenges. Industry experts reveal how data invisibility and traceability gaps create cascading costs that undermine commercial viability and prevent meaningful circularity at scale.

Gender division in fashion is more a factor of culture and aesthetics than one of practicality, and the oversized fit is very contemporary — in fact comfortable, cool with the possibility to use elastane-free fabrics. That’s the USP of Andrea Bonfini’s Fade Out Label which is also about patchwork, cuts, handcrafted quality and of course intensive work.

Here’s a weaver-designer deconstructing and redesigning everyday garments in a new way, pushing too for an equal division between the textile-making process and the fashion design process, as very often, the textile maker is rather invisible compared to the fashion designer. texfash in conversation with the Swedish Kelly Konings of the eponymous Kelly Konings Textiles.