Interviews

Despite rising price competition and shifting global trade dynamics, Swiss textile machinery continues to command global respect for its precision and innovation. In this exclusive interview, Davide Maccabruni, the new President of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association, discusses how the sector is evolving through sustainability, digital integration, and region-specific strategies to maintain its global leadership.

CircularFabrics is tackling one of synthetic fashion’s toughest challenges—recycling nylon from blended waste—through its pioneering Nyloop technology. Unlike conventional methods, Nyloop preserves polymer integrity without high energy input, offering a sustainable and cost-effective alternative. CEO and Co-Founder Josephine Mayer explains how this process could help brands meet EU circularity goals while building scalable, decentralised recycling systems.

Bangladesh’s garment industry faces mounting pressure to decarbonise amid regulatory shifts and brand climate commitments. Yet, financing, energy infrastructure, and governance gaps hinder progress. A new Apparel Impact Institute report has outlined the critical enablers required for a just transition, from policy reform to capacity building. AII President and CEO Lewis Perkins throws light on programmatic investment and long-term collaboration to future-proof the sector in Bangladesh.

As the circular economy gains traction, Ukrainian firm Re:inventex is emerging as a key player in scalable textile recycling through mechanical innovation and pragmatic adaptation. The company's Development Manager, Tetiana Pushkarova, explains how they navigate fibre challenges, material complexity, and regulatory uncertainty—while building real-world recycling solutions that connect industry, policy and sustainability goals across Europe.

By integrating physical tracers with blockchain-backed data, Aware offers brands and producers verifiable proof of origin, enabling compliance, circularity, and transparency—particularly crucial as regulatory frameworks like the UPV Textiles Act take hold globally. Koen Warmerdam, Co-founder and Brand Director of Aware, shares insights into how the company is transforming textile sustainability using a phygital traceability system.

As circularity becomes central to the textile industry, French recycling innovator Cetia is streamlining disassembly and sorting through cutting-edge automation. Leading this transformation is Director Chloé Salmon Legagneur, whose team is developing intelligent systems that dismantle shoes, sort garments, and prepare materials for high-quality recycling—critical for scaling circular solutions across both footwear and fashion supply chains.

As the fashion industry struggles to firm up a roadmap towards decarbonisation, one of the players that has been pro-active in trying to clean up its supply chain is the H&M Group. Kim Hellström, Senior Sustainability Manager, Climate at the Group speaks at length about the challenges in decarbonising the supply chain.

Socially disadvantaged people are disproportionately affected by temperature extremes. A recent study explored this point in Cambodia: one of the world's hottest and most humid countries. It evidenced the extent of the heat exposure faced by workers in Cambodia and the way occupational, environmental and geographical dynamics combine to shape it. The study’s lead author, Dr Laurie Parsons of Royal Holloway, University of London, contextualises this for the country’s garment workers.

ITF Intertex Portugal, the country’s leading textiles-apparel event, gets under way about two weeks from now. The country’s textiles industry is much like its football ecosystem—not very big in size, but a force to reckon with, and just as vibrant. Managing Director Serhan Pul tells us what makes Portugal’s textiles-apparel industry tick and how it is adapting to the changing times.

Last month, Environmental Impact Measuring (EIM), a well-known platform for measuring the environmental impact of garment finishing, presented the first global report on the environmental impact of denim finishing. Begoña García, creator of the EIM platform and co-author of the report, talks about the complexities of environmental metrics.