Heimtextil 2024 Focuses on AI & Sustainable Futures

In a bid to ease concerns around the impact of AI on industry practices and creative roles, Heimtextil’s roster was filled with AI-centric elements, including talks, workshops, and a showcase of innovative brands shaping the future of the sector.

The positive potential of AI was at the centre of discussions, such as key benefits like time- and cost-efficiency, more effective production processes and improved accessibility.

Referring to his AI app FabricGenie, which allows anyone to create their own fabric designs, British AI consultant and developer Danny Richman claimed: “AI has given me superpowers. I can do things I’ve never been able to do before.”

Helping to demonstrate the possibilities of AI was Danish extended reality studio MANND, which presented two AI prototype tools created especially for the event. The AI Assistant, powered by ChatGBT-4 answered industry questions on topics like sustainability, while the Interactive Design Station visualised the fair’s 24/25 colour and material trends as products using Midjourney and ChatGBT-4.

Other such exhibitors included US company Variant 3D, which has pioneered a 3D knitting and scanning technology to create customisable knit products with zero waste; and Denmark’s NewRetex, which uses AI to optimise textile sorting for recycling.

Elsewhere, addressing concerns about quality and ingenuity, discussions reiterated that we shouldn’t forget to be creative with AI, as it is artists and designers who are getting the best results. “It’s about confidently embracing it as a tool and moving forwards,” stated Alexandra Bohn, style content director at German publication F.A.Z. Quarterly.

See Generative AI & the Creative Industries: The Road Ahead and AI Industry Updates: 2023 for more insights and innovations.  

Elsewhere across the trend space, there was a focus on more conscious and careful practices that can help improve the negative impacts of textile production on both the environment and human health.

Along with a showcase of regenerative design and materials, including Good Earth Cotton and kapok fibre Flocus, three different directions within textiles were highlighted at the event: plant-based, bio-engineered and technological. Examples included cactus, jute and seaweed-based textiles; fabrics made from agricultural byproducts including bananas, olives, persimmon and hemp; biodegradable textiles derived from bacteria; and innovative upcycled, recycled and circular blends, like corn-derived fibre Noosa and CiCLO-enhanced biodegradable synthetics.

On the wellbeing front, sleep-enhancing products were in the spotlight – such as Swiss company HeiQ’s latest bio-based technology Skin Care, which integrates pre- and probiotics into textile fibres. Read more on The Brief.

See Material Outlook: Textiles 2022 for more wellbeing and sustainability-focused developments.