Functional Fabric Fair spotlighted next-generation materials at its Innovation Hub, created in collaboration with Future Fibers Expo. Across the hall, Texworld tackled the big question: How do you unlock scale?
Convening biannually in the Big Apple, the Summer 2025 edition was held July 23–25 at Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Center, showcasing hundreds of global textile and apparel manufacturers across more than 50 product categories. Country pavilions from Korea, Taiwan, El Salvador, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and Uzbekistan were present as well. Attended by some 2,000 textile insiders, the international trade fair, organized by Messe Frankfurt, spanned outlooks on tariffs, trade wars and trend insights—and how the industry can “reweave” the textile supply chain in response.
Related Stories
“Our mission is to be a responsive, reliable platform—supporting buyers and exhibitors as they adapt to sourcing shifts, explore new markets and build meaningful business connections,” said Jennifer Bacon, vice president of fashion and apparel shows for Messe Frankfurt Inc.
Texworld’s “Collective Sourcing: Unlocking Next-Gen Scale” session unpacked two emerging strategies that aim to shift the math: buyers’ clubs—where brands team up pre-competitively to place bulk orders—and digital platforms that streamline supply-demand matchmaking at scale.
The shift toward collective sourcing is seen as “democratizing and giving people the opportunity” to adopt sustainable materials—moving beyond early adopters to becoming “business as usual,” said Canopy‘s Joshua Katcher, who moderated the panel.
For Arshiya Lal, director of corporate development at Circ, collective sourcing only works when it complements how designers actually work.
“I will just say off the bat, every brand is a little bit different. In general, what we see is that in order for these next-gen fibers to actually be adopted, they have to be viewed as a canvas for creativity,” she said. “If they’re viewed as something that will limit the designers, it’s really hard to get adoption.”
That’s one of the reasons Circ’s Fiber Club aggregates demand only up to the yarn spinning stage.
“We’re producing one yarn spec for this cohort,” Lal said. “But we don’t limit on the fabric side. We want designers to see it in their own materials, in something that feels true to the brand. That’s how you get into core collections—not one-offs.”
That flexibility, she explained, is intentional.
“Aggregating at the yarn level helps us get over MOQ hurdles,” Lal said. “But fabric development is brand by brand; the goal is long-term integration, not just a single capsule. We want what comes out of this to be something brands actually take forward. If it doesn’t fit into their design language, it won’t scale. One yarn, many fabrics—that’s how it becomes real.”
If Circ’s Fiber Club is a proof of concept, consider Jeanine Ballone’s World Collective as infrastructure.
A former PVH Corp. executive and founder of the women-led digital ecosystem, Ballone built World Collective to support both brands and suppliers in “building smarter, more transparent supply chains that meet today’s sustainability demands and tomorrow’s regulations.”
“Having led innovation teams at some of the world’s biggest brands, I saw firsthand how complicated it is to get a new fabric to market,” Ballone said. “You’d go through all the work—cross-functional teams, long supply chains—and by the time the fabric was ready, maybe the margin was off, maybe the styling was wrong, maybe the fabric wasn’t even usable.”
That experience, she continued, shaped how she approaches her current role. The platform offers pre-developed, commonly used fabrics—denim, jersey, twill—that are ready to go; in turn, lowering friction for brands. It also allows for low-MOQ purchasing, with built-in traceability and real-time impact reporting.
“With this launch, brands will see real-time impact reporting—chemical usage, emissions, water—right there at the point of purchase,” Ballone said. “We’re making it easier, faster and smarter to choose better materials.”
“Before, only 10 or 20 brands globally had access to these kinds of materials,” she said. “Now, a brand from Japan, the Middle East, the U.S., and Europe can all buy into a program—without competing, without even knowing each other—and still create something entirely different with the same fiber.”
“The old model required massive tonnage to scale, which meant limited access,” Ballone said. “What we’ve done is build a framework that opens the door. Ten different brands can come in, meet the MOQ together and get notified when the threshold is hit—just like crowdsourcing. That kind of accessibility didn’t exist before.”
The result? A rebalanced playing field.
“It’s not just early adopters anymore,” she said. “It’s anyone who wants in. We’re democratizing access—and that changes everything.”
“Every brand wants to do better,” Ballone added. “But the resources required to vet suppliers, assess impact and negotiate orders are often out of reach—especially for SMEs. We’re trying to remove that friction and make good choices more accessible.”
Programs like World Collective complement brand-anchored initiatives like Circ’s Fiber Club. Pioneered by the B Corp (in partnership with Canopy and Fashion for Good), the club aggregates demand from several brands for next-gen fibers, overcoming MOQs at the fiber and yarn stages. It also uses a milestone-based process to guide brands through the rest of the supply chain.
“We’re piloting several projects right now, beyond what we’re doing with Canopy,” Ballone said. “And what we’re really seeing is that buying collectively doesn’t put too much weight on any one brand. It creates an entry point into new materials.”
That entry point, she said, is critical—especially for smaller or emerging players.
“If you’re a bigger brand and can handle full development, that’s great,” she said. “But some of the most agile brands out there don’t have that capacity. They’re nimble, they’re comfortable with risk—but they still need access. Buyers’ clubs give them that. When you go in collectively, it’s not as daunting to test something new; it lowers the cost, lowers the commitment and spreads the chance across the group. And we’re already seeing the numbers move in that direction.”
