Future Fabrics Expo 2026: 24 to 25th June in Brussels, Belgium

Future Fabrics Expo (FFE) is the largest showcase dedicated exclusively to sourcing sustainable, best practice, and certified materials for fashion, footwear, home, interiors and lifestyle products. Set on 3300 square metres, FFE combines sourcing and education to equip visitors from fashion, interiors and the creative industries with material solutions, knowledge and tools to drive positive change.

This year, FFE ran alongside the Textiles Recycling Expo in Brussels, reaching an ever-larger audience, accelerating the transition to a decarbonised, nature-positive and circular economy. Since 2011, FFE has continued its mission to enable the textile and fashion industries to move away from fossil-fuel based, conventional and polluting materials and transition to a low carbon economy with an innovative, diversified fibre portfolio, fit to operate within planetary boundaries, benefitting people and planet.

Specially Curated Areas

Each year, FFE identifies the most pressing and relevant topics shaping the industry’s future in sourcing and materials. Each specially curated area takes a considered, in-depth approach to these themes, exploring their wider impact while spotlighting pioneering innovations, commercial technologies and research-led initiatives that respond to the challenges presented. The result is a focused perspective on both the issues at hand and the solutions driving meaningful, future-positive change across the supply chain.

The Invisible Threat - Microfibres and Chemical Pollution

Microfibre shedding, chemical finishes, and toxic pollutants are intrinsically linked across the textile lifecycle and are an invisible threat to people. It is imperative for planetary health that we rethink the fibres and finishes being used at scale today.

This area highlights both research and solutions to this problem and how engineering can reduce fibre shedding and what innovative alternatives to PFAS (synthetic forever chemicals) are available. An example of relevant solutions from FFE exhibitors include:

• WTRLSS - A patented one-step digital dyeing and finishing process that is commercially ready, WTRLSS™ saves 99%+ water at scale according to internal testing, with significant reductions in emission and toxic auxiliaries.
• Beyond Surface Technologies - Textile finishes made from microalgae, natural waxes and plant seed oils, Beyond Surface Technologies AG (BST) was among the first to challenge the textile industry's reliance on petroleum-derived chemicals, replacing them with renewable, bio-based alternatives.
• Södra's Liquid Forest® Tannin - A vegetable tannin derived from an industrial bark side stream by Södra's Liquid Forest® Tannin offers a chrome-free leather tanning alternative to conventional metal-based inputs, which are often linked to wastewater contamination and health risks for tannery workers.

Learning from Nature - Biodegradation and Textile Circularity

Designing Waste Out of the System by Working with Nature's Own Processes of Decomposition. This area is rethinking textile design to work with nature’s own systems of decomposition, with biodegradation as the final stage in the waste hierarchy for truly circular design. Biodegradation should be transformative, not destructive. This curated area looks at nature’s dynamic and diverse processes for breaking down and recovering complex materials into simpler substances through different feedstock routes, such as fermentation-based or regenerative natural fibres. FFE exhibitors offer various solutions to recover complex material streams:

• CIRCULOSE®- By dissolving pulp made from post-use cotton-rich textiles through a patented process, to create regenerated fibres similar to viscose and lyocell, CIRCULOSE® is made from 100 percent recycled textiles, replacing virgin resource extraction entirely.
• RCO100™ - 100 percent recycled cotton yarns and fabrics made from pre- and post-consumer cotton waste, RCO100™ from Säntis Textiles uses a unique, fully mechanical process with no bleaching or chemicals, reducing dependence on virgin materials and chemistry while maintaining fibre length for quality.
• OnceMore® - By combining recovered cotton cellulose from end-of-life polycotton textiles with wood cellulose, OnceMore® from Södra addresses the challenge of blended textile recycling to substitute virgin manmade cellulosic fibres.
• LENZING™ ECOVERO™ x REFIBRA™ - By blending viscose fibres with 20 percent recycled post-consumer textile content, LENZING™ ECOVERO™ x REFIBRA™ from Lenzing combines certified wood sources with recovered textile feedstock to reduce reliance on virgin materials.

The Future of Textiles - Biosynthetics

Biosynthetics are made wholly or partially from non-fossil sources, including biomass and CO2 capture, or renewable carbon. This rapidly growing category raises critical questions regarding feedstock, processing and end of us.

While biosynthetics has been previously explored, 2026 is the first time FFE has dedicated an entire curated area to this topic. Supported by Hyosung TNC, this area examines the potential of biosynthetic materials to reshape the textile landscape, as the industry navigates global geopolitical tensions and attempts to transition away from petrochemical-based inputs. Showcased solutions from FEE exhibitors include:

• RegenBIO - A sugarcane-based elastane that replaces fossil-based ingredients while maintaining performance, regenBIO from Hyosung TNC is produced within a vertically integrated supply chain that links raw material processing through to fibre manufacturing within a single supply chain. Sugarcane is the primary renewable feedstock, selected for its scalability and agricultural efficiency, with farm-level traceability across environmental and social criteria.
• AMSilk - Bio-based silk proteins fermented from renewable resources such as corn starch or sugar beet, AMSilk replaces animal-derived silk using biotech spider silk produced through protein engineering and industrial precision fermentation. Protein yarns are defined at a molecular level, enabling application-specific material solutions beyond conventional manufacturing approaches.

Beyond the curated areas and the topics and solutions showcased, the FFE presents other specialised areas.

Innovation Hub

Pioneering Material Science on the Path from Proof of Concept to Commercial Reality
A dynamic platform showcasing cutting-edge breakthroughs and pioneering prototypes in material science, poised to reshape the materials landscape. Building on last year’s success, the Innovation Hive returns, featuring startups and their next-generation solutions. As the industry evolves, FFE supports leading innovators on their path to commercialisation by connecting them with its industry network. The Innovation Hub is supported by Performance Days (where the FFE’s Innovation Hub continues to be shown at their international fairs).

Trends across this year's innovators include a growing range of dye solutions, from natural to bacterial as alternatives to petrochemical inputs, a rise in embellishment innovation, and a growing focus on novel approaches to circular systems. Algae as a feedstock is being explored more widely across various applications from elastane fibres to glass and even cosmetic applications.

Footwear Hub

Multi-Material by Design and Hard to Separate at End of Use, the Footwear Category Is Overdue a Material Rethink
This installation explores the complex design challenges and innovative solutions shaping footwear, with a particular focus on multi-material construction and outsole waste streams. It examines post-use material flows, while highlighting design-for-disassembly strategies and emerging biomaterial components.

Highlights include:

• A shoe upper grown from bacterial cellulose through research at Imperial College London to replace petrochemicals and synthetic adhesives entirely.
• A first prototype of a knit sneaker made from Bananatex, made from regeneratively grown abacá banana plants cultivated in a permaculture environment in the Philippine mid- and highlands within a natural ecosystem of sustainable mixed agriculture and forestry, requiring no pesticides, fertilizer or extra water.
• Other exhibits explore bio-based rubber from agricultural waste, mycelium construction, fossil-fuel-free outsole innovation and closed-loop approaches that turn post-consumer waste back into performance materials.

Homes, Interiors and Lifestyle Area

From Natural Fibre to Mycelium, Positive Material Choices Across Every Object We Live With
This area, supported by MYCEL, showcases positive design solutions and inspiring installations across furniture, lighting, home textiles, and products. The area features reimagined natural fibres, including Incalpaca's RAS-certified alpaca home range, which is supported by PACOMARCA, their research and development centre working to improve fibre quality and the long-term sustainability of alpaca production. Among the innovations presented, notable highlights include MYCEL, a biomaterial grown entirely from mycelium, and natural dyes.

Regenerative Agriculture Area

From Soil to Supply Chain: The Farms and Practices Redefining Fashion's Foundations
An ongoing focus for FFE since 2019, this area spotlights suppliers driving change at the very start of the fashion supply chain. It champions those navigating the complexity of transitioning to regenerative practices, highlighting agriculture’s critical role in delivering positive outcomes for biodiversity, climate resilience, soil health, and farming communities’ livelihoods.

• Supported by Nobody’s Child, this area also spotlights the brand’s current work exploring regenerative cotton as the next step in its materials strategy, working with smallholder farms in India to support a more holistic, lower-impact approach.
• Further exhibitors include NATIVA™, working with farmers to restore soil health and biodiversity across wool, cotton, cashmere and alpaca through its NATIVARegen™ programme.
• Papillon Bleu, growing regenerative organic cotton in India alongside a UK hemp value chain producing Morpho™ yarns and fabrics.
• Remei delivers fully traceable garments from seed to finished product through their own organic farming businesses, which work directly with around 4,000 smallholder farmers in India and Tanzania in a participatory manner.

Fashioning Materialities

From Concept to Collection: Designers and Brands Reimagining Our Material World
This showcase features looks by seven designers and brands fashioning exciting future-forward textile solutions that are reimagining our material landscape. Their work offers fresh interpretations of traditional material provenance, challenging reliance on conventional sources and demonstrating the transition from material innovation to commercial fashion application. Featured here are sophisticated T2T technologies, waterless digital dyeing, scientific structural colour innovations and systems embracing the regenerative performance benefits of wool. The recreation of fur's luxury appeal using silk fibre and NEXT-GEN alternative reinterpretations of animal skins provide a positive new material palette for designers, with regenerative and circular design principles at the heart of their development.

Featured Designers: Avavav, Balag Couture, Stella McCartney, Triarchy.

Supply Chain Installation

From Innovation to Industry: How Collaboration Across the Supply Chain Brings New Materials to Scale
Driving collaboration and dismantling silos across the supply chain is essential to ensuring novel fibres can move from innovation to commercial reality. This installation spotlights how connecting expertise, standardising outputs and aligning incentives across supply chain actors can unlock the adoption of innovative materials at industrial scale.

SEFF is a platform for natural performance hemp innovation, using its patented Nano-Pulse™ technology to process raw hemp into a high-grade cottonised fibre suitable for commercial textile production. Their exhibit at FFE traces the full supply chain from seed to finished product, in collaboration with Global Network Partners Interloop, who spin the fibre into commercial-grade yarn in Pakistan, and Positive Materials, who develop fabrics and finished garments in Portugal.

Further Exhibitors

Other exhibitors at FFE Brussels demonstrate the breadth of solutions available to brands looking to diversify their material inputs and reduce exposure to raw material volatility and petrochemical dependency. These include companies such as Uncaged Innovations, whose ELEVATE leather alternative is made from structural proteins derived from grain byproducts and is price competitive with animal leather; HyphaLite™, a 100 percent biobased material for footwear and accessories made from natural latex, FSC-certified regenerated cellulose fibres and incorporating mushrooms; and Veshin, a conscious manufacturing group specialising in next-generation material integration across bags, accessories and footwear. The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp champions traceable European flax, linen and hemp supply chains as a natural alternative to petrochemical derived materials.

This year, partners who supported Future Fabrics Expo are:

• “Next Gen materials made from agricultural residues and recycled textiles are runway-ready. What’s needed now is coordinated market action to bring them to scale. No brand can drive this transition alone. Platforms like Future Fabrics Expo are critical because they bring the right players together, connect proven solutions with credible demand signals, and help unlock the investment and scale needed to move fashion toward a circular future.” - Nicole Rycroft, Founder and Executive Director, Canopy.
• “Adoption and integrity of sustainable materials is higher when underpinned with authentic supply chain data. Future Fabrics Expo brings together the best solutions the industry has to offer, and by partnering with the 2026 edition in Brussels, TextileGenesis is making sure that traceability is part of that conversation from the start.” - Amit Gautam, Founder and CEO, TextileGenesis.

Future Fabrics Expo 2026 also featured a programme of side events which included: a stakeholder convening session for Project Feedstock Activation Europe led by Fashion for Good; “Traceability in Practice” led by TextileGenesis; “The Investment Case for Textile Startups: brand and supplier case studies on scaling proven tech” led by Collateral Good; and “Collectively Overcoming Barriers to Scaling Next Gen MMCFs” led by Canopy.

Future Fabrics Expo drinks event 2026 was supported by A Blue World, Eco Age, Flanders District of creativity and Moatwood gin.