Stretching across three levels of the Business Design Centre, visitors flocked to the London Textile Show on the warm and sunny morning on the first Monday of September, marking a post-summer return to business for exhibitors and visitors alike. As of 10am – one hour since doors officially opened at 9am – more than 400 visitors were already milling around the 500 stands situated inside the well-lit, glass structure.

450 exhibitors were showcasing product at this year’s show, a 25% increase on the SS24 edition, which took place on 10-11 January

By 4pm, two hours before closing, the number of visitors increased to 1,500 – similar to the SS24 edition, which welcomed 1,700 visitors on the first day.

London Textile Fair co-organiser Fergus Kelley told Drapers that exhibitors from mainland China were present for the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of 2020, which was followed by a strict overseas travel ban which lasted until 8 January 2023. The long-awaited return is likely to fuel attendee numbers for the trade show:

“Chinese exhibitors bring in more customers, because some customers are just looking for Chinese manufacturers,” said Fergus, whose father John Kelley established the London Textile Fair in 2007.

For Yan Bo, director of Chinese cotton and denim manufacturer Lanxi Zhengxuan, exhibiting at the London Textile Fair marked his first ever visit to the UK, following his debut at Paris’s Première Vision trade show on 4-6 July and prior to flying out to Las Vegas for the Vegas National Fabric Expo, taking place on 6-8 September.

“Paris was very busy. [The London Textile Fair] is a bit quiet for now, but it is not even midday,” he told Drapers just before 11am. Lanxi Zhengxuan is one of the 70 Chinese manufacturers showcasing at the London Textile Fair, all of which were stationed at the ‘China Pavillion’ – a new section on the upper mezzanine of the Business Design Centre, set up with the aim to make meeting different Chinese exhibitors more convenient to visitors.

Wout Engberts, area export manager for Dutch shirt and jacket manufacturer Tootal Fabrics, which supplies Inditex and Ted Baker, among its 1,500 clients across 75 markets, was more positive about the trade show’s footfall:

“It is always busy at the show, which is the reason why we see a lot of existing clients as well as new [fashion] startups, which is always very interesting,” he said. “In the last eight, nine years, [the London Textile Fair] has definitely grown.”

Also on the upper level, steps away from the ‘Chinese Pavillion’, London Textile Fair’s partner, marketing consultancy BDA London, had returned to host seminars on upcoming textile trends. Further down the hallway, in a section specifically dedicated to trims and accessories, 11 up-and-coming textile designers from the University of the Arts London (UAL) London College of Fashion were exhibiting as part of the university’s first partnership with the London Textile Fair.

UAL BA (Hons) Fashion textiles: print senior lecturer Sarah Cheyne said the students, aged between 20 and 25, were selected by “three industry experts” who are also exhibiting at the trade show: knitwear designer Lindsay McKean, embroidery designer Jayne Goulding and printed textile designer Tali Furman.

“We made the selection also based on who had not been able to go to Paris [for the Première Vision trade show].

“The students go independently, so it is quite expensive to take the train and stay in a hotel. I thought [the London Textile Fair] would be a more inclusive way for students to have a nice, authentic trade show experience and meet the industry,” Cheyne said.

Breaking into the competitive fashion industry is the main challenge faced by young people, as described by fashion designer Joshua Landell Jackson, who was attending the London Textile Fair for the first time to scout new fabrics for his contemporary unisex brand Kai Jackson, founded in 2021.

“Exposure [is a challenge]. Introducing yourself to new markets can be difficult,” he said.

Also attending for the first time, up-and-coming menswear designer Dries Bates, who graduated from Westminster University BA (Hons) Fashion Design course in 2021, said that the job listings stall at the entrance to the London Textile Fair was “a good thing”, allowing visitors to scope out jobs within the textiles sector. Bates chose to attend the show to look for trimming suppliers and for network opportunities.

Amy Goodman, managing director of Prenton-based womenswear brand Melyr, was also on the search for trimmings.

“We mainly work with Turkey[-based manufacturers] at the moment and obviously there’s lots of Turkish suppliers. We have been to TexPremium before – we liked it and it was an interesting experience but most of the fabrics were out of most people’s [financial] reach,” said Goodman.

Focused on luxury fabrics, with the majority of the exhibitors from Italy, Portugal, France and the UK, the third TexPremium textile fair took place on 27-28 June at Lindley Hall, London. However, despite the presence of a dedicated high-end textile trade show, 240-year-old Yorkshire-based wool mill AW Hainsworth, which was awarded a royal warrant by the Queen in 2004, opted to attend the London Textile Show as well. AW Hainsworth marketing executive Shaan Sohal, who was in attendance at the June 2023 TexPremium fair, described the London Textile Fair as “much bigger” and with a broader price range across exhibitors. Despite offering bespoke jacquard knits, AW Hainsworth also provides more affordable alternatives, with prices starting at £23 per metre of wool knit.

Gianmarco Schiatti, creative director of Italian luxury fabric manufacturer Frizza, which supplies London Fashion Week designers Burberry, Simone Rocha, and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, was also in attendance at the London Textile Fair:

“I wanted to go [to TexPremium] but [the timing of the show on 27-28 June] is too early for my customers,” he said. “I think that the [London Textile Fair] dates are wrong, because a lot of customers just came back from holiday last week and so now, they are back in the office and busy planning the fashion week shows. The perfect time would be middle – to end of July.”

Schiatti was back at the London Textile Fair for the first time since Frizza managed to stabilise prices after high energy prices costs over the winter significantly increased production costs.

“We lost a lot of business customers because they went to Turkey [where production costs are lower than in Italy],” he said.

Although inflation is still prevailing, Tootal Fabrics’ Engberts, told Drapers that the outlook is much more positive than a year ago, when the Netherlands experienced an inflation peak of 14.5% in September 2023. Currently, latest figures show that inflation stands at 6% in the Netherlands and 6.9% in the UK.

The atmosphere at the London Textile Fair was brimming with positivity, with the majority of exhibitors leaving Brexit and inflation in the past and expressing excitement over the AW24 season. Given that an estimated one in seven exhibitors had arrived from China – one of the last countries to reopen borders after the pandemic – the trade show is a long-awaited reunion for the bustling textile industry.