PARIS – [17.02.10] The growing influence of ecotextiles was evident at last month’s Texworld exhibition in Paris with 98 (15%) of the exhibitors supplying sustainable fabrics.

There were an increasing number of companies from South Asia offering sustainable options such as Nishat Mills which offers organic and Fairtrade cotton textiles certified to GOTS, Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and FLO-Fairtrade; and fellow Pakistan mill Sapphire which supplies organic cotton, ramie, recycled polyester, Tencel, and Fairtrade cotton (under process) fabrics, also certified to GOTS and Oeko-Tex Standard 100 as well as Organic Exchange and WRAP.

Accounting for 20 of the 98 eco-friendly manufacturers, Turkey was also well represented by mills such as Ser-Bo Tekstil which offers knitted fabrics made from organic cotton certified to GOTS and Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and Isil Tekstil which supplies organic cotton, Tencel and Modal knitted fabrics to GOTS, Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and Purewear standards.

There was also evidence of a growing influence of denim fabrics available under the sustainability umbrella with 11 companies in this section including Apac Inti of Indonesia and Palmar Woven of Mauritius, which is certified to Organic Exchange, FLOFairtrade, WRAP and BSCI.

Also popular at the exhibition was the ‘Eco-Textiles forum: Fabrics that Care’ and the Eco-Friendly Textile Itinerary, which allowed visitors to quickly identify products with ecological certification and their manufacturers.