The Livetrend Team has attended the recent leading Textile and Design Fairs in Paris, including Texworld, Préco Paris, Première Vision Fashion Rendez-Vous and Première Vision Denim. We were able to gather and confirm some of the recent and most innovative trend developments on fabrics and materials. For you, we have filtered the most important and novel textile directions and been able to gather them in 7 main concepts within the following report. Those trends will provide you with a preview for the upcoming FW 22/23 season and offer guidance on your first design choices on the season.

Where are textiles heading during this time of renewal? 

Overall, the themes are unified by the striking desire to unite a sensory, sustainable and aesthetic experience. It feels like the idea of renewal and of improvement has grasped even onto the smallest components of yarns, finishings and colorings. We will have to reimagine, to rethink. With a new future that unfolds infant of us like a blank page, our deep desire to live is pushing us forward and triggers the appetite for something better. Mind and Emotion are the new guideline for textiles and seek to enhance the beauty of materials and to magnify the know-how behind it. A strong focus on soft surfaces, infused by a sense of wellbeing and by a refreshed spirit, is now paving the way to higher levels of creativity and aspires to create more meaningful, yet more intriguing looks.

In terms of inspiration, a refocus on unlimited hedonism, curious rediscovery, provocative innovation, emotional awareness, anarchic beauty and a new responsibility towards the environment are influencing textile themes for FW 22/23. To get inspired and informed, take a look at the 7 top trends so far: 

The Trend Polar Glacier is depicting the desire for calm and serene spaces during a time of change. This textile trend is not only pointing towards the important subject of  melting glaciers and climate change, that should be considered through more sustainable choices, but simultaneously amplifies the beauty of nature. The textile trend manifests the magnifying impact and mystery, which resonates from polar landscapes. FW 22/23 Fabrics are recalling such icey sceneries, northern furs and polar lights. Visual and tactile effects include wash-outs with stormy looks, light and shadow contrasts, velvety and coated surfaces. Innovative thermal fabric properties suit this concept and add a functional component. Cloudy effects are generated through subtle fades and serene, bluely tinted palettes. Bleaching can be an important tool on denim materials here and achieve the glacier look. This story equally taps into a narrative of magic and reason surrounding nature and enables you to create mystified statement styles with an ice, wintery hue. 

For FW 22/23 the concept of Folklore Fibre is gathering ideas on community and culture and on the rediscovery of craft and authenticity. Value shifts have made people realize, that consumerist-driven choices are not providing long-term sustainability, but rather foster a world, which is set-up for failure. Solidarity and hope are becoming new principles of thought. As a result, this trend focuses on localism, natural fibers and a play with earthy elements. Along those lines, cultural heritage is reimagined. Folkloric jacquards, prints and knits are telling  colorful ethnic stories and resonate the feeling of familiarity and comfort. Vibrancy and positivity are guiding this aesthetic and turn materials themselves into unique storytellers. A more rustic finishing adds a poetic component and suits the current demands for vintage and repurposed styles. 

A taste for the unknown, more specifically for the mystified future, which evolves beyond the horizon, has pivoted textiles towards the FW 22/23 concept of Mesmerizing Essence. A desire for the precious, the shimmering, the estrange and the foreign has taken hold of imagination and is evoking stories of dreamy futurism. The aspiration to redefine our deep nature and as ethereal beings become one with the universe is now manifesting within holographic, reflective, sparkling and dusted textiles. Organic surface effects suggest the beauty of the unknown and appeal to sensory pleasures. A spiritual and otherworldly effect resonates from new coated textiles with mirroring effects and shiny surface treatments. Such more rigid materials incorporate an almost plastic like effect and resonate the appeal of celestial matter. Almost lucid, the more fluid materials linked to this trend, seem to lose their materiality and flow down the body like liquid. Others might embrace sheers and soft gradations for a dreamy twist.

The strive for something eternal has people turn towards the past and towards nostalgia in FW 22/23. Historic Wallpaper is a textile trend, that recalls the eclectic and the eccentric, the dreamy and the magnificent world of the past. It seems as if the materials tried to assimilate to old paintings, interior fabrics and textiles and interior decorations. An indulgent array of brocade, jacquard, tapestry and quilting is offering a historic effect. Lustrous and velvety surfaces are playing the effects of light and enable luminous and luxurious effects. Those materials will engage in creating more flamboyant silhouettes and satisfy the consumer’s need for pleasure and dreamscapes. The familiar and homey characteristics of those historic textiles takes the rather distant and cold characteristic away from evening and statement looks, and enriches them with a sense of warmth and gloominess. Feathers and metallic yarns are key within this concept as well. Translated through rich colors, this story its set to pleasure us visually in the season ahead.

Nature and the outdoors have become essential within consumer’s life over the past period of crisis. They offered healing and protection and sparked our imagination. Heralding the continuous fascination with geological surfaces, the FW 22/23 textile trend Earthly Canvas is embracing the creative potential, that the planet has to offer. Inspired by stones, sediments, vegetation, botanics and wildlife, this story seems to try to camouflage into the environment. Not only the print, but equally the haptic features of natural texture, is now translated into materials. Irregular and 3-dimensional surfaces are key to depict the earthy and authentic looks of the outdoors. Textured yarns, novelty finishings and subtly nuanced and washed dies are crucial for this fabric story. The effect of such fabrics seems almost spontaneous and highly individualistic, parallel to nature’s unique beauty. Considering sustainable practices is elementary within this context and pushes the strive for innovation and change into a more definite direction. 

Over the course of the pandemic, the body has become the center again. Spending more time alone and being occupied with the self,  had people acknowledge that their bodies are their homes and sparked waves of positivity, acceptance and empowerment. Finding beauty in natural forms, the FW 22/23 trend Serene Anatomy is focusing on the sensation of well-being within the own skin, of the own skin and on the own skin. A humble acknowledgement of imperfections and weaknesses has changed society’s standpoint towards physical and aesthetic realities as well. For materials, purposeful imperfections, organic effects on surfaces and poetically soft finishings are embracing those ideas. Natural fibers, soft touch and soothing palettes, aim at mimicking the feeling and look of skins. At the same time, more voluminous surfaces provide a subtle notion of comfort and protection. A more seductive, sensual and pleasure-driven idea can resonate within this context as well, a story on rediscovered sexuality translated by sheers, nudes and arousing structures.