Arabella just finished our journey last week at Intertextile 2025 in Shanghai and got bountiful inspirations for our next station. By spotting the latest fabrics and accessories, we have summarized some keywords relative to 3 keywords as following: Sustainable, Weightless, Running & Hiking Wear.
Since we found that the theme of new collections from last weeks are corresponding to what we found at Intertextile, more details will be written in another blog with our original "weekly new collection spotted"column for you.
Except Intertextile Shanghai, Arabella also captures more trends in the activewear industry. Time to refresh our brains!
Fibers
(Sept 3rd)
Lycra released their latest anti-stink fiber named LYCRA® freshFX®. By adding a type of harmless treatment into this fiber that capable of capturing odor molecules, the fabrics can maintain a long-time freshness even doing laundry or experiencing sunlight exposure.
Trends
(Sept 5th)
China Fashion Insight (Who cooperated with Intertextile) just released a report reflects the activewear designing trends in SS2026. The report was divided into 2 parts and multiple themes with predicting main activewear types, fabrics and trending color advice. Here are the summary of part 1 as below:
Theme No.1: Light Sports
Along with people's caring for daily life and longing for moving effortlessly, recovery and playfulness, pastel and dynamic colors will be more compelling for activewear consumers. At the same time, more abstract and vivid patterns are suggested to be used into snugging knitted fabrics.
Theme No.2: Laid-back Lifestyle
Consumers are trying to slow down their paces in lives and find balances between their urban lives and nature, which conducting more attentions to natural fabrics such as merino wool, hemp, bamboo and cotton. Additionally, gentle and earthy color palettes can bring comfort and tranquil feelings.
(Sept 4th)
WGSN has released its trend report of activewear fabrics for AW 2026/2027. Under the background of environment resources changes, regulations for company responsibilities, AI's development and people's continuing care for health, they forecasted 12 fabric trends that might lead the market as below:
1. Natural Functions
People's demand for non-fossil-based materials will keep catalyzing the domination of sustainable fabrics especially nature fabrics with performances like cooling, breathability and smoothness.
2. Eco-thermal Solution
Eco-friendliness will become essential in material regulations. It is suggested that using thermal materials with plant-based or recyclable components to maintain the future textile-to-textile recycling system.
3. Outdoor Performances
The recent knitted activewear is emphasizing textures and geometrical, showing an association to outwear. Bio-degradable and mono-material are suggested to use in this type of activewear for hiking, running, HIIT., etc.
4. Distressed Essentials
Washed essentials in SS2026 are showing people's longing for small flaws and uniqueness. Gradient and fading colors can bring out this kind of aesthetic. Sustainable dyeing paints and invisible textures and patterns are considered to use in them.
5. Extravagant Silhouette
Inspired by AI's designs and jackets in SS2026, quilting and puffing can provide warm, softness as well as enjoyment for consumers with exaggerated and bold colors.
6. Warm Touch
Utilize thick and elastic plush, hyper-textured premium fabrics to create multi-sensory warmth with 3D patterns and double-faced fleece-backed flat knitting that can offer diverse styling options. In response to microfiber pollution regulations, using sustainable yarns or low-shedding technologies are becoming more necessary. Textured fleece, wool or ethical animal hairs are ideal for mid-layers and accessories.
7. Functional Waxed Surface
EU and US restrict PFAS to promote eco-friendly finishes. Use traditional waterproofing like waxed cotton, recycled cotton or other natural fibers with brushing and calendering. Adopt beeswax or algae oil. For example, Sweden brand OrganoClick mimics leaf waterproofing via biotech. Also, advise reprocessing care for outdoor or daily use.
8. Soft Metallic
Soft metallic hues can upgrade futuristic weaving with liquefied or softened finishes, inspired by brushed metal. It is suggested to use textured techniques, eco-friendly fibers like And Wander's, a Japanese brand, quilted ultra-thin nylon. Ideal for woven outerwear or trackpants in earthy tones; suits outdoor, snow sports, daily wear.
9. Weightlessness
Weightlessness is based on the ultra-light and sheer fabrics with stretch and technologies. For intimated layers, it is suggested to add invisible mesh to unburden the weight of the clothes (for example, On's Cloudboom Strike LS trainers and Sumitomo's SOLAMENT™ NIR-heated jackets). Besides, recycled and sustainable nylon can help build your garment for all-day wearing.
10. Mutant Colors
Evolving from 2026 SS color-shifting and watery effects, mutant colors feature adaptive hues. For example, Satisfy's thermo-sensitive yarn and Vollebak's light-responsive films enable dynamic color changes. Use UV/heat-reactive prints and bright tones like Radiance Green for visibility across cycling, training and daily wear.
11.Comprehensive Healthcare
Health and caring are still consumers' top concerns. They pursue accessories that can assist to enhance sport performances and recovery. Cooperating with industry pioneers that can provide low-key technologies, sustainability and long-time lifespan to products is recommended.
12. Borderless Craftsmanship
Use craftsmanship orginated from multiple countries and territories to extend the product lifetime and bring out its cross-cultural diversity. Traditional embroidery can help to sustain products' lifetime.
To respond the trends above, WGSN also concluded 3 strategies for product developers as below:
1. Use traditional and time-tested craftsmanship for references by utilizing natural fabrics and materials
2. Develop tactile fabrics that brings comfort and tranquil to consumers such as puffy and stretchy staples.
3. Renewable, bio-based and ethical materials is becoming more essential due to climate changes and regulations.
(Aug 5th)
Tatiana Aldrich, WGSN's trends consultant, presented the macro trends for mens- and womenswear FW 26/27 at IFCO. The trends are divided into 3 themes including color palettes, styles and designing details. Arabella has made conclusion with attentive keywords for you as below:
Geo-logic: low-impact fabrics, season ambiguity, irregular patterns and textures, surreal and nature colors
Kintentional: Natural tactile fabrics, leisure and inclusiveness, hand-crafted aesthetic, modern heritage
Empowered Play: Sustainable fabrics, thoughtful and resourceful designs, creativity and performances
Ms. Tatiana Aldrich also mentioned some key items in both mens- and womenswear. Here is the summary of them.
In menswear, these following items are worth focusing on:
Vintage pieces: crewneck sweaters, hoodies
Shirts: various office & resort styles
Pants: barrel-legged, baggy cargos
Outerwear: bomber jackets
In womenswear, these following items are worth paying attention to:
Cut & sew: fleece jackets, country club sweatshirts, floaty dresses, smart polo shirts and sports jerseys
Woven tops: material mix shirts, romantic ruffle blouses and slim suede shirts
Skirts: mid-length fit and flared, A-lines in suede and more
Pants: focus on the ankle, including plush, smart cargos, barrel-legs and relaxed tailored slacks. Dresses: luxe minis, tea and drop waist dresses, soft volume dresses and sculpted shoulder dresses
Jackets and outerwear: boyfriend jeans, boyfriend coats, fashion raincoats, hyper texture coats, new-mod coats and track jackets.
Stay tuned and discover more details from our weekly new collection and Intertextile 2025 through here with Arabella!
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Post time: Sep-09-2025