No one in the industry can say that all is plain sailing at the moment. However, the latest fairs in Florence bring upbeat messages and a great deal of colour, design and determination to optimise the move to sustainability and high standards. Several initiatives for financial and business development mentoring and lateral thinking are supported by Pitti Immagine. 

5,350 buyers attended this month’s Pitti Filati 97 - a welcome figure in contrast to the drop in numbers last year, pulling in the big names in fashion and the best mills, said Rafaello Napoleone, CEO, adding that the latest Pitti Filati reflects a period of readjustment for the market and consumption. This is met by a high level of research and experimentation by the industry, enhanced by techno innovations for sustainability. 

Exhibitors included important Italian mills and international groups. Notably, Botto Giuseppe, Cariaggi, Cotonificio Olcese Ferrari, Linea Piu, Loro Piana, Donegal Yarns, Green Mill, Iafil Sesia, and Zegna Baruffa. Participants also came from UK, Ireland, Japan, China, Mauritius, The Woolmark Company and Mohair South Africa.

Spazio Ricerca 

Pitti Filati’s Research Space is the go-to place to see the ideas from the Spazio Ricerca Figus team, attracting press, fashion names and designers to D-Tale - this year’s witty theme name. 

Trends featured soft, brushed surfaces, fancy stitches, striking patterns, and vibrant colours that flow together. Bright yarns in pink, red, and silver with raised, tactile elements were constructed with repeated and raised patterns, some recoloured in blue-grey and stormy tones, making the most of flatbed knitting techniques.

Fashion for 2026/27 will be multi-coloured, multi layered, with raised and tactile aspects. Flowers and leaf images combine for mixing colourful designs. Many geometric shapes are borrowed from menswear, described as a bid for raising the quality of clothes, styling and materials. 

Act Naturally 

Synthetic yarns on offer had careful explanations of sustainable production, but natural fibres are predictably to the fore. Wool from fine to thick and rustic, cashmere and alpaca, their environmental features joined by the trendy plant-based linen-hemp, cotton and bamboo. Many collections referred to the renewed vintage passion of the young and their enthusiasm for recycled items. 

Pitti Immagine itself had the foresight years ago to pioneer the importance of makers’ access to historical and recent history of clothing.  Vintage Selection D-Tale marked a return to the culture of personal wardrobes. The Wool Lab noted the rise of garments showing visible craft, a contemporary take on artisan values by a new generation. 

Wool, mohair, cotton, and alpaca yarns have entered a new era of environmental impact with data integrity and personal wellbeing.  The   Woolmark Company have been marking out this path for some time. The successful impact on athletic gear, with base layers in Merino, is now marked out for the comfort it can provide in multiple areas. The new emphasis is on the whole body and the accent on comfort and wellbeing. Botto Giuseppe cites turning cashmere raw material into the essence of luxury, the star of the ranges alongside silk and American wool from Oregon RWS (responsible wool standard) machine washable and certified.

Knit Club

Knit Club is devoted to showcase high quality knitting mills which work with international luxury and design houses in an advanced production chain. Knit remains an expanding area of development with a wide variety of natural fibres in blends and various weights to take them from season to season. buyers, designers and style departments of leading international fashion brands meet the technical and creative excellences of the companies selected by Pitti Filati. The focus is on an increasingly global and advanced production chain synergy and continues to demonstrate its commercial growth,

These companies adopt varied machinery and innovations, for instance Italian Blupuro Maglierie knitwear make use of Shima Seiki, Steiger and Stoll from gauge 14 to 3. Sustainability consultants, digital data integrity and science-based accountability are common aids for the luxury producers, seen as vital expert partners for the retailers who in this way. A climate of experimentation is leading designers and manufacturers to redefine the boundaries of knitwear.

The interplay between traditional craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology is more pronounced, with inventive approaches to fibre blending, spinning techniques, and aesthetics. Collaborations between mills and creative institutions are fostering novel yarn constructions and finishing methods, resulting in textiles which look to balance the visual with the tactile, for a resilient supply chain.

Colourisation 

Colour development saw new subtly different colour tones developed for 2026/27 with techniques more sophisticated and reliable than before, to be less damaging to the environment, opening new areas. Hasegawa Japan described extensive work carried out in colourfast dyes leading to durable results for spinning.

Colour Flow at Todd & Duncan, takes inspiration from woven sculptural pieces, tapestry folk art and colour research producing intense black, new melanges and softer cashmere shades, including a new cashmere yam to use with different knit structures; Caoran 56 cashmere/44superfine lambswool 2,12nm.

Shima Seiki showcased computerised flat knitting machine technology which is moving apace. Complete garment and accessory knitting for fully fashioned seamless knitwear, already adopted worldwide, while APEX design software gives virtual sampling for digital first product development. 

Custom Easy

 This is the growing Pitti Filati section dedicated to showing the diversity of knitwear embellishment on offer and the growing push to individualise ideas and aesthetics and add value to designs.

Creative dynamism is reflected in technical advances to increase the individuality of the offer. The intent is to push the boundaries of knitwear, via the fusion of skills and high-tech processes. Embroidery themes and cutting techniques aim at levels unattainable in past finishing and spinning, they were demonstrated in a lavish 50 mannequins by Maurizio Borcchet.

Pitti Filati hosts the annual Feel the Yarn competition showing the work of selected, talented international students specialising in knitwear, using yarns chosen from the exhibitors. This year it was won by Camilla Conti of Polimoda Florence, in striking garments made with Linsieme Yarn. A visual confirmation of optimism.

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