By David Gill
The textiles industry’s biggest international trade fair, Heimtextil, is prepared to open its doors as the New Year begins.
The show is scheduled for Jan. 11-14 at its traditional location, Messe Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany. According to Messe Frankfurt (also the name of the show’s owner and manager), the show is looking forward to receiving the same positive responses this year as it did in January 2011.
Last year’s show, the 41st edition, welcomed more than 73,000 attendees from more than 136 countries. According to Messe Frankfurt statistics, three-fourths of these attendees were major decision makers with their organizations—whether they be retailers, wholesalers or service providers. They came to see products offered by about 2,600 exhibitors from 60 countries.
This profile speaks to the importance of Heimtextil to setting the course for the textiles industry for the remainder of the year. “The sector relies on Heimtexil as the world’s leading marketing and ordering venue, and we are looking forward to an event distinguished by numerous top exhibitors,” said Olaf Schmidt, vice president of textiles and textile technologies at Messe Frankfurt.
At last year’s fair, the company reorganized the hall structure of the home-textiles segment, and this new layout will stay in place, according to Ulrike Wechsung, the show’s director. There will be only minor changes for this year, such as the moving of the home-engineering product group from hall 4.2 to the eastern part of hall 5.1.
Fashion labels will be presenting home collections in hall 11.0. As part of this display, for the first time, Messe Frankfurt will be cooperating with the Frankfurt School for Apparel and Fashion so that students at the school, working together with exhibitors, will create models that will demonstrate the wide range of applications for home textiles.
Also new is the “Let’s talk about ... ” lecture area, located in the foyer of halls 5.1/6.1. This section will be devoted to lectures from industry experts, with the focus this year on topics such as sustainability in home products and hospitality design, and luxury in architecture and interior design. Schmidt described the area as “a central meeting point where not only architects, planners and decision makers in the hotel and catering business, but also all other visitors and exhibitors can find out about new developments in the sector.”
As always, trend displays will play a huge role at the 2012 Heimtextil. A team of seven design studios have put together important and globally relevant trends for the show, and the results of their work will be spotlighted in forum 0. These trends can also be found in the Heimtextil “Montage” Trend Book and online at heimtextil-trends.com.