The Portuguese fashion fair Modtissimo is the answer to sustainable production in 2023

Textile production in Porto is the essence of the fashion community on the northwest coast of Portugal. Producing textiles and clothing for top fashion and street brands for years, Porto is the unsung hero of the fashion market. Porto sources responsibly from its domain, produces textiles and clothing in a sustainable way and responsibly manages its economic market in Europe.

Porto-based Modtissimo, a sustainable fashion fair and trade show, has set its mission to expand its reach as a hub for ethical fashion manufacturing solutions – the city of Porto as a whole. On February 15, 2023, the 61st fair will take place at the Exponor exhibition center for its second iteration within this 200,000 square meter facility located north of Porto city center.

Positioning itself as the world capital of sustainable textile and fabric production, Porto produces fashion for brands at all levels. There are high-end fashion brands such as Balenciaga, Hugo Boss and Pyer Moss, streetwear brands such as Kith, Daily Paper, Foret, Schnayderman’s and even niche brands such as Highsnobiety and Everlane, all producing different garments in the coastal city Port in Portugal. .

Quality is the essence of the Portuguese fashion market. Through Modtissimo, the export focus supports expansion into prominent manufacturing sectors that promote sustainable fashion production. Porto’s industrial market sees itself as a medium for fashion supply and demand from its central location between west and east – more than 3,000 miles from NYC and nearly 2,500 miles from Istanbul.

Natural materials, finer textiles and sustainable fashion production processes are real attractions for fashion shoppers, and Portugal has invested in the sector accordingly. Outerwear manufacturing, weaving, textile manufacturing and clothing manufacturing are the largest parts of their industry. Portugal’s manufacturing industry accounted for 18% of employment in 2019 – food products with 14% were second.

Since the association with ATP (Associação Têxtil e Vestuário de Portugal) in 1996, Modtissimo has become the only trade fair for fabrics and clothing accessories in Portugal. As the official platform for the Portuguese textile and clothing industry, Modtissimo focused primarily on the future of fashion – localized and circular production.

ATP representative Ana Paula Dinis expressed the goal for Modtissimo as early as 2021 with six pillars of support that include the early thinkers of the circular fashion era, with the remaining three pillars covering technological and human ideas.

The overall global issues of textile production around sustainability and labor are in line with the values ​​of Modtissimo and ATP. The first three pillars infuse sectors dedicated to sustainable production with capital for growth. Support for SMEs and countries involved in textiles has differentiated ways to improve textile markets and their sustainability.

Dinis described the fourth pillar as digitization – an efficient way to optimize processes in the entire textile production. Cooperation and better sales support are the fifth and sixth pillars of the plan for the future. Significantly, these are the human aspects of mission intricacies.

The Fabric Fair offers live panels and lots of innovative demonstrations and samples. Customers can connect and order with factories from all over the Porto region and Northern Portugal. Consumer companies in France increased their exports from Portugal by almost 14% from July 2019 to July 2021, rising to €474 million in 2021.

On September 6, 2022 at Exponor Exhibition Center Max Attermeyer, Product Manager and Sustainability Strategist, explained the luxury manufacturing localization plan for his company, New Optimist. During this panel titled “The Future of Fashion and Textiles is Circular”, Attermeyer described his idea of ​​a regenerative world and decentralized markets for fairer trade and a reduced carbon footprint.

“[We], want to show a holistic way of combining local clothing brands and social activities to operate within our planetary boundaries. The key words are sustainable development and circularity.” Max Attermeyer says about the production process in fashion.

According to Modtissimo, the future of luxury fashion is localized production, with social issues and circular production at the forefront. Modtissimo opens up the idea of ​​sustainable fashion production as a larger-scale production that entices the capitalists of the fashion industry. The geographical location enables improvements in the supply chain and high-quality, regenerative clothing production.

Modtissimo recently moved the fair to the Exponor exhibition center, on 200,000 square meters with 50,000 square meters of covered space and 2,500 square meters of parking. The new look is an effective footprint for customers and other business personnel visiting the fabric fair.

Modtissimo also educates visitors with panels in the 945-seat hall and six halls of various sizes. Many new and veteran brands have been producing products in Porto for years, and the evolution of sustainable fashion lives there.