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‘Business as Unusual’: How the Denim Industry Is Reshaping for a Cautious Market

Tue, Sep 9, 2025, 10:38 AM 7 min read

The same cautious and concerned mood that overshadowed the start of the Fall/Winter 2026-2027 denim season in April lingered through to its final event.

Last week at Munich-based Bluezone, suppliers in the denim supply chain shared how they’re refining their collections to better suit brands’ more conservative buys for the upcoming season. Despite the event being tailored for the German market, issues like the impact of U.S. tariffs continued to drive conversations. Europe’s shrinking denim market also weighed heavy on outlooks.

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Bluezone curator Panos Sofianos described it “business as unusual.” However, Dilek Erik, global marketing manager at Sharabati Denim, noted how the denim industry is always in a permanent state of transition.

“Since I started working in the industry, there have never been easy times for denim. The solution is not to react, but to anticipate what is coming and act in good time,” she said.

Automation is key to Tejidos Royo’s longevity and evolution. While the Spanish mill has about 400 employees, Denis Earl Purvis, a sales rep for the mill, said it’s been essential to modernize and streamline parts of its production to compete with more efficient manufacturers in cheaper countries. This is the only way a 122-year-old family-run company can survive, he added.

Approximately 40 international denim mills presented their latest developments at the show, which was relocated from the industrial Zenith Halle to the more conventional MOC. Though the move placed the consolidated denim event alongside its larger sister textile show, Munich Fabric Start, it was received with mixed reactions. The opportunities for new synergies and closer integration with the fashion industry were recognized, but many attendees and exhibitors expressed their fondness for the community-like feeling of being in a separate denim-focused venue.

“We felt more comfortable at the old location—I miss the denim soul a little here. But at the end of the day, customers find us here too,” said B. Hande Yildirim, sales chief at the Turkish mill Bossa.

While exhibitors at Bluezone showcased their Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collections, their focus was already shifting to the seasons ahead.

Valencia-based Tejidos Royo is consolidating its seasonal collections while it’s the process of relocating two of its factories in Picassent to Alcudia de Crespins, where the family-owned company was founded in 1903, and awaiting new finishing machinery from Switzerland.

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