This isn't a blog article. It's a crystal ball allowing you to peer into autumn/winter 25-26 and look at the colors, textures, and textiles everyone will be raving about.
We’re fresh back from Munich Fabric Start 2024, the international fabric trade show, and are loaded with creative insights for AW 25/26. We’ve peeped the latest colors, fabrics, textures and designs and are ready to give you the full rundown. Grab a pen and paper; we’re dishing all the intel…
5 key AW trends for 25-26
1. Industrial heritage
The textures for this look are mostly natural; think raw denim, polished leather, chunky knits, cotton twill, and undyed furs. You’ll want to bring these tactile textures to life in natural and industrial shades. Taupe, soft browns, moss-hued grays, and cool-toned forest green and navy will be the go-to choices for this trend. Bring it all together with edgy structures, handmade knit vibes, and distressed detailing. Looking sharp!
2. Daring and dreamy
To sleep, perchance to dream of this muted pastel fantasy. This trend adores plush, audacious textures like velvet, shaggy faux furs, quilting, and playful embroidery. The color palette is warm-toned sandy shades, blushy ballerina pinks, vibrant greens, and soft royal purples. Our intel suggests draping, fabric twists, and pleats are key for adding that dreamy maximalist air to the woolens, satins, and floaty transparent fabrics that underpin this trend. Sounds dreamy? It absolutely is.
3. Off-duty workwear
Whether you think of this as highkey minimalism or lowkey office wear, the overall look is the same — quiet luxury. Pure cotton, wool, and cashmere layer over soft leather, fur, and textured bouclé to create an elevated, natural look. For this trend, you'll want to reach for go-to neutrals, as well as burnt oranges, toasty maple, cinnamons, and muted greens. Bring it all together with some ribbing, 3-dimensional embellishments, and soft structures.
4. Bold berry-toned glamor
Urban noir meets jewel tones in this shamelessly bougie trend. You'll want to stock up on mulberry tones, dusty nudes, and bright reds in fabrics that don't hold back — faux reptile skins, shaggy furs, and metallic fabrics. This trend is all about opulence, so amp up the ruffles, lace, and geometric gemstone embellishments.
5. Heritage (but make it playful)
Contrasting prints, fabrics, and layers are a big vibe for this Oxbridge-meets-punk look. Order up fabrics like washed denim, merino and cashmere, and leather (notably nubuck and glossy) in a riot of patterns. The go-tos for this trend are checks, houndstooth, patchwork, stripes, and Varsity motifs in a palette that mixes retro child-like colors with heritage faves. To get it looking bang on, you’ll want bright orange reds, tobacco and tawny shades, soft pinks and khakis, and traditional navy and emerald.
Putting your inspiration to work
You've got all the ingredients for a killer Autumn/Winter 25-26 collection — now it's time to get creative. If you fancy stepping outside your usual idea-generation framework, we recommend checking out our latest Tailored Creatives project, which showcases the awesome idea-generating power of AI for designs and collections.
Explore Tailored Creatives '25
Chris from Seedily revealed how they use AI tools to quickly generate a ton of innovative ideas that can be used to get the creative juices flowing. Chris revealed how to write a perfect prompt and how to select the best outputs for your work. As you’ll see, the journey from Seedily’s prompts to the final creative collection are a great example of how the blend of AI and human creativity can lead to truly awesome results.
More on this in the coming weeks - make sure you keep your eyes peeled!
Are you interested in discovering how tech can help you explore AW25 trends? Contact our team and start the collaboration process (we love it). We can even help with innovative jacron patches, photographic woven labels, and NFC-enabled tags that can create immersive customer experiences. Browse our apparel label portfolio, see our creative collaborations, or visit the blog for more inspiration.
