BIELLA, Italy — September 23, 2025 — The opening ceremony of the 64th edition of Filo, under the title “Innovation, Sustainability, Legality: the future of Made in Italy”, has taken place this morning at Fiera Milano Rho – Hall 14.
In his speech, Paolo Monfermoso, responsible of Filo, recalled two dates: 1994, when the first edition was held, and 2025, when Fiera Milano Rho was chosen as the exhibition venue. These two dates mark Filo’s constant growth and its impressive figures. Today, the fair hosts 109 exhibitors, including 68 Italian exhibitors and 41 foreign ones, coming from 16 countries: Austria, China, Egypt, Finland, France, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the USA and Uzbekistan.
Paolo Barberis Canonico, President of Unione Industriale Biellese, focused his attention on two concepts. “The first one – sustainability – should not be seen as an obligation, but as an additional competitive advantage that Italian companies gained through investments and entrepreneurial commitment and that we must now leverage in the markets. The second concept is aggregation: our industries are suffering attacks from structured and well-organised economic systems – not individual companies. The response to this aggression is joining forces: we must give up a bit of our corporate sovereignty to achieve much greater goals.”
Mr. Barberis Canonico concluded his speech with an “invitation to entrepreneurs to be more proactive, also towards legislators, and to actively participate in various technical working groups, which are the best place where presenting proposals, ideas and objectives for the whole sector.”
Elena Chiorino, Vice-President of Piedmont Region, took the floor saying that: “Filo is much more than a trade fair: it is an international showcase that confirms Piedmont and Italy as benchmarks for high-quality textile industry. Innovation, sustainability and legality are not slogans, but they represent those pillars on which building the future of Made in Italy, and Filo proves how our production system can turn them into concrete projects. Today more than ever, we need a serious approach to circularity that can transform the challenge of re-using materials into an opportunity for growth. As Region, we stand alongside those companies that invest in quality, skills and creativity: this is the way to strengthen international competitiveness and guarantee work and development for our territories. It is no coincidence that Piedmont’s textile industry will also be featured in the Italian Pavilion at the Osaka Expo, with the event “Ancient looms, new visions: Piedmont and Japan together in the name of sustainable textile industry”, a unique opportunity to show to the world the innovative strength of our roots.”
In his video message, the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, underlined how “Filo is now an essential event for Made in Italy textile industry. We are facing the challenge of circular supply chains, which the government is addressing through policies and initiatives which can generate economic value. I am confident that, once again, textile sector will not just manage to face this challenge, but it will use it to strengthen its leadership worldwide.”
The round table discussion was the focus of the second part of Filo64 opening event. In her introduction, Laura Ricardi – moderator – drew attention to a “textile industry that is undergoing significant change and is currently experiencing a difficult economic downturn. However, there are signs of improvement that confirm the solidity of a system that can successfully face the challenges of innovation, sustainability and legality.”
Ms Ricardi then gave the floor to Luca Sburlati, President of Confindustria Moda, who once again emphasised the need for defending Made in Italy textile supply chain by leveraging legality: “Without transparency, compliance with regulations and protection of people and work, there can be neither innovation nor sustainability: legality is therefore one of the necessary pillars of Made in Italy. Defending the legal supply chain means defending quality, ethics and international reputation of our sector. At Confindustria Moda, we work every day to support companies that invest in these values, because legality is not a cost but a competitive advantage that protects healthy companies and strengthens domestic economy. The future of Made in Italy will be increasingly intertwined with legality, sustainability and innovation: this is our challenge and, at the same time, our greatest opportunity to continue to make Italian fashion a benchmark worldwide. Supply chain and brands must stay together in defending these values.”
According to Francesca Rulli, Co-founder of Ympact and Founder of 4sustainability: “Sustainable fashion is no longer a choice, but a shared responsibility. Tools such as traceability, digital passports and measurement of environmental and social risks and impacts are transforming supply chains, making them more ethical, transparent and competitive. After a more chaotic initial phase, the transition is consolidating around clear priorities and taking on a systemic dimension. In a country like Italy, where know-how, responsibility and innovation have always been distinctive factors, this structured approach began years ago: with Ympact, 3,500 Italian companies have now started assessing risks and measuring ESG impacts, and over 300 of them have chosen to undergo periodic checks on their level of implementation with Assurance 4sustainability. The systemic approach is growing, making easier for brands to choose partners for sustainable production, representing an opportunity to strengthen the efficiency of processes and the positioning of our production system.”
Giovanni Marchi, President of MagnoLab, stressed how “Innovation can generate value by being collaborative and systemic. At MagnoLab, we connect specialist expertise across the whole supply chain to transform insights into ready-to-apply solutions: this is the belief we started with, and experience confirms that projects develop better in a network capable of enhancing the specificity of each player and the complementarity with others belonging to the network. Our invitation to companies wishing to address circular economy issues is to meet us and design new paths towards sustainability together, for textile industry and more.”
Finally, Mauro Chezzi, Deputy Director of Confindustria Moda and Association Representative for Retex.Green, focused on European regulations: “For textile-fashion supply chain, the regulatory path for sustainable transition has been confirmed at all key stages. Recently, the European Parliament has approved the introduction of an obligation for Member States to establish Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for textile industry. The EU Commissioner for the Circular Economy has urged Member States not to wait for 20 months as provide in the Directive for national implementation. Italy is already ahead on this: the draft Decree is already being prepared and is expected to be published in the Official Gazette within the year. This means that the time is fast approaching when producers will have to take responsibility for the practical management of the collection, sorting and recycling of textile waste. Retex.Green is already defining its operating model. My advice is to get ready to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead. Concretely, taking part in the Consortium’s activities to stay up to date with the new requirements is something successful, understanding the impact of the new legislation and participating in designing new regulatory framework.”
The 64th edition of Filo takes place at Fiera Milano Rho, Hall 14, on the 23rd and the 24th of September 2025.
Posted: September 28, 2025
Source: Filo
