Turkey's only fabric and accessories fair, organized for the 4th time in cooperation with Istanbul Fuarcılık, a subsidiary of CNR Holding, and Uludağ Textile Exporters' Association (UTİB), has started.

Texbridge Fair, where the trends that shape color and fashion in the fabric and accessories sector in the world will be exhibited, started today at CNR Expo Istanbul. Texbridge Fair, which continues on its way with the aim of becoming one of the most important fairs in the world, was opened with the participation of Mehmet Büyükekşi, President of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), İbrahim Burkay, President of Uludağ Textile Exporters Association (UTIB), Ceyda Erem, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNR Holding, Cem Şenel, CEO of CNR Holding, Ali Ulvi Orhan, President of OTIAD and sector representatives.

Speaking at the opening of the fair, TIM President Mehmet Büyükekşi said, "The textile sector, which attaches great importance to R&D, branding, innovation, design and fairs, will achieve the 20 billion dollar export target set for 2023."

Pointing out that coming to the forefront in design and fashion is now a sine qua non for success, Büyükekşi said, "This fair comes to mind when it comes to fabrics and accessories in the world. The latest trends in fabrics and textile accessories are exhibited here."

50 projects in one year

İbrahim Burkay, President of UTIB, stated that Texbridge, which was organized for the 4th time this year, is getting closer to its goal of becoming one of the most important fairs in the world with its rich content. İbrahim Burkay pointed out that as an association, they carried out 50 projects within a year and pioneered important fairs in order to revitalize the sector and gave the following information about the exports of the textile sector: "We closed the year 2012 with an export volume of 8 billion dollars. In January-February of this year, we exported 1 billion 337 million dollars of textile with an increase of 10 percent and 2 billion 808 million dollars of ready-to-wear with an increase of 11 percent."

Burkay said that while the number of participants was 115 companies in 2011 when they first organized Texbridge Fair, they increased this number to 200 today. Stating that Texbridge determines the trend of the next season every year it is organized, Burkay said, "In this season, we are organizing a fair that will make a sound in the sector with our trend area, procurement delegations, trend and design seminars, press conferences, Business Lounge, Denim zone, Design Lab events."

Young people's dreams turned into designs

Burkay stated that the main theme of the trend area this year is dreams and that the designs of the 2nd year students of IMA Fashion Design and Technology Undergraduate Program were exhibited at the fair in cooperation with UTIB and Istanbul Fashion Academy. Burkay emphasized that through the fair, the designs of the young people's dreams were turned into reality.

Cem Şenel, CEO of CNR Holding, said that the fair was held on an area of 20 thousand square meters and that the Texbridge Fair will act as a lever to increase the exports of the sector.

In the fair, the Lithuanian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (LATIA) and Uludag Textile Exporters' Association (UTIB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the development of mutual cooperation. The signing ceremony was held with the participation of TIM President Mehmet Büyükekşi, UTIB President İbrahim Burkay and Lithuanian Textile and Apparel Industry Association President Linas Lasiauskas.