Turkish fashion industry showcases its strength (and fears) at new edition of IFCO: “We are Europe’s reliable partner”

At the invitation of the event's organisers, FashionUnited travelled to Turkey last week to attend the ninth edition of Istanbul Fashion Connection (IFCO). This international trade fair brings together all the key players in the Turkish fashion industry. The latest edition was marked by growing political and trade tensions that are shaking up the sector's global value chains.

Held from February 4 to 7, 2026, at the İstanbul Fuar Merkezi, Istanbul's main exhibition centre, the event was organised by the Istanbul Apparel Exporters' Association (IHKIB). According to the final figures, the latest edition of IFCO attracted 29,746 visitors from 134 countries. The majority, 61.8 percent, were Turkish visitors, with the remaining 38.2 percent being international attendees. A more detailed breakdown by region shows that international attendance was led by visitors from the Middle East (39.4 percent). This was followed by Europe (27.4 percent); Asia (18.9 percent); North Africa (11.1 percent); and a combined 3.2 percent from North America, Africa, South America and Oceania. This broad and diverse international footprint reaffirms the trade show's position as an event of increasing interest to international players in the fashion industry.

For this audience, the trade show featured an exhibition of nearly 450 exhibitors. This number is considerably higher than the 400 initially planned by the organisers for this first IFCO edition of 2026. The nearly 30,000 visitors were able to explore the offerings across the six halls of the İstanbul Fuar Merkezi where the event took place. A diverse representation of the Turkish fashion ecosystem participated, including manufacturers, wholesalers, retail brands and emerging designers. IFCO complemented this exhibitor catalogue with a full programme of talks, conferences and, of course, fashion shows.

“With its strong international participation, depth of segments and measurable commercial results, IFCO has once again confirmed its leading position as one of the top international fashion and sourcing fairs,” the show's management emphasised. They also noted that by “bringing together the design excellence, industrial capacity and global market access” that characterise the Turkish fashion industry, this latest edition of IFCO has continued to “play a key role in consolidating Istanbul as a strategic hub for the future of international fashion trade.” The organisers attribute this position to the city's unique combination of “geographical location, economic strength and cultural diversity,” offering fashion professionals “strategic access” to both established and emerging markets due to its role as a “natural bridge between Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”

Integration of Linexpo

Showcasing the full strength of its fashion and textile industry, the nearly 450 exhibitors at this latest edition of IFCO were spread across different areas within the six halls hosting the event. These sections accommodated a broad representation of all key segments of the Turkish textile industry, from womenswear, menswear and kidswear to couture and evening wear, lingerie, denim, footwear, accessories and home textiles.

The main section, and the backbone of the trade show, was once again the area dedicated to womenswear. This offering was spread across halls two and four, where brands such as Sedna Doop, Nisan Triko and Puane presented their new commercial collections to a professional audience. Within Hall 4, this was complemented by a curated selection of brands specialising in leather goods, sportswear and denim fabric, such as Moonart Jeans, whose range of embroidered and laser-engraved denim garments included some particularly interesting pieces.

Moving on to Hall 8, smaller sections within the IFCO exhibition programme were located here. These included areas for kidswear—the largest of these smaller sections—and menswear. There was also a section developed in collaboration with the Istanbul Fashion Academy (IMA), as well as zones for Experts to Business (E2B) and business-to-business (B2B) meetings and a seminar space. This entire area was particularly busy. Participants included companies like Trendyol, popularly known as the “Turkish Amazon,” who explained their decision to participate was due to the prominent position the fashion segment holds in their e-commerce operations.

Across the main central aisle of the İstanbul Fuar Merkezi, another prominent section was the “Fashionist” area. This space was dedicated to showcasing collections from brands specialising in evening, formal and couture dresses. Among these firms were notable names such as Carmen, Odrella and Alissa Fashion. Their eye-catching designs also served as a prelude to the conferences, panel discussions and fashion shows that took place continuously over the four-day event in the IFCO “Fashion Show Area”.

One of the major new features of this edition was the large space adjacent to the “Fashionist” area, dedicated to the latest lingerie and swimwear collections from leading Turkish intimates brands and manufacturers. This offering was incorporated into IFCO's commercial showcase for the first time, following the organisation's decision to integrate the specialised Linexpo trade fair under its umbrella. This show-within-a-show at IFCO featured proposals from specialised firms like Monamise, Elsima, Anil, Moongirl, Sevim Woman and Kota.

IFCO's management argues that this integration allowed the entire Turkish apparel industry to demonstrate to international visitors that the country also holds a “strong position” in the strategic intimates and swimwear segment.

“Moving the Linexpo show to the main area of the fair was a great operational decision,” said Ümit Taş, sales department director at the specialised firm Artış Collection. “When all segments come together at one fashion fair, it creates value for both visitors and exhibitors.” He added a general assessment of this IFCO edition from the brand's perspective, stating, “we mainly connected with buyers from Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan, Baghdad, Mosul and Palestine.” “Our goal is to participate in future editions of IFCO as well,” he added, highlighting the show's good organisation and its role as a platform for staying “in touch with existing buyers” and “attracting new clients.”

Implementing latest technologies in AI and 3D printing

Concluding this “virtual tour” of the latest IFCO edition, we arrive at Hall 7 of the İstanbul Fuar Merkezi. This space was also particularly busy and even more stimulating. Under its roof, the main retail brands present at this edition of the show gathered on one side, and a curated, diverse selection of Turkish fashion designers on the other.

Regarding the first group, the exhibition stands of Turkish fashion firms for both men and women, such as Kigili, NCS, Jimmy Key, Panço, Ruba, Herr Widman, Nara Maxx and Twist, were located along the perimeter of the hall. Notable names among them included the menswear brand Jakamen, which has an impressive flagship store in one of Istanbul's main city centre shopping areas, and the womenswear retailer Ipekyol, whose store at Istanbul Airport shares the spotlight with major international luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior and Ferragamo.

Meanwhile, in the centre of the space, a “capsule space” was set up for a prominent group of Turkish designers. They participated in this latest edition of IFCO from the area named “The Core Istanbul.” This section housed the most daring and avant-garde creations from a total of 22 Turkish designers, including figures who have already begun to build careers beyond the country's borders, such as Özlem Süer, Mehtap Elaidi, Emre Erdemoğlu and Ceren Ocak. It was precisely in this section of the fair that the efforts of the Turkish fashion industry's ecosystem to stay at the forefront of the sector were most visible. This was demonstrated through the implementation of technologies such as 3D printing and artificial intelligence.

In this regard, a notable example was the 3D-printed dress by the designer label Sudi Etuz, made from a semi-rigid material that represents a step towards 3D-knitted ductile garments. AI also became a key feature in “The Core Istanbul” space itself. Each participating designer label had a screen displaying an AI-generated model wearing the pieces exhibited in this dedicated designer fashion area of IFCO. These recordings, like the models, were generated entirely by AI using only flat-lay photographs of the designers' pieces. Several other exhibiting fashion brands at this IFCO event have already adopted the same dynamic to create illustrative graphic material for their collections, which they provided to visitors. This documentation included complete campaigns created with generative AI, based solely on flat-lay photographs of the garments.

Europe's “reliable partner”

To conclude our visit to the trade show, we had a relaxed meeting with the key figures from both IFCO and the Istanbul Apparel Exporters' Association (IHKIB). During this meeting, we discussed the main issues affecting the development of the Turkish fashion industry. Our hosts were keen to emphasise Turkey's role as Europe's true “reliable partner.”

To understand this complex situation, it is first necessary to contextualise the current state of the Turkish fashion industry. The industry has just come through 2025, a year marked by growing and relentless geopolitical and trade uncertainties. These issues, with their epicentre in Donald Trump's US, have affected all global fashion and textile industry supply chains. For Turkey, these tensions and instabilities resulted in a +4.5 percent increase in total Turkish exports in 2025, reaching 273.4 billion dollars. However, textile exports fell by -4.4 percent year-over-year to 26.2 billion dollars. This decline was even sharper in the finished garments segment, where exports fell by -6.3 percent last year to 16.8 billion dollars.

Despite this drop, and based on data from IHKIB, the Turkish apparel sector remained the fourth largest export sector in Turkey during 2025. It was surpassed only by the automotive, chemical and electronics sectors. It is therefore one of Turkey's main industrial sectors, not only in economic terms but also for job creation, employing some 852,270 workers in both the textile industry (347,964 workers) and the apparel industry (503,306 workers). These workforces are ultimately responsible for manufacturing textiles and apparel, with the EU being the main destination in 2025. The common market received 60.6 percent of all of Turkey's apparel exports. This volume positions the country as the EU's third largest supplier, behind only China and Bangladesh. These two countries are the world's largest apparel exporters, followed by Vietnam, Germany, Italy, India and Turkey, which is the world's seventh largest apparel exporter. During our meeting with the leading authorities of IFCO and IHKIB, it was conveyed that Turkey views the European Union's latest trade agreements with some apprehension, particularly the one reached with India. Unofficially, it was suggested that Europe would ultimately pay a high price for this free trade agreement in the long run, just as it is now paying with China. This is especially true if, as is already being warned, many companies choose to relocate their production from Turkey to the Asian country.

In response to these fears, Turkish authorities are defending the country's identity and presenting it as “Europe's true reliable partner.” They support this claim based on two main points. Firstly, its geographical proximity, combined with its industrial strength, positions the country as a source of proximal production for companies operating in Europe. Secondly, its companies and policies are aligned with key European directives and standards on innovation and sustainability. They criticise that this “commitment” to the single market's guidelines leads them to compete on an unequal footing with Asian manufacturers and brands. This complaint seems to be a call for European authorities to show greater commitment to their own rules. Despite this, they highlight that Turkey is successfully defending itself and leveraging its competitive advantages against other producer markets. This is happening at a particularly difficult time, where the new US trade policy, rising prices and the new EU free trade agreements with Mercosur and India are boosting the competitiveness of other countries like Morocco, the aforementioned India and Egypt.

To further contextualise Turkey's position as a “global supplier” of apparel and textiles, Germany was the top destination for Turkish textile exports in 2025, with a value of 2.6 billion dollars, according to ITC Trademap data. The Netherlands followed with imports of around 1.9 billion dollars (-5 percent); Spain with 1.7 billion dollars; the UK with 1.4 billion dollars; and France with 895.1 million dollars. The top ten importing markets for Turkish textiles and garments also included the US (+1.7 percent), Iraq (+13.3 percent), Italy and Jordan. The Jordanian market saw particularly significant growth last year, with imports of Turkish textiles reaching 216.3 million dollars (+238.8 percent).

“IFCO has shown that Turkey's textile industry is ready for the future,” said Mustafa Gültepe, chairman of TIM (the Turkish Exporters' Assembly) and chairman of the board of IHKIB. He noted that the latest edition of the show presented the industry as “resilient, design-driven and strategically positioned to deliver sustainable value to global markets, even in challenging times” like the present. His words add depth to the impressions shared by participants at this IFCO edition, which was attended by buyers from the UK, France, the US, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Denmark and Spain, from companies and groups such as Paul Smith, Strait Down Enterprise and Scalpers. Turkish exhibitors highlighted the high profile of these visitors and their growing interest in IFCO and its offerings. This reinforces the fair's increasing relevance as a platform for placing orders and establishing business contacts, despite the current “challenging” environment.

“The global textile industry is undergoing a period of transformation marked by evolving market dynamics and changing demand patterns,” remarked Mustafa Paşahan, chairman of IFCO and vice chairman of IHKIB. “In this landscape, the Turkish textile industry stands out for its strong design capabilities and robust production infrastructure.” “Well-positioned to respond to these dynamics, the industry continues to move forward with confidence and adaptability,” he continued. This is done in partnership with IFCO, a fair that “reflects this strength by bringing together creativity, production expertise and international business, demonstrating that the Turkish textile industry is not only adapting to current market conditions but is also actively shaping its future.”