Heimtextil takes place every year in Frankfurt and is the world´s largest trade fair for home and contract textiles. Exhibitors from all over the world present their latest ideas and textile products to the international trade press and trade visitors. The perfect chance to present your university and the best student designs in our Newcomer Competition!
Your presence at Heimtextil
We are once again organising the popular Heimtextil University Contest exclusively for national and international universities specialising in textile design.
Make use of the opportunity to present your graduation work or design project drafts / institution’s academic portfolio to approximately 50,000 trade visitors from around the world and to representatives of the international trade press at Heimtextil, the leading international trade fair for home and contract textiles.
We are looking forward to the creative ideas and concepts of the students—the next generation of the textile industry—which will show new directions and inspire the sustainable future of home textiles and textiles for interiors. To participate in the University Contest, a representative contact (professor or student) must register on our online platform.
The winners will present their university and selected final theses or projects exclusively and free of charge at Heimtextil in Frankfurt from 14 to 17 January 2025.
A prize with numerous benefits
The free stand is located near the attractive, eye-catching Trend Area in Hall 3.0, where the winners have the opportunity to network at an international level and make valuable business contacts.
The award ceremony will take place on the Texpertise Stage in Hall 4.0. The finalists receive ten free visitor tickets. In addition, the Heimtextil PR team will support all winners with international media coverage and advertising measures.
Online registration
The closing date for applications is 15 September 2024. Applications can be submitted here. Registration to participate in the ‘Heimtextil University Contest’ is free of charge.
The award ceremony during Heimtextil 2025
The award ceremony will take place at Heimtextil 2025 on one of the two main stages - the Texpertise Stage.
The expert jury at Heimtextil 2025
Laetitia Forst
Scientific textile design
Background in textile design, she graduated with a masters from ENSAD Paris in 2015. She went on to work as a freelance designer and consultant before starting her PhD research with the Centre for Circular Design, which she completed in 2020. One of her key interests is in the effects of sustainability ‘constraints’ on the creative process, considering how they can be drivers for innovation rather than limitations. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher on two University of Arts London research projects: the Business of Fashion Textiles and Technology (BFTT) project with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, and HEREWEAR with the Centre for Circular Design.
Maarit Salolainen
Professor in Textile Design, Aalto University, Creative Director, Vanelli
Maarit Salolainen is Head of the MA Major in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design and Professor in Textile Design at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. She is an experienced textile design professional with a passion for bringing textile knowledge to multidisciplinary platforms. Alongside her academic work, Salolainen works in the international textile industry. As a Creative Director for the Turkish interior textile mill Vanelli, she leads a team of designers and engineers in developing new concepts, products and collections for international interior textile editors and brands.
Tina Moor
Scientific design and arts
Professor for Textile Design at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Since 2004 active in design research. From 2010 to 2021, head of the textile design field of study and deputy vice-director for teaching from 2015 to 2017. Currently, mainly involved in research and teaching, leading several interdisciplinary Innosuisse projects with industrial partners from the textile, product and machinery sectors.
Lutz Walter
Textile Technology and Innovation
Secretary General of European Textile Technology Platform, Textile innovation expert, network manager, key note speaker and book author. Has a consulting company specialized in research, technology, and new market trends, innovation policies, strategies, management and finance focused on the European textile and fashion sector. Shaped the strategies and policies for research and innovation of the European textile and clothing sector and managed large-scale European research projects for close to 20 years.
Svenja Bernhold
Textile industry of fashion and sustainability
After her Master’s degree from Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle, Svenja started her career as a textile designer in the fashion industry. For a small label from Bavaria she developed handmade high quality knitwear. Since 2020 she is a designer and product manager at Zimmer + Rohde. She creates textiles for interiors with a strong focus on colours, sustainability and innovative materials. Svenja teaches Textile Surface Design at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach and lives with her family close to Frankfurt.
Saman Khodabandeh
Digital & Sustainable Textile Microfactory
Textile engineer and manager, who graduated from University Albstadt-Sigmaringen in Germany. Experience and insights in the discounter textile business as buying product manager and junior sourcing manager Asia. Since 2020 business development and project manager at Mitwill Textiles in France. Contribution as a project manager to the participation of Mitwill in three EU projects and writing proposals, as well managing company projects for innovation, sustainability and digitization.
Creative visions: The winners 2024
Out of the 28 entries submitted, three outstanding artists were given the unique opportunity to present their work free of charge and exclusively at their own stand at Heimtextil 2024 - and to represent their university at the same time.
From unconventional pattern dimensions to functional modular elements and fabrics as a means of communication - three projects with fundamentally different approaches that convinced the jury with their original concepts.
Rebecca Milautzcki
Winner Rebecca Milautzcki presented a black and white presentation entitled Below the pattern. The project plays with aesthetic, ambiguous and constructed pattern dimensions.
She developed her work as part of her Master's degree in Textile Art / Textile Design in collaboration with the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau.
Tasja Videmšek
The finalist Tasja Videmšek showed a colourful, functional design with home textiles inspired by Bauhaus.
As part of her Master's degree in Textile and Fashion Design at the University of Ljubljana, she designed a modular tufted rug which can be freely assembled into different compositions depending on the needs of the space.
Svenja Bremen
Svenja Bremen, a Master's graduate in Fashion Design / Costume Design / Textile Design at HAW Hamburg, was the third winner of the contest.
With "Soft memories", she developed a design research project in which she explored textiles as a potential memory and powerful means of communication.