Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren among 50 global fashion brands to gather in Seoul

A business forum aimed at helping South Korea's top textile materials break into global fashion markets and strengthening the supply chain competitiveness of the textile and fashion industry opens Thursday in Seoul.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Textile Trade Association will hold the 2026 Seoul Premium Textile (SPT), a global fashion materials sourcing conference, Thursday and Friday at Coex The Platz in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Now in its third year, SPT is designed to showcase high-performance, eco-friendly and premium materials newly developed by domestic companies to buyers worldwide, with the goal of expanding export markets for Korean textiles.

A total of 103 yarn and fabric companies will participate, including seven Japanese firms. More than 2,000 domestic and international buyers are expected to attend sourcing consultations, along with representatives from over 50 global fashion brands including Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors. Participating company numbers have grown more than 10 percent from last year, reflecting the event's rising profile as a specialized sourcing forum.

The opening ceremony will include a textile and fashion mutual cooperation declaration and MOU signing, through which fashion companies — as end users — will work with yarn and fabric manufacturers to develop new domestically produced materials, linking technology development and commercialization and deepening cooperation across the yarn, fabric and fashion sectors.

The event will also feature three trend-themed exhibitions spotlighting eco-friendly and high-performance materials, as well as a six-session seminar series covering AI-driven innovation in the fashion industry, the 2027 fashion market outlook, and global trends in sports and outdoor materials.

Choi Woo-hyeok, director general for advanced industry policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said SPT is "a leading global sourcing platform that connects the innovative capabilities of domestic textile companies with world markets," adding that the ministry would "concentrate policy support on developing high-value-added textile materials and strengthening the cooperative ecosystem between the textile and fashion industries."