This shift isn’t driven by one trend alone. On the market side, brands and consumers expect faster response times, more customisation, and more transparent supply chains. On the policy side, the EU is tightening requirements around textile waste and circularity, making it harder to compete without systems that support reuse, recycling, traceability, and smarter production planning.

For Katty Fashion, a Romanian manufacturer with over two decades of experience, strong digital capabilities (including 3D prototyping), and a practical focus on efficiency and low-waste workflows, 2025 has been a year of turning innovation into real operational tools.

In this end-of-year update, we share progress across the three flagship EU projects where Katty Fashion is actively involved: R3GROUP, RegioGreenTex, and AI REDGIO 5.0.

R3GROUP: Building reconfigurable manufacturing for a volatile market

Fashion manufacturing rarely stands still. Orders change, styles evolve, and supply constraints can appear overnight. That’s why reconfigurability (the ability to adjust production quickly without sacrificing quality or speed) has become a competitive advantage rather than a technical luxury.

R3GROUP is focused on enabling that shift. The project develops approaches and tools that help manufacturers reconfigure processes efficiently, reduce downtime, and stay responsive when production priorities change.

A key milestone this year was the formal spotlight on Katty Fashion as a pilot site, presenting how digital solutions can support faster, smarter changes on the shop floor. The pilot story captures a reality shared by many apparel SMEs: increasing pressure for flexibility, shorter runs, and reliable lead times, all while keeping costs under control.

Throughout 2025, R3GROUP communications also reinforced a wider industry evolution: moving from basic automation toward intelligent manufacturing, systems that support decision-making, adapt to constraints, and help teams act faster with better information.

R3GROUP: Building reconfigurable manufacturing for a volatile market

For fashion and textiles, reconfigurable manufacturing translates into very practical benefits:

• Quicker changeovers when styles, materials, or priorities shift
• Less downtime during line adjustments and planning updates
• More reliable delivery performance, even under volatile demand
• Better use of capacity, without resorting to costly “just-in-case” buffers

The project’s Early Adopter Programme has also been a strong 2025 signal: R3GROUP isn’t only about research; it’s about bringing manufacturers into the loop early so the solutions are shaped by real operational needs.

Looking ahead to 2026: expect continued opportunities for validation, benchmarking, and adoption, especially for companies ready to translate resilience into measurable KPIs such as changeover time, downtime reduction, and planning accuracy.

RegioGreenTex: Making circularity workable, scalable, and measurable

If R3GROUP strengthens the “how” of production, RegioGreenTex focuses on the “what happens next”, the infrastructure and collaboration needed to make textile circularity real.

RegioGreenTex connects 11 textile-intensive regions across eight European countries, including North East Romania, to strengthen interregional innovation and build a recycling ecosystem where textile waste becomes a resource. Its approach is both ambitious and practical: improve regional capabilities, link supply and demand for recycled materials, and give SMEs tools to assess readiness and find partners.

2025 Highlights: from Frameworks to Usable Tools

This year, RegioGreenTex moved decisively toward resources that companies can explore and apply. Standout developments include:

• A Digital Tool to support matchmaking, knowledge sharing, and cross-regional collaboration
• The Waste Wizard, designed to help connect companies that have leftover textiles with organisations that can reuse or recycle them
• A Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) to evaluate circular economy practices across materials, design, production, and transparency and identify next steps
• A shared Textile Taxonomy & Glossary to align terminology and reduce friction when collaborating across regions and disciplines

RegioGreenTex also brought circularity to life through a strong example: the Circular Garment, developed through multi-region collaboration and designed for longevity and recyclability. It’s a practical reminder that circular fashion is not just about “end-of-life”, it starts at design and is enabled by the right partnerships and material choices.

Watch the Circular Garment Documentary to learn more about how Katty Fashion and our partners contribute to the Future of Fashion Manufacturing.

As a year full of work and dedication comes to a close, we are more convinced than ever that circularity is no longer a future ambition. It is becoming a baseline expectation, both commercially and regulatorily. Producers will increasingly need to understand how materials flow, what happens to textile waste, and how to demonstrate improvements over time.

This is where RegioGreenTex delivers real value: it helps SMEs measure where they stand, find the right collaborators, and navigate investment decisions with clearer information and toolkits, available on the Project Website.

AI REDGIO 5.0: Bringing edge AI into manufacturing, starting with quality assurance

The third pillar of Katty Fashion’s 2025 innovation story is AI REDGIO 5.0, a project accelerating adoption of AI at the Edge for Industry 5.0. Its mission is to help regions and SMEs test practical AI applications and move from experimentation to deployment.

Where many AI initiatives stay abstract, AI REDGIO 5.0 is structured around hands-on experiments: pilots, demonstrators, and test-before-invest environments that help companies evaluate feasibility and impact before scaling.

2025 Highlights: a QA-focused pilot at Katty Fashion

For Katty Fashion, the most relevant applications is quality assurance in clothing production, a known bottleneck in many apparel factories. QA is often manual, skill-dependent, and hard to standardise across changing styles and fabrics.

The Katty Fashion pilot explores edge-based defect detection in the QA zone. In practical terms, this involves capturing images under consistent lighting, annotating defect types, and training AI models to recognise issues more reliably. The goal is not to replace human expertise, but to support it, reducing inconsistency, speeding up checks, and creating a stronger feedback loop for continuous improvement.

A wider project milestone: documenting experimentation at scale

AI REDGIO 5.0 also reported a major ecosystem output this year: an Experiments Booklet capturing dozens of experiments across productivity, human-centric innovation, and sustainability. This matters because it turns isolated pilots into shared learning, so SMEs don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Looking ahead to 2026: AI solutions will increasingly connect to broader compliance and circularity needs. As companies face growing requirements to document performance, AI-enabled workflows can help generate reliable, actionable data directly from the production environment.

The takeaway: three projects, one direction for competitive textiles in Europe

Across reconfigurable manufacturing (R3GROUP), circular infrastructure (RegioGreenTex), and AI applications (AI REDGIO 5.0), the message of 2025 is consistent: the future of European textiles will be agile, data-enabled, and circular by design.

If you’re a brand, manufacturer, or ecosystem partner watching these shifts, now is the moment to move from interest to action. The most resilient organisations in 2026 won’t just talk about transformation; they’ll be the ones who can demonstrate it in their operations.

As a proud member of the TCBL (Textile & Clothing Business Labs) network, we deeply valued the chance to connect with like-minded companies, exchange ideas, and explore collaborations that will help shape a more sustainable fashion industry.

“The TCBL network made us realize that we are not alone – together we can push the boundaries of sustainable fashion,” said Caterina Ailiesei, Founder of Katty Fashion.

A highlight of our participation was the Day 3 roundtable discussion on bio-based materials and the future of fashion, hosted by Messe Frankfurt. You can watch the full talk on Messe Frankfurt’s YouTube channel

During the three-day event, Katty Fashion’s team not only presented its own sustainable manufacturing practices but also learned from others’ breakthroughs. By engaging with cutting-edge textile and fashion companies and established innovators, we gained fresh perspectives on topics like textile recycling, bio-based fabrics, and supply chain transparency. These interactions have sparked ideas for new R&D projects and reinforced Katty Fashion’s belief that open collaboration is key to a greener, more efficient fashion industry.

Potential clients and partners visiting the Katty Fashion stand were able to see first-hand how the company’s agile, on-demand production model using 3D prototyping solutions and zero-waste strategies can add value to their collections. Many remarked on the advantage of working with a manufacturer that is both highly experienced and relentlessly innovation-driven, qualities Katty Fashion has honed through its 20+ years in business and active involvement in initiatives like TCBL.

AVANTEX reaffirmed our belief that innovation thrives through collaboration. We return inspired and motivated to turn the ideas and partnerships sparked in Paris into concrete projects for our clients and partners.

Cum te înscrii

1. Completează formularul de înregistrare.
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Despre RegioGreenTex

Proiectul REGIOGREENTEX – Strengthening innovative textile circularity in Europe’s regions este cofinanțat de Uniunea Europeană prin programul Interregional Investments for Innovation (i3), grant nr. 101083731. Scopul său este să stimuleze inovația și cooperarea între regiuni pentru a transforma deșeurile textile în resurse valoroase și a crea lanțuri de producție 100% circulare. Pentru mai multe detalii, vizitează website-ul oficial.

About R3GROUP

The R3GROUP project is an initiative funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme that aims to support the resilience of European manufacturing firms by providing tools to enable rapid reconfigurability.

What is the Early Adopter Programme (EAP)

The Early Adopter Programme (EAP) is a unique opportunity for manufacturers and tech stakeholders to test R3GROUP technologies before they hit the market. Early adopters will gain insights, early access, and influence over the final tools and solutions. It’s a programme where we offer external SMEs the opportunity to test R3GROUP solutions.
This way, we can understand how these solutions are applied in real scenarios and get early market feedback. This will offer you the possibility to get insights from real users and advance in your technology development. On the other hand, these SMEs have access to R3GROUP technologies without making any investment.

Who should join?

Mid-to-large manufacturers in Europe, especially those that work in the metal, wearing apparel, plastic, automotive or home appliances industries.

Key Benefits:

Early access to the latest reconfigurability and resilience tools for the manufacturing sector
Influence the development process with your feedback
Visibility as an innovation leader
Direct connection with our research and industrial partners

Detalii achiziție:

Denumire achiziție: Achizitie servicii consultanță pentru metode de reciclare a materialelor textile și identificarea potețialului de testare al acestora – „Know-how on recycling” 

Tipul achiziției: Achiziție directă

Termen livrare servicii: 15.09.2025

Cod CPV  79400000-8 Consultanta in afaceri si in management si servicii conexe (Rev.2)

Pachetul de servicii:

 1.           Realizarea unei analize/studiu de identificare a cunoștințelor deținute de compania KATTY FASHION SRL cu privire la economia circulară și elaborarea Raportului analizei împreună cu analiza SWOT.  -Raport cu identificarea soluțiilor de reciclare disponibile (naționale și internaționale, pe tipuri de fibre) și oportunități (regionale, naționale) – prospectarea pieței și solicitarea de testare, analiză și comparare a soluțiilor de reciclare de la diferiți furnizori.

2.            Organizarea și susținerea unei întâlniri de lucru via on-line cu scopul punctării ideilor companiei KATTY FASHION SRL în ceea ce privește utilizarea de noi tehnologii circulare  și elaborarea unui Raport  cu metodologia de aplicabilitate  si replicabilitatea a metodelor de reciclare

3.            Organizarea și susținerea a 4 întâlniri de lucru via on-line cu scopul prezentării unor exemple practice/studii de caz și șabloane de la companii care încearcă să atingă obiective similare cu cele ale companiei KATTY FASHION SRL în ceea ce privește utilizarea de noi tehnologii circulare;

4.            Consultanță pentru eficiență operațională și reducerea impactului asupra mediului;;

5.            Elaborarea unui Raport de feedback privind experiențele din procesul de implementare a metodelor de reciclare a materialelor textile și identificarea potețialului de testare al acestora;

6.            Elaborarea unui Raport final care să cuprindă o analiză între experiența inițială a companiei KATTY FASHION SRL și experiența acumulată în urma implementarii  consultanței  „Know-how on recycling”, eventuale obstacole, ajustări, propuneri, sugestii etc.   

 Alte cerințe

–       Drepturile de utilizare asupra materialelor vor aparține achizitorului. Prestatorul se va asigura de obținerea și transferarea eventualelor drepturilor de autor pentru oricare din elementele utilizate în cadrul materialelor.

–       Toate materialele elaborate de Prestator vor respecta conceptele de creativitate, de comunicare și identitatea vizuală stabilite de Finanțator.

–        Livrabilele finale vor fi predate în formatele solicitate de Achizitor (PDF, PNG, MP4 etc.).

–       Recepția serviciilor: verificarea activității prestate se va face prin confirmarea în baza Procesului verbal de recepție cantitativă și calitativă a serviciilor prestate.

Ofertele se pot depune prin serviciu de curierat sau livrate personal, pana la termenul limita de depunere a ofertelor la sediul mentionat, la secretariat in intervalul orar 8:00-16:00 sau prin e-mail si la adresa: katty.ailiesei@katty-fashion.ro  in intervalul orar 8:00-16:00.

Având în vedere cele menționate mai sus, avem rugămintea să ne transmiteți o ofertă de preț, în lei, fără TVA, care să cuprindă îndeplinirea servicii obligatorii enunțate în termen de 5 zile lucrătoare.

Nu uitați să atașați o copie după Certificatul constatator ONRC sau Certificatul Unic de Inregistrare/orive alt document justificative după caz,  care prevede codul CAEN autorizat aferent furnizarii serviciilor ce fac obiectul achizitiei si oferta tehnică de servicii.

Sorting returned and no longer used collected garments is repetitive, strenuous, and tiring for workers. The introduction of a collaborative robot assistant (cobot), which combines image processing sensors, grippers, and artificial intelligence, represents a viable alternative. It is also expected to positively impact the distribution of second-hand items on the fashion market and the possibility of affordable business models with a limited environmental footprint.

CoboSort: recognizing, gripping, discarding, and learning
CoboSort focuses on developing machine learning models and robotic grippers and their integration into a reliable and comprehensive collaborative robot system. This enables automated picking to support the sorting of fully, partially or unpacked garments. “This is becoming increasingly important in times of online retail because returns are generated in large quantities and are often no longer properly packaged,” reports Olaf Kähler from DIGITAL. An intelligent image recognition system including AI for recognition and a gripper system for gripping the garments work together. All of this takes place in an environment in which humans and robots work together directly. “Our institute’s contribution is the software, the ‘brain’ so to speak, which tells the robot arm where to reach next,” continues Kähler. “The difficulty here is that items of clothing are soft and – if they are not packed in a plastic bag like new items – cannot simply be gripped with a suction gripper. It is also important that garments are picked up individually and placed on the conveyor belt, as double gripping can lead to a backlog later on.”

Environmentally friendly business models
The collaborative robot system sorts mixed and randomly arranged clothing packages, requires little space, is modular, and safe and its functions can be reconfigured. Compared to current sorting solutions, it represents a moderate investment and paves the way for decentralized and flexible redistribution systems that support the emergence of new forms of e-commerce for unused or previously worn garments and recycling. By reducing the continuous production of new garments, the impact on the environment is also reduced.

Change in the fashion industry
This new approach enables synergies between fashion companies and end customers, reducing the production costs of garments and indirectly reducing raw material consumption and waste. Positive effects can also be expected in social terms: instead of performing repetitive, wear-and-tear activities, the labor force is given a proactive role. Using an intuitive interface that can also be operated by non- experts, they train the machine learning models and support the cobot in the event of an error. Major international fashion chains have already shown interest.

Further information:
Dr Olaf Kähler
JOANNEUM RESEARCH DIGITAL
Steyrergasse 17, 8010 Graz

Tel: +43 664 602 876 2035
Mail: olaf.kaehler@joanneum.at