Last Kingpins Amsterdam took place on 15 and 16 October 2025 at Sugar Factory. A general positive feeling pervaded the show, with lots of international visitors and highly specialised insiders crowding the show.
Despite the ongoing difficult times and overall uncertainties, optimism is not missing, and the vast amount of events, parties, and gatherings happening before, during, and after the show prove it was a significant business and networking occasion.
On the eve of the show, they held various events like, for instance, Transformers, the talk involving companies willing to set a change in the ongoing ways to handle the jeans and fashion industry.
On that same night, Advance Denim hosted a party on a boat travelling through the city’s canals to celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary of participation in Kingpins.
At the same time, Artistic Milliners x Cone Denim hosted The Outsiders, the first of a series of events involving leading creatives from outside the denim bubble, bringing fresh perspectives and insights to the community. The aim of the initiative was to spur conversations, shift perspectives, and discover new, highly inspiring ambiences. The special guest of the event was Omar Bailey, a footwear development pioneer and co-founder of the Fctry Lab brand.
More events happened on the following night, including The Italian Connection, a party and event hosting a fashion show held at the House of Denim Foundation presenting the newest developments by Officina39 and Tonello.
The core of the event, though, was the two days of Kingpins Amsterdam hosting busy halls and various international brands, insiders, and manufacturers willing to discover the hottest novelties of the new season.
Photo: Maria Cristina Pavarini
Artmill by Adriano Goldschmied
Matericness is the new cool
Lots of new materic and surface effects characterised various fabric collections through real and trompe-l’oeil printed effects. Among the most outstanding novelties were Digital Blue Wave, a new printing technique on both sides of the fabric developed as a collaboration between Artistic Milliners’ Artmill and Adriano Goldschmied, and also cool new prints developed by Sharabati.
Cool laser effects resembling natural landscapes or vegetal motifs are a new must-have for Jeanologia’s novelties, or floral effects obtained by laser contrast-treating, as achieved by Officina 39 on both woven fabrics and jerseys.
Betting on true feel and touch, new effects were highly innovative multi-strata colored developments by Officina 39 and Isko Luxury By PG, offering new bark effects, along with Calik Denim using colored contrasting.
Photo: Maria Cristina Pavarini
Officina39
Vintage is back
Among the top innovations presented within the show, there was a strong return of vintage effects, reinvented in a modern key, as many companies hosted, for instance, lightweight vintage denim that looked as if it were much heavier or alternative cellulosic mixes conveying relaxed and open effect fibers.
They achieve such results thanks to alternative hollow fibers at the core of the yarns, as presented by Sharabati, Advance Denim, and Nishat, to name a few, along with Lenzing’s new Tencel Lyocell–HV100, a newly developed cellulosic fiber that creates slight irregularities in the fabric, giving it the typical characteristics and appearance of natural fibers.
Always sticking to the vintage trend was The Lycra Company, launching its new Lycra VintageFX fiber that allows low-stretch denim garments to move freely and easily, combining lasting comfort and wearability with a vintage aesthetic.
Photo: Maria Cristina Pavarini
Sharabati
Forty shades of white
White is the coolest color for summer 2027. Rich linen and cotton fabrics—alone or blended together—convey a luxurious and comfy feel, better if softly and slouchily woven. Most different shades of white—from butter to ice white and superlight blue.
Photo: Maria Cristina Pavarini
Shimmering Sunfade installation by The Vintage Showroom
Better if they are drapey and crinkled or permanently creased. Also, tone-on-tone jacquard effects, as seen at Cone Denim and AGI Denim, in aged pinstriped versions as presented by Isko, or in a sunfade version as developed by The Vintage Showroom. They presented a series of evidently aged pieces added with paint dripping à la Jackson Pollock as featured for their “Shimmering Sunfade” installation.
Photo: Maria Cristina Pavarini
Isko
Love nature and stay cool
Preserving nature with style is another must of the season, as presented by Tonello, which offers new dyeing solutions using natural dyes and herbs when brands want to give a new face to unsold stocks. The solution offers a double sustainable approach in saving resources as it uses low-impact substances and avoids increasing waste products.
More innovative, responsible solutions debuted. Among them, Officina39 launched its ZeroPP/All In, a new aging solution that achieved the same effects as the very noxious potassium permanganate but is not as harmful. On the contrary, it streamlines production, reduces water and energy use, and improves safety and transparency at the same cost, if not at lower costs.
Kingpins Amsterdam
Bye-Bye, Amsterdam
The long blue week closed the indigo celebrations, two more days, on Friday, 17 October, and Saturday, 18 October, with lots of events, workshops, and conferences involving the city and denim freaks crowding Amsterdam.
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