On August 15, the 35th Haining Home Textile Expo opened, with first-day visitor traffic surging 22.1% year-on-year, filling 250,000 square meters of exhibition space with over 2,500 source factories. Behind this data lies the 9.2% growth of Haining's home textile industry in the first half of the year—nearly ten times the national average of 0.96% for large enterprises. While most industrial clusters were still absorbing the pressure of weak demand, Haining used this expo to announce its shift from a 'fabric distribution hub' to a 'trendsetter'.
Data-Backed Industrial Resilience
Haining's growth is no accident. From January to June, the national home textile industry saw a modest 0.96% revenue increase for large enterprises and 3.79% export growth, indicating a stable but slow operating range. Haining, however, leveraged its 'north home textiles, south apparel, central digital' industrial pattern, investing consistently in digital transformation, original design, and high-end fabric R&D to achieve growth far exceeding the industry. Notably, Haining's home textile products hold a national market share of over 35%—meaning one in every three home textile fabrics in China comes from Xucun. This scale advantage is now translating into pricing power and trend-setting influence across the supply chain.
From 'a Piece of Fabric' to 'a Home': Ecological Evolution
The most significant change in this expo is the shift from 'category-based zoning' to 'scenario-based narration'. The home textile fabric zone showcased Xucun's complete supply chain as a core global jacquard fabric production area; the smart shading and window accessory zone featured electric tracks and eco-friendly coating, indicating that curtains have evolved from single fabric items to integrated functional and aesthetic systems. The intangible cultural heritage, brand fabric, and silk apparel zones revealed a clear industrial path: transforming heritage elements into creative products, extending jacquard techniques from sofas and curtains to apparel fabrics, and introducing silk, celadon, and other Eastern aesthetics into home scenarios. This means Haining's competitive dimension has shifted from 'selling fabric' to 'defining home lifestyle'.
The inauguration of the 'Haining China Home Textile City · International Silk Creative R&D Center' during the expo is a landmark event. It is more than another industry-academia collaboration; it signals that traditional silk materials will be endowed with modern design language, opening high-value-added space for home textile products. For buyers, this means that in the future, what they source in Haining will no longer be just standardized fabrics, but solutions with cultural narratives and design premiums.
Design-Driven Transformation Signals
The 'Haining Home Textile Cup' creative design competition has been held for 24 consecutive years. This year's theme, 'Weave the Present, Reach the Future', continues its dual-track format to supply fresh design talent. The first-ever 2026/27 Home Textile Color Trend Zone further signals a stronger ambition: from the healing hues of 'Earth's Rhythm' to the minimalist aesthetics of 'Light and Shadow', and the cross-cultural fusion of 'East-West Harmony', four themes outline the next season's consumption trends. This is not just color forecasting; it's a declaration of Haining's intent to master industry discourse—when an expo starts exporting trends, it ceases to be a mere trading venue and becomes a 'definer' upstream.
For exhibitors, the expo's effectiveness is the source of confidence. Companies like Hong Kong Natural Color choose to exhibit locally, praising the 'very good results' and noting that orders continue to convert one to two months after the spring and autumn expos. This 'home-based expo' model reduces participation costs while improving matching efficiency, reinforcing Haining's appeal as an industrial cluster.