A view of Preview in Seoul 2012(Photos: KOFOTI)

'Preview in Seoul (PIS) 2013,’ the Seoul International Textile Fair, will open for a three-day run on Sept. 4 at COEX in Seoul. The exhibition, launched in 2000, is the nation’s representative textile fair noted for boosting Korea’s textile exports and domestic sales.

PIS 2012, which took place at COEX last Sept. 5-7, attracted 92 exhibitors from 11 countries, including China, India, Germany, Austria, and Japan, according to figures compiled by the Korea Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI).

The upcoming textile fair, the 14th of its kind, will have as its main concept “Familiar,” suggesting a focus on human beings as the new direction of future materials, not advanced technology.

PIS 2013 will have more exhibitors of such renowned textile fairs as Premiere Vision, Texworld, and ISPO and have a space to display sustainable textiles combined with functional materials corresponding to global trends and environmental friendliness in a bid to differentiate itself from other fairs.

Buyers will be given opportunities to explore the future availability of diverse materials at the “Trend Forum” pavilion in which diverse materials and the latest trends will be displayed. It will be a pavilion of proprietary materials of excellent products and regionally-specialized materials. 

Influential buyers from Turkey will be invited through the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA)’s support program to expand exports and explore new business opportunities to the region, emerging as Europe’s biggest textile center in the wake of the implementation of the Korea-Turkey Free Trade Agreement. 

PIS 2013 will coincide with a variety of events, including one-on-one meetings between exhibitors and buyers and experts’ seminars on Korean and foreign fashion trends.

KOFOTI Chairman Roh Hee-chan said the upcoming exhibition will reconfirm PIS’s firm standing as a fair of advanced functions and environmentally-friendly materials to lead the future textile industry, and it will serve as a good opportunity to take a look at the growth potential of the Korean textile industry.