The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid 2026 catwalk has once again been a showcase for creativity, innovation and craftsmanship. This year, AITEX and the haute couture brand Isabel Sanchis renewed their collaboration with the presentation of two unique pieces incorporating advanced lighting systems.
The alliance consolidates the potential for smart textiles in fashion, opening up new avenues for interaction between design, technique and emotion.
Fashion and technology unite in a transformative collaboration
AITEX’s participation in the latest Madrid Fashion Week is a further step in the integration of technology and smart textiles into haute couture.
For Rocío Silvestre, AITEX’s R&D project director, the Centre’s continued involvement is “a vital challenge technologically, demonstrating that smart textiles fit perfectly within haute couture. “
AITEX and Isabel Sanchis collaborated last year, and have strengthened their creative relationship through experimentation and the search for new aesthetic languages.
The company highlights this shared spirit of exploration: “We really liked the idea of combining craftsmanship with technology and wanted to try something new and began researching lighting in dresses and materials.”
This year’s show was particularly complex. The initial idea was just to create lighting details, but the project evolved into a complete dress.
AITEX took on the challenge of pushing the technology a step further than the previous year, with a more ambitious proposal, and a significant challenge was the huge number of lights that had to be integrated.
Textile engineering to dazzle the fashion catwalk
A dress with Illuminated Flower: 3D precision and lightness
AITEX developed the luminous piece that adorns the back of the first dress, a structural flower created from a 3D scan of the model. The process precisely captures the body’s curves, guaranteeing a perfect fit and impeccable aesthetic integration: stability, lightness, and comfort on the runway.
Inside, a system of strategically placed LED strips provides soft lighting that enhances the flower’s volume and stage presence. As Rocío Silvestre explains, one of the main objectives was to ensure that “the technology within was imperceptible, seamlessly integrated and hidden. “
Lighted rhinestone dress: 277 light points sewn one by one
The second dress is one of the greatest technological challenges undertaken to date. Over a delicate beaded design, AITEX wove a system of 277 LED lights, each individually soldered and connected by a conductive textile thread running between the hoops that join the stones.
The result is a piece that vibrates with the model’s movement, creating a dynamic and striking light effect. The brand reflects on the potential for the developments: “Merging technology with tailoring and craftsmanship creates special pieces… you give it that cutting-edge touch that makes the garment spectacular. ”
AITEX’s presence at Madrid Fashion Week 2026 reaffirms the Research and Innovation Centre’s commitment to advancing smart textiles and their application in high-impact creative fields. The collaboration with Isabel Sanchis demonstrates how the technology developed at AITEX can be integrated into haute couture without affecting the artisanal essence that defines the brand.
This line of work consolidates AITEX’s role as a key agent in the technological transformation of the fashion textile sector and opens new opportunities to continue exploring innovative solutions that connect design and function with the future.
