Connecting Detroit and Kortrijk Through Textile Innovation
Detroit, MI — September 2026 — The Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC) hosted Stijn Debaillie, Managing Director of Designregio Kortrijk and City of Design focal point, and Daphne Renier, Product Manager Textiles at Fedustria, during their visit to Detroit for the 2026 Detroit Month of Design. The visit included a conversation on textile innovation and creativity, as well as a tour of ISAIC’s new headquarters.
Founded in 2005, Designregio Kortrijk brings talent together across the region’s creative design ecosystem to imagine, design, and make a better future. Through projects that stimulate creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, the organization shares good practices and connects companies, designers, educational institutions, and public-sector partners through a regional network.
Since 2017, the Kortrijk region has been part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, a global network of cities that use creativity as a driver for sustainable development. Detroit joined the network in 2015 as the first and only UNESCO City of Design in the United States. The designation recognizes Detroit’s rich manufacturing, architectural, and creative legacy and connects the city to a global network of creative communities.
Designregio Kortrijk and Fedustria partnered on a design and manufacturing project focused on textile innovation. The resulting work, Spell Blanket, is now on display as part of the 2026 Detroit Month of Design exhibition at LOLO’S HOUSE.
Presented by UNESCO Creative City of Design Kortrijk, Spell Blanket by Emma Cogné is a series of textile works that explores the blanket as both a nomadic and narrative object—an intimate refuge that protects, warms, and accompanies. Drawing from a personal collection of objects, household appliances, and discreet tools from the textile industry, Cogné creates images in which the ordinary takes on a sense of strangeness and illusion. The fragments unfold into all-over patterns whose repetition narrates everyday situations, scattered with clues. The pieces combine textures, reliefs, and colors reminiscent of the layered history of velvet and brocade in early Dutch painting.
The exhibition coincides with the opening of LOLO’S HOUSE, a custom upholstery studio and art gallery dedicated to the decorative interior arts. Alongside Spell Blanket, LOLO’S HOUSE will present collaborative studio-crafted furniture created with local artists, establishing a dialogue between contemporary textile practice, craftsmanship, and interior design.
Spell Blanket is the result of Tex Design, a Belgian initiative led by Fedustria and Designregio Kortrijk that brings together Belgian textile companies and emerging creative talent. The project aims to encourage the textile sector to think more creatively, innovatively, and internationally. Through experimental installations and innovative applications, participating companies explore new market opportunities while strengthening their position as a future-oriented manufacturing industry.
During their visit, ISAIC team members showed Stijn and Daphne around our new headquarters, highlighting our expanded offerings and advanced manufacturing capabilities, including Michigan’s only TUKAcenter, located within our factory.
ISAIC was proud to welcome Stijn and Daphne to Detroit and connect with fellow innovators working to advance creativity, technology, and the future of textile manufacturing.
Interested in touring ISAIC for yourself? Request a tour here!
Or read our latest blog post about the 2026 Design Jam.