Effect pigments were originally developed to realize advanced optical effects by coating on several types of material surfaces. However, metallic effect pigments are expected to be valuable for many other applications, such as antimicrobial effects, electrical conductive coatings, or shielding against radio waves (electromagnetic shielding). Accordingly, the aim of this article is to evaluate the advanced properties which can be realized by application of coatings containing metallic effect pigments onto textile materials leading to new functional textiles. In total, four different metallic effect pigments were investigated and compared to silver and graphite pigments. By application of coatings with copper- or silver-containing effect pigments significant antibacterial properties against E. coli and S. aureus can be realized. To achieve electric conductive textiles, which also enable effective shielding against radio waves, a copper pigment carrying a silver coating leads to the best properties. Altogether, an effective coating method is presented to achieve functional textiles that offer a broad range of possible applications.