From the Sector

ROICA™, Asahi Kasei's premium stretch fiber manufacturer, strengthens its presence in the high fashion segment thanks to its established network of partners, who will present their latest innovations - activated by ROICA™ - at the upcoming edition of Milano Unica, taking place at Rho Fiera Milano from 12th to 14th July 2022.

Going more in depth in the offers of ROICA™ partners for this season of Milano Unica, they are:

• Cifra, which presents its innovative garments for men and women, combining fashion and function. Base layers, tops, leggings and jumpsuits are made with natural yarns, or recycled pre- and post-consumer yarns in combination with ROICA™ EF, the sustainable recycled stretch yarn able to complete proposals that offer design, performance and responsibility. The design of the garments, created in Cifra's design office, offers a perfect shape with body mapping technology that creates dedicated ventilation zones, for a feeling of comfort and freshness as well as an innovative aesthetic impact.
• Iluna Group, whose journey into the new dimension of responsibility continues with developments in GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled yarns aimed at unprecedented effects in looks, performance and hands. Brand new for this edition of Première Vision is the inclusion of GOTS-certified organic cotton in GRS-certified galloons and allover lace containing ROICA™ EF, so as to meet market demands for natural comfort in the underwear sphere.
• Maglificio Ripa, which presents the Splash collection for summer 2024, developed in two major themes, united by the same focus on sustainability that results in the use of recycled pre- and post-consumer polyamide and polyester yarns including ROICA™ EF for the sustainable recycled stretch fiber. The first theme encompasses printed, 3D jacquard fabrics, ennobled by innovative processes that move the bottoms for an organic and sometimes irreverent final look. The second theme embodies a cocoon spirit, enveloping like a caress, soft as a hug.
• Penn Textile Solutions/Penn Italia, whose highlights of the new collection are on one side fabrics developed with the use of Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550, characterized by restraining lace effect, soft touch and breathable, in combination with tulle as a sustainable basic, and on the other side charmeuses with soft hand, raw cut in combination with a band fabric from the dreamshape family with reinforced gripping edge, made again in Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550
• Piave Maitex, whose orientation is, as always, to present new products with the right  balance between technological innovation and aesthetic look, between fashion and comfort, proposals that include sustainable fabrics made in recycled polyester,  polyamide and the sustainable recycled stretch fiber ROICA™ EF, three-dimensional and optical, perforated, plush effects, made by prioritizing technical functionalities such as waterproofness, breathability, transfer and moisture management, opacity and anti-UV as well as anti-abrasion.
• Sitip, which is one of the premium partners, together with ROICA™, for the creation of the first Scott Racing Team’s responsible biking uniform. This year, the evolution of research and development has also led to the creation of new responsible shorts, made with NATIVE-THUNDERBIKE POWER fabric by Sitip in recycled polyamide and ROICA™ EF yarn by Asahi Kasei. A fabric designed for high-performance sports, particularly suitable for making cycling pants for its maximum coverage and UV protection - thanks to ECLIPSE Sun Protection technology - breathability, comfort and fit. Also the shirt has been produced with Sitip recycled fabrics - NATIVE-BICIMANIA and NATIVE-PIRATA - made with Asahi Kasei's ROICA™ EF sustainable, stretch and certified recycled yarns.

The new Swedish luxury womenswear brand presented its first couture runway show, ‘Midnight in the Persian Garden’, in the Salle des Textiles of Paris’ Musée des Arts et Métiers on Thursday, July 7th at 10.30am CET.

As earthly manifestations of an imaginary paradise, where architecture and horticulture were brought together into meticulous perfection, the Persian garden was the point of inspiration for ArdAzAei’s debut couture collection.
A poetic ode to the transcendent beauty of nature, ‘Midnight in the Persian Garden’ honours the incredibly complex systems of engineering required to create such sublime spaces through couture’s intricate techniques of smocking, pleating, embroidery, and appliqué.
 
An evening wear collection of red-carpet gowns and cocktail dresses, tailoring, jewellery and accessories, the collection sees a recurring reference to the Persian Rose and the Parrot Tulip, with the flowers informing silhouettes, three-dimensional sculptural forms, and elaborately embroidered jacquard.
 
Sharp tailoring in the form of contemporary women’s suits see sleek jackets and flared pants with hypnotic floral patterning evoking the undulating chaos of nature’s rhythms.
 
Another key theme running throughout the collection is the dynamic between mathematic forms of composition—a key element of Persian garden architecture—and the craft of the handmade, evident in crystal sequins custom-cut to the lines of the ArdAzAei logo, designed by M/M (Paris), which are then hand-embroidered to create organic forms.
 
The dynamic is also evident in an evening dress which sees 60 metres of fabric pleated and cut into geometric shapes appliqued to its top, while 100 hand-painted pleated fans go into the construction of its flared skirt.

In order to realise such intricate forms of construction, the collection is made in France in collaboration with highly skilled couture artisans focused on upholding the highest craftsmanship and material standards. The show venue, the ‘Salle des Textiles’ at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, pays homage to the country’s rare artisanal expertise.

“I have been searching for the long-lasting beauty and respect for nature that you’ll find in the Persian garden, some of which date back to as early as 4,000 BC,” says Bahareh Ardakani, ArdAzAei’s founder and creative director.
 
“This is reflected in our endeavours to certify part of our collection to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), and why this collection is made in France with the country’s leading couture artisans. Every detail is precious, and we want to express the feeling of walking through a Persian garden in the midnight to the smallest of details.”
 
With ateliers in Paris and Stockholm, ArdAzAei is where Persian heritage, Swedish modernism and French savoir-faire collide.

As a luxury womenswear brand engaged in the search for the sublime, ArdAzAei eschews trend-based consumption to instead offer made-to-measure couture, and one prêt-à-porter collection of formalwear per year, released in drops according to the seasons on the digital flagship ArdAzAei.com
 
ArdAzAei focuses on working with textile suppliers that can reveal the details of the origins and processes behind its products, tracing each fabric right through the supply chain of raw materials, yarn spinners, weavers, print and dying techniques.

Carbios has signed an agreement with On, Patagonia, PUMA, and Salomon, to develop solutions that will enhance the recyclability and circularity of their products.
 
An important element of the two-year deal will be to speed up the introduction of Carbios’ biorecycling technology, which constitutes a breakthrough for the textile industry. Carbios and the four companies will also research how products can be recycled, develop solutions to take-back worn polyester items, including sorting and dismantling technologies, and gather data on fiber-to-fiber recycling as well as circularity models.
 
The challenge the four brands share, is that their ambitious sustainable development goals can only partially be met by conventional recycling technologies which mostly target bottle-to-fiber recycling. Future regulations will require more circularity in packaging and textile. Yet the market consensus is that there will soon be a shortage of PET bottles, as they will be used for circular production methods in the Food & Beverage Industry.   
 
Carbios’ innovative process constitutes a technological breakthrough for the recycling of polyester (PET) fibers, which are widely used in apparel, footwear and sportswear, on their own or together with other fibers. PET polyester is the most important fiber for the textile industry with 52 MT produced, even surpassing cotton at 23MT. The biorecycling process uses an enzyme capable of selectively extracting the polyester, recovering it to recreate a virgin fiber. This revolutionary technology makes it possible to recover the PET polyester present in all textile waste that cannot be recycled using traditional technologies.
 
PET plastics and fibers are used to make everyday consumer goods such as bottles, packaging and textiles. Today, most PET is produced from fossil resources, then used and discarded according to a wasteful linear model. By creating a circular economy from used plastics and fibers, Carbios’ biorecycling technology offers a sustainable and more responsible solution.

This season, adidas Originals returns with the next installment of its “Always Original” initiative. First assembled in 2021 to pay homage to the multifaceted identities of women and non-binary folks, the “Always Original Collective” takes centre stage again, as the brand with the Three Stripes turns its focus to representing allyship in originality with a new collection and campaign made to fit every story.

The drop one offering has been designed for everyone – no matter their size, shape, gender, or style. Celebrating all forms of originality each piece is available in an extended size run and boasts lace constructions that are as versatile as the moves of those the collection was designed for. Created to allow everyone to express their individuality, the garments on offer reimagine adidas’ sporting history for a new generation of changemakers while the footwear selection features updated takes on the Forum Low and the Astir W silhouettes.

Launching alongside the main Fall/Winter 2022 drop one selection is an expressive capsule collection co-created directly with the “Always Original Collective”. Inspired by each member’s interpretation of two key words – Belonging and Community – the capsule offers a host of bold and dynamic graphic pieces.

The first seasonal drop is accompanied by the arrival of an undeniably optimistic campaign centering on four members of the collective – Jari Jones, Amani, Naomi Otsu, and Lena Waithe – and inspired by the slogan: “They’ve been here for us. Now it’s our turn.”

The campaign visuals spotlight the shops and small businesses that helped to shape the lives of each dynamic changemaker: Yu & Me Book Store, Le’Jemalik Beauty Salon, Hibiscus Brew Coffee Shop, and Savant Studios. Putting the focus on those who have been there all along, the campaign seeks to demonstrate the power of allyship in communities around the world.

The electrolyser producer Enapter has set itself the goal of developing its entire production process to run without negative impacts on the environment. As an important step on this journey, it is building the Enapter Campus production facility, which will be powered entirely from renewable energy produced on-site and in the neighbouring Bioenergiepark. The site in in Saerbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia combines electrolyser production, an R&D building, administration and office space, as well as a cantine over 82,000 square metres. Now the company wants to investigate what other measures can be implemented to achieve its “Life Cycle Impact Zero” aspirations – together with researchers from Fraunhofer UMSICHT, the Wuppertal Institute and the Institute of Sustainable Nutrition (iSuN) of FH Münster.

With the Life Cycle Impact Zero project, started on April 15, 2022, the parties want to develop and apply an especially comprehensive and holistic approach to environmental assessment. This includes chemical manufacturing and electrolyser production, as well as matters like the use of energy and water resources, the generation of waste or the human factor in general. This is intended to cover all interactions between business and people. That includes, in particular, Enapter’s employees, but also people in upstream and downstream value chains, users of the technology or residents close to the production site. A concept for sustainable employee catering is also being developed.

The basis for all environmental assessment that will be carried out is ISO 14040. The recognised international standard divides the research into four phases: Aim and scope of the study, inventory analaysis, impact assessment, as well as interpretation. Sensitivity analyses and scenario techniques are also used as further methods.

On the basis of these analyses, the 18-month project should derive concrete measures to avoid negative environmental impacts completely, if possible, for example in production, employee mobility or in energy supply. Furthermore, it will examine whether these measures are transferable to Enapter’s other locations – such as in Italy. Following on from the project, the steps defined should be implemented by Enapter in the next phase. In the subsequent Phase 3, a renewed analysis is planned. This will determine if the technological innovations achieved by then in the production and use of Enapter’s electrolysers can enable additional ecological improvements.

The Life Cycle Impact Zero project is supported by the State of NRW.

ROICA™ strengthens its presence in the apparel segment thanks to its established network of partners, who will present their latest innovations at the upcoming Première Vision.

ROICA™ partners are the “artists” and “heartists” of premium stretch in fabrics: because they have at heart all the values for which ROICA™ stands for. These partners presenting at Première Vision are:

• Iluna Group, whose journey into the new dimension of responsibility continues with developments in GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled yarns aimed at unprecedented effects in looks, performance and hands. Brand new for this edition of Première Vision is the inclusion of GOTS-certified organic cotton in GRS-certified galloons and allover lace containing ROICA™ EF, so as to meet market demands for natural comfort in the underwear sphere.
• Innova Fabrics, which recently enhanced its smart offering by launching the RF (Residual Free) line, with the goal of reducing the impact of microplastics derived from the fashion industry. This is made possible by mixing two responsible ingredients, SENSIL® BioCare by Nilit and ROICA™ V550 by Asahi Kasei, which give birth to both sporty and casual fabrics.
• Inplet, which enriched its production of smart elastic and rigid knitted fabrics with three new products: a powernet fabric in 77% polyamide RECO and 23% ROICA™ EF with good recovery; a net fabric in 55% polyamide RECO and 45% ROICA™ EF characterized by a soft hand and good elasticity; and a 79% polyamide and 21% ROICA™ V550 good power, good recovery and a soft touch.
• Penn Textile Solutions/Penn Italia, whose highlights of the new collection are on one side fabrics developed with the use of Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550, characterized by restraining lace effect, soft touch and breathable, in combination with tulle as a sustainable basic, and on the other side charmeuses with soft hand, raw cut in combination with a band fabric from the dreamshape family with reinforced gripping edge, made again in Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550
• Tessitura Colombo Antonio, which in its new A/W 23-24 collection expands its proposal of regenerated lace from the ECO-LACE line: new designs inspired by fashion trends using ROICA™ EF. Also, in its BIODEGRADABLE line it uses ROICA™ V550 for the realization of new designs. The new MICROMODAL line uses ROICA™ V550; the effect of this lace range is softness, elegance and relief effect.

Since 85 years, Riri Group is a point of reference for the creation of details of style providing fashion brands with accessories, including zippers, buttons, metal components, and fashion jewels. Fashion is necessarily a reflection of social changes, cultural turmoil, popular aspirations, and the needs of the final customer: from these assumptions comes Riri Group’s FW 23-24 collection. The newly released collection presents two dynamic paths to explore the needs of the market targeting self-expression through style: Extreme Outverse and Fluid Glamour.

EXTREME OUTVERSE: Accessories for accessing multidimensionality
Art, space travels and the metaverse experience provide the inspiration for transparent and glossy digital prints, laser markings, use of colored paints, use of jacquard ribbon and iridescent lurex, invisible button caps, PVD finishes (rainbow, matt black), reverse coated nylon zips.

FLUID GLAMOUR: Redefine infinitely (elegance) standard
Fluid Glamour expands the processes of representing the individual in an elegant interpretation of its complexity. This concept of fluidity and uniqueness meets the new frontier of the space tourism race and intergalactic style to create futuristic atmospheres and sculptural silhouettes: rhinestones and black stones developed by Amom, wool yarns, jacquard, and a variety of tapes – metallised genuine leather and eco-leather, GOTS-certified cotton and GRS-certified recycled polyester, knitwear, white with silver lurex – that reflect the space exploration and dark desert landscapes.

International technology group ANDRITZ has received an order from Yanpai Filtration Technology Co., Ltd. (YANPAI®), China, to supply batt forming equipment with an aXcess card and crosslapper for a needlepunch line producing PTFE filtration products at its site in Tiantai. The PTFE felts will be used as smoke filters in waste incineration plants. Start-up of the line is planned for the second half of 2022.

Yanpai is one of the leading Chinese producers of nonwoven filters for dust and air treatment and of woven filter fabrics used in solid/liquid separation. Established in 1990, Yanpai was at the forefront of development work on new industrial filtration fabrics. Today, Yanpai is a company with facilities in China and the USA.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) completed the acquisition of the wool spinning businesses in Italy and Poland of Tollegno 1900 S.p.A. (Tollegno 1900), a leading Italian manufacturer of fabrics and yarns.

Tollegno 1900 has a family-based heritage with more than 120 years of experience and is one of the leading European textile groups with a total spinning capacity of around 3,500 tons of yarn per year with a specific focus on flat knitting and hand knitting yarns. With this acquisition, IVL secured two assets, including a spinning and top-dyeing operation in Poland and a yarn dyeing operation in Italy.

The acquisition is a strategic fit for IVL’s integrated business platform and will make a significant contribution to the sustainable growth of its Wool business, which is part of the company’s Fibers segment. It will also strengthen IVL’s footprint for worsted yarns in Europe and help extend IVL’s wool products globally with trading subsidiaries in America and Asia.

The operations, which will be renamed Filatura Tollegno 1900, will add more sustainable products to IVL’s portfolio, including a full traceability project of the fibers used for yarns and fabrics, as well as provide synergies with existing assets.

Giovanni Germanetti, the CEO of Tollegno, will continue in the same role with Filatura Tollegno 1900, facilitating continuity and exploring new growth as part of IVL. Lincoln Germanetti, the President and co-CEO of Tollegno, will remain with Filatura Tollegno 1900 as COO.

C.L.A.S.S. will join forces with Milano Unica, 12-14 July, to push the change towards a new generation of fashion through its C.L.A.S.S. SMART SHOP: an online space offering eco-high-tech materials representing a range of categories able to create a new generation of fashion. It is dedicated to students, designers and new generation brands who want to explore and test premium materials mixing style, innovation and responsibility

The C.L.A.S.S. SMART SHOP partners exhibiting at Milano Unica are: ALBINI GROUP, ILUNA GROUP and ZIGNONE.