From the Sector

Asia's largest fashion fair, CHIC SPRING SHANGHAI, will postpone the event planned for March to April 14-16, 2022. The latest worldwide pandemic developments due to the new virus variant Omicron prompted the CHIC organizers to take this step.

With this relocation, the organizers are also taking into account the interests of international exhibitors and visitors. In addition to various international joint stands, Germany will also be represented with a GERMAN PAVILION. The trade fair team is working on innovations at the trade fair with the highest priorities and will now focus the entire marketing on the new date.

CHIC SPRING is the showcase for the latest trend developments in fashion and offers trade visitors a concentrated overview. CHIC SPRING as a fashion and lifestyle fair shows the areas of womenswear, menswear, kidswear, denim, shoes and bags, accessories, designers and streetwear in clear segments at the National Convention & Exhibition Center in Shanghai.

CHIC is organized by Beijing Fashion Expo Co. Ltd. and China World Exhibitions, supported by the China National Garment Association, the China World Trade Center and the Sub-Council of the Textile Industry (CCPIT).

The year 2021 is expected to end on an extremely positive note for the Swiss Group, with an organic turnover record (significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels) and an acceleration of the product range completion strategy: after the addition of Amom, in June, Riri is proud to share the closing of the acquisition and integration into the Group of DMC, a company specialized in the metal components sector for haute couture, more specifically leatherwear. This is another step towards creating a single hub dedicated to luxury accessories, whose goal is to develop a balanced portfolio including zips, buttons, metal hardware, and fashion jewels.

DMC, established in 1976 in Scarperia e San Piero a Sieve, near Florence, has a consolidated experience with major luxury brands and a strategic position, being located close to the Tuscan leatherwear district. Originally a family-run business, today it is a company which combines highly skilled Italian artisan tradition, which has a strong connection in the region, with the use of cutting-edge technologies. Its comprehensive vertical integration system allows for in-house management of all production process phases.

“The addition of DMC to the family” – explains Renato Usoni, CEO of the Riri Group – “is not just a bonus for our offer in terms of product range. It means also a fundamental milestone in the creation strategy of a fully integrated business model”. As a matter of fact, the operation is a further improvement in the Group’s designing potential, increasingly able to provide tailor-made accessories, as requested by each client, achieving very high levels of customization while keeping up massive investments in new technologies, organization systems and sustainability projects with a cross-cutting impact.

“Our Group” – Usoni adds – “is, to all intents and purposes, a leader in terms of innovation, thanks to its state-of-the-art plants, which are located in seven production factories, and thanks to its constant search on emerging technologies and materials”. More specifically, DMC’s proposal – in line with Riri’s – is increasingly focused on the use of sustainable products and on processes with a low environmental impact.

Furthermore, the new company in the Group is committed to integrating the economic development of its business with the ensuing social accountability. Evidence of this attention is shown by its having been awarded the certifications ISO 9001, due to the quality of its processes, products and services, and SA 8000, for its ethical management of human resource. Moreover, every year DMC produces a social report which, in line with what have always been distinctive values of Riri, bears witness to its intent of communicating its achievements clearly and transparently.

An exclusive collection of archival wedding dresses by Atelier Emé artfully reworked in collaboration with mending for good, the consulting firm offering luxury brands creative and ethical solutions for design-driven upcycling.

Re-Love is the capsule collection composed of sixteen wedding dresses - 10 developed in collaboration with mending for good, 6 created in-house by the company's style office. Sixteen iconic garments of the brand selected among the most significant in the history of the maison, reworked with love through a transformation project based on the principles of circularity. Harmonious and enchanted fusion of past and present, an effort that makes clear and possible innovation strategies following sustainability paths.

Atelier Emé has decided to collaborate with mending for good by developing a series of pieces based  on craftsmanship techniques, creativity, romance and fun, starting from the archive dresses. A work carried out by the style office in the sartorial laboratories of the Maison Atelier Emé deconstructing and reconstructing the chosen garments, while mending for good, on the other hand, has provided repurposing solutions through painting on fabric by Karl Joerns of La Serra MK textile Atelier in Florence, hand embroidery by Donatella de Bonis and hand decorations. A fairy-tale upcycling, achieved through a synergistic work that has combined highly specialized skills and craftsmanship for ten creations, full of colorful designs, watercolor bouquets, three-dimensional applications and ton-sur-ton embroidery.

Finland-based circular fashion and textile technology group Infinited Fiber Company has selected AFRY as the main engineering partner for its new flagship factory for producing regenerated textile fibers for leading fashion and apparel brands.

More than 92 million tonnes of textile waste are produced globally every year, with much of it ending up in landfills or incinerators. At the same time, textile fiber demand is increasing rapidly. Infinited Fiber Company’s technology turns cellulose-based raw materials, like cotton-rich textile waste, into a premium regenerated textile fiber that goes by the name Infinna™. The technology, which can be licensed for both new factories and to retrofit existing pulp or viscose production units, offers a solution for eliminating waste and reducing the textile industry’s burden on limited virgin resources.

Infinited Fiber Company currently operates pilot plants in Finland and has announced plans to build a flagship factory there to meet the strong demand from international clothing brands. The flagship factory will be the first of its kind in the world and will use post-consumer textile waste as feedstock. Production is scheduled to begin in 2024. In Finland, the national-level collection of textile waste will begin in 2023, and in the EU, the collection of textile waste will become mandatory in 2025, which will facilitate raw material supply.

The annual production capacity of the plant is planned at 30,000 tonnes of Infinna fiber, which corresponds to the amount of fiber needed for about 100 million t-shirts. Infinited Fiber Company has already sold a significant portion of future production through multi-year sales deals with global fashion brands, who see its regenerated Infinna fiber as an important part of their own circular economy strategies.

AFRY’s assignment includes the basic engineering of the new factory to support the final investment decision. In this basic engineering phase, AFRY will design the combination of several technology and equipment deliveries into one viable plant. AFRY will also provide its AFRY Smart Site services for the digitalization of the factory, utilizing Industry 4.0 technologies to optimize and digitally connect all the factory's processes and operations.

ISKO’s 2023 Collection Vol. 1 is designed to meet the varied needs of today’s consumer by providing fashion, comfort, versatility and responsibility in each of its innovative fabrics. The entire collection is “engineered for nature” using ISKO’s recently launched R-TWO™50+ technology – a process which creates high-quality denim that is less harmful to the natural world.

R-TWO™50+ is the driving force behind ISKO’s efforts to reduce the industry’s impact on the planet. The fabrics are made with a minimum of 50% pre- and post-consumer recycled blend that is entirely Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certified. This results in less use of natural resources and a reduced carbon and water footprint of up to 45% and 65% respectively.

ISKO has also incorporated hemp into the collection as a sustainably viable alternative to cotton. Hemp requires much less water, no pesticides and grows quickly in almost any type of soil. New spinning techniques give the fiber a softer hand feel and make hemp a genuinely enticing option to cotton.

2023 Collection Vol. 1 includes ISKO Blue Skin™, Jeggings™, ISKO™ Rigid, ISKO Rigidflex™, ISKO EFD™, Summer Colors, Catwalk, ISKO Reform™, ISKO™ Black, ISKO™ Comfort, ISKO Pop™ – and five macro trends (Denim Nation, New Origin, Isko Reborn, Isko Motion, Chill Zone). These trends incorporate some of ISKO’s key denim technologies to create a versatile collection that complements any style, vibe and mood.

ISKO Reform™, ISKO Blue Skin™ and Jeggings™ are the groups used to create fabrics that are trans-seasonal and one-size-fits-all – subscribing to a philosophy of inclusivity that is valued by Gen Z.

The collection also gives prominence to color groups. ISKO™ Black delivers various shades of black with different elasticity and aspect options. This part of the collection fulfils the perennial need for this timeless color. ISKO EFD™, or ‘Eco For Dye’, is a sustainable approach to producing ecru fabric. This technology shortens the production process and saves on water usage. The result is an ecru-colored base that can be used as is for a natural look or can also be dyed to any color.

New this season are the Summer Colors and Catwalk groups. Summer Colors is inspired by an eclectic mix of influences including natural earth tones, workwear looks or bright colors with authentic, open-end denim constructions. Catwalk is a bold and bright addition to the collection that offers on-trend styles in ISKO finishes including ISKO Urban Jeather™, Pearl Coat and Flashy Finish.

• RGE has formalised two new partnerships in Singapore to advance sustainable fashion.

The first is a three-year strategic partnership with the Textile & Fashion Federation (TaFF) to advocate sustainable industry practices within Singapore and the region, through programme implementation, research, and education. The second is a five-year research collaboration with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) on innovation in textile recycling technology.

The partnership with TaFF on its fashion sustainability programme was officially launched today. Through industry talent development and capacity building, raising corporate and consumer awareness, and innovation promotion, TaFF seeks to galvanise the fashion ecosystem towards redefining sustainable fashion.

Wilson Teo, President of TaFF, said, “Our strategic partnership with RGE marks a step forward for TaFF to expand our sustainability ecosystem throughout the fashion value chain, from materials, manufacturing, brands and technology to solutions. We have set up a Steering Committee that spans across the value chain, as a model for the industry. Together with our collaborators, we will continue to equip enterprises in the journey of sustainability. We will also work with communities to build awareness in responsible consumption and recycling.”

RGE has committed to provide nearly S$3 million funding over three years to support TaFF’s fashion sustainability programme. In addition, RGE’s Vice Chairman Bey Soo Khiang joins the programme’s Steering Committee as its Vice Chairperson.

Tey Wei Lin, President of RGE, said, “As a Singapore-based company and the world’s largest viscose producer, our business is well-positioned to support the country’s desire to advance sustainable development and to create a green economy. Our collaboration with TaFF and NTU is an investment of financial and other resources to create meaningful impact, not just within Singapore but also in the region. As part of our US$200 million investment commitment into next-generation textile fibre innovation and technology, we seek to work with innovators, industry partners, research institutions and academia to scale up solutions that will deliver cleaner and more circular cellulosic textile fibre to the masses at affordable prices.”

The launch of TaFF’s fashion sustainability programme follows the roll-out of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) by Enterprise Singapore on 1 October 2021, which supports enterprises in their sustainability initiatives and helps them capture new opportunities in the green economy.

“Industry partnerships are pertinent to uplift capabilities of enterprises. We are very encouraged by TaFF’s efforts to drive sustainability in the textile and fashion sector as trade associations and chambers play a key role in strengthening sector-specific capabilities,” said Alan Yeo, Director of Retail & Design at Enterprise Singapore. “Collaborations with corporate partners such as RGE will also help accelerate this process. This is a good start and we hope to eventually see more companies across all sectors start to integrate sustainability alongside their growth.”

The launch event was graced by Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling, TaFF’s patron and Senior Minister of State for National Development and Foreign Affairs Sim Ann, CEO of Enterprise Singapore Png Cheong Boon, as well senior representatives from TaFF and RGE.

The official launch of the research collaboration with NTU is expected to take place next year. A key desired outcome from the collaboration is to complement RGE’s pilot urban-fit textile recycling plant in Singapore.

Gina Tricot releases its first collection that has been produced with We aRe SpinDye. The collection is part of Gina Tricot's innovation program Gina Lab. and consists of a coat, shirt, trousers and two bags colored with We aRe SpinDye's method.

With the collaboration, Gina Tricot continues to focus on sustainability, now with the coloring process at the center. Of all the resources that arise during the entire lifespan of a garment - from the production of raw materials, to recycling, 80% is used during the production phase itself. To maximize the effects of the sustainability changeover, an increased focus is required on the entire production process and in particular on the most resource-intensive of them all: the dyeing.

One of Gina Tricot's focus is to explore new methods and technologies in sustainability, which makes the collaboration with We aRe Spin Dye feel just right for us. Together we get a product with more durable and circular fibers, in addition with a more sustainable textile production with a focus on minimal water use. We are extremely proud of this collaboration. says Emma Garrote, Global Production & Sustainability Manager at Gina Tricot.

Gina Tricot is a shining example of an agile organization with short decision-making processes. They have managed to enthuse both the design and production department. It has been crucial to reach the launch of this collection that takes place today, says Andreas Andrén, CEO of We aRe SpinDye®.

Gina Tricot
Gina Tricot is a Swedish fashion brand that offers fashion to women in over 30 countries. Today, Gina Tricot has over 160 stores around Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, as well as e-commerce throughout Europe. With around 1,900 employees, 98% of these are girls. For Gina Tricot, it is important to build pride from the inside out, we are a company that chooses to invest in and highlight women.

We aRe Spin Dye
The company is a Swedish cleantech company that provides and offers a process and platform for production and quality control that enables players in the fashion and clothing industry to significantly reduce their environmental impact. The company's business concept is to establish a new, sustainable and transparent standard for dyeing synthetic textiles in the fashion and apparel industry in a simple and user-friendly way.

Showing its leadership, ROICA™ marks a milestone in the world of stretch, enhancing a contemporary wardrobe made of new generation values that are fully conveyed and visible to the end consumer. Indeed, by creating cutting-edge tools, such as the hangtags that provide, through simple and well-designed icons, clear and concise functional information showing for each application the values and performances of each single ROICA™ families: ROICA Colour Perfect ™, ROICA Resistance™, ROICA Feel Good™, ROICA Eco-Smart™, ROICA Contour™.

On top of this, in order to ASSURE that what is labelled as ROICA™ Sustainable truly reflects the brand’s new generation values, the company created and introduced a branding policy indicating the allowed blends for their smart yarns belonging to the unique ROICA Eco-Smart™ family. A big step toward complete transparency and transparent AUTHENTIC communication.
ROICA™ identity will be activated in all its communication tools and channels, such as a renovated website and social media presence.

At MarediModa – the international fair dedicated to fabrics and accessories for the beachwear, underwear and athleisure sectors - ROICA ™ partners such as Eusebio, Iluna Group, Interjersey Milano, Maglificio Ripa, Penn Textile Solutions GmbH, Piave Maitex and Sofileta shared their latest fabric innovations where sustainability cutting-edge performance and design realized with ROICA™ premium stretch ingredient, were on stage.

• CHIC Shanghai successfully completed under high safety and hygiene conditions
• The trend hotspot for the Chinese sales market: Lively interest of more than 20,000 trade visitors in the new collections of the 487 brands at the NECC in Shanghai
• Sustainability in great demand in all areas
• CHIC Shenzhen focuses on trading in the strong sales region of South China and the international clusters Hong Kong and Macao: Date postponed from November to December due to current Covid-19 cases in China

The fashion world of China met at the physical event CHIC Shanghai from October 9-11, 2021 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai

487 exhibitors presented themselves in clearly structured segments on 50,000 square meters. Maximum compliance with the security measures determined the course. Against this background the exhibitors welcomed more than 20,000 trade visitors and reported cheerful orders.

The 487 exhibitors were also satisfied with the business activity and reported successful orders.

Perfect presentation platform: the CHIC Matching area
The expanded matchmaking events at CHIC were also enthusiastically received.
In total, over 37 matchmaking events took place in the specially set up matching area consisting of several presentation platforms and private negotiation rooms at the fair. From company presentations by industry giants such as Shein, through trade fair tours to selected one-on-one discussions, CHIC brought exhibitors and visitors together in a targeted manner. More than 600 participants have been matched by this CHIC event. Among them visitors such as Shein, Walmart, Wang Yi Yan Xuan, Tiktok, BAILIAN GROUP, LIQUN etc, parts of the organizer's broad network.

Continuing growth: sustainable productions
Sustainability is one of the most important consumer trends in China. CHIC played the theme in all exhibition areas; from womenswear, kidswear and menswear to accessories, sustainable collections were represented in all segments.

Design talent and traditional styles
In the IMPULSES area, innovative designer brands showed inspiring trends, high-quality collections and fashion variety like Kmusso, MIJA or Yu Jian Tian with its new design collection made by natural materials such as mulberry silk and wool, presenting the unique traditional Chinese style.

CHIC Shanghai presented the entire range of the fashion business in a total of 12 exhibition segments. This year's acclaimed visual concept, created by lava beijing, has been awarded the Bronze Award of the Hiiibrand Awards 2021 in the Identity category.

Digital tools and physical events
In addition to the on-site trade fair offer, CHIC is expanding its reach through the consistent use of digital tools. The CHIC app combines all the functions needed for a successful trade fair participation, from the digital trade fair catalog and matchmaking to direct appointments and live chats for all participants who cannot be on site.

The next CHIC in Shanghai will take place in March 2022.

On 21st October the Managing Director of Officina+39 Andrea Venier has joined a panel discussion in the prestigious arena of the Kingpins24 Digital Show. He contributed to the discussion with his and Officina+39’s point of view on “Water Conservation”, together with Emrah Özkorkmaz from Bregla and Taimur Malik from Stylers International, with Edward Hertzman from Sourcing Journal & Rivet as moderator.

Water crisis remains one of the top issues for humanity and 90% of the world's natural disasters are related to water. Officina+39 has been working hard to rethink the way water is used throughout the denim processes: Andrea's contribution emphasized the company’s practical and consolidated experience in this field, as in recent years their main objective has been to drastically reduce water use in line with UN SDG6.

Andrea pointed out how “fashion industry is still currently deeply rooted in a linear approach: make, use, dispose.” Accordingly to Andrea and Officina+39, the fashion world is becoming aware of this reality and is trying to reinvent itself in order to decrease the use of this precious resource and its negative impacts but there is still work to do in order to redesign a better sustainable model, where circularity should represent the new sustainability: circularity not only when it comes to the materials, but also to water.

In the textile industry water is used as the vehicle for colors and chemical auxiliaries but luckily today many technologies aim at significantly reducing water consumption. Officina+39 is really focused on this target: Andrea explained that “Officina+39 has developed the AQUALESS MISSION, a process suitable for conventional machines that leads to a 75% reduction of the water typically used in denim and garment laundry processes, using a waterless technology and saving costs for producers.”

Despite the start-up cost of investing in the development of sustainable technologies may discourage some in the industry, it is about time to realize that these actions cannot be delayed and that we will increasingly hear about water scarcity, water stress and water risk.

Andrea stated: “It is necessary to develop water management strategies and systems in any company: today there is ISO 14000 related to environmental management, but I believe that governments, brands and related organisations should think about an ISO related just to water management. In this way, every company can understand how much value can be generated in the medium-term and how much money could be saved by investing in this kind of technologies. To create new standards related to water management, we must change the approach.”