From the Sector

• Circularity at the centre

PG DENIM, the designer project by Paolo Gnutti, is ready for several important events scheduled for the autumn with ground-breaking interpretations and a new – increasingly green – business model. The occasion is its participation in the Blue Zone at Munich Fabric Start (Munich, 3-5 September 2019), a space which is increasingly often reserved for companies and projects with a high innovation rate in the world of denim.

PG DENIM at the German exhibition will be presenting important product innovations, but most notably new concepts developed for the S/S 2021 season. The focus here is on circularity, seen from a dual perspective: the product with the no longer traditional alternation of seasons, and a sustainabilityoriented approach.

Seasons meet

The new PG DENIM approach is geared towards overlapping seasonality, with less and less marked separations between projects dedicated to the spring-summer and fall-winter lines. The collections by PG DENIM can thus be increasingly defined as a “mix of products without seasonality”. Its focal points are innovation alongside the concept behind the initial idea, as opposed to just the season. This trend, explains Paolo Gnutti, CEO and R&D Head at PG DENIM, is also due to registering the fact that seasonality – in terms of environment and trends – is changing at an increasingly rapid pace. As a response to this situation, the choice has been made to design new collections starting from macro-trends and presenting fabrics for garments which are “easy to wear”, suitable for both warm and cold temperatures, in a true melting pot  of weights and sizes.

The lines for the previous season are thus reintroduced and restyled playing with weights and sizes, within a range where flock meets ultra-light fabric bases, or where vinyl is combined with typically summer weights which shift the fabric towards the world of “paper” with crispy touches, resulting in extraordinarily lightweight and strong items at the same time. Also the GARAGE DENIM has been upgraded with fluid and smoothed touched for garments which are easy to wear and have a strong personality.

Partnership with The Denim Window

The PG DENIM season is also enhanced by its partnership in The Denim Window project, which has resulted in a limited series of Creative Capsule Collections, derived from the idea of bringing together companies which had already worked or were working together, trying to highlight – through small capsule collections – the best of what had already been produced by traditional businesses. This has resulted  in three trailblazing capsules, two of which designed in partnership by PG DENIM and companies the likes of M&J Group, Cadica and Greenwear. Several copies of these collections have been made to travel the world, and – after the official presentation in July – they will have a special corner, The Denim Window, in the Bluezone at Munich Fabric Start.

The “Circular Programme” and the five “Rs” of sustainability

Also the PG DENIM approach to accountability in production processes has been enhanced by implementing the “Circular Programme”. As part of our corporate vision, Italian-style production is combined with compliance with what have become known as “the five Rs”, that is to say key concepts underlying the design and manufacturing model: Reduce (everything you are not using), Repair (everything you can), Reuse (anything available to you), Recycle (all that is left), Respect (everything around you).

This is the philosophy underlying each individual process at PG DENIM, and leading to new specific programmes which have been its business focus over the past few months:

1) Reducing the environmental impact during the fabric dyeing phase in reaction and sulphurbased processes, where the use of chemicals has been reduced by 40%, water consumption by 50% and CO2 emissions by 60%, which has also resulted in better penetration and a better result in the crocking process. This has led to producing 10 new articles which will be launched on the market.

2) Recycling all waste from processing and after use, creating a range of garments where cotton is actually obtained from regenerating these two kinds of waste. In this regard, PG DENIM for now is the only company on the market able to process with a percentage of recycled product exceeding 60% of the total, whereas the average for this kind of manufacturing is generally about 35%.

As regards regular production, on the other hand, PG DENIM follows stringent international standards, including Dtox, Reach and Gots in all its processing phases, also using BCI cottons and the Organic Cotton Standard for raw materials. Last but not least, it was recently awarded the GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certification.

FONG’S EUROPE, based in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its flagship THEN brand for advanced dyeing technology with a special reception for customers and agents at ITMA 2019 in Barcelona.

The company, which has been a member of the CHTC FONG’S group since 2004, has its origins in the German city of Chemnitz, where back in 1919 Rudolf Then founded a barrel-making business which soon branched out into piece dyeing machines.

The company’s reputation for innovation began early, with the introduction of ceramic linings for dye baths, which were then made of wood, in order to avoid staining and allow easy cleaning. At the end of the 1920s, Rudolf Then was also quick to recognise the acid-resistant advantages of stainless steel for dyeing vessels.

Relocating to West Germany after World War 2, Rudolf Then ran a number of businesses in Schwäbisch Hall, eventually founding THEN in 1955 with partner Karl Kurz, who later took over the business specialising in dye vats and other textile equipment.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the company continued to further improve its technologies, but it was the introduction of the first THEN AIRFLOW system at ITMA 1983 in Milan which significantly boosted the company’s fortunes, representing a milestone in the development of dyeing machines.

Prior to this, the dyeing of just one kilo of fabric required around 150 litres of water and THEN’s AIRFLOW system, invented by engineer Wilhelm Christ and colleagues, drastically reduced the requirement to between just 35-40 litres. Instead of the traditional dye liquor used for hydraulic fabric transport it efficiently distributed much smaller amounts of dye liquor via aerosol. This technology has subsequently been further developed in successive machine models and has made an enormous impact on sustainable dyeing operations.

Now, as FONG’S EUROPE, the company continues to innovate, and at ITMA 2019 is showcasing the THEN SMARTFLOW TSF hydraulic high temperature dyeing machine, designed to achieve the lowest possible energy and water consumption rates available on the market for jet dyeing.

The company has a number of patents pending on the innovative new features of this machine, including the SMARTFLOW’s fabric transport design. This is based on a smart, winchless fabric transport system which eliminates the need for a loading rope, and a circular plaiter with programmable rotation speeds which provides full filling of the drop zone.

Its newly-developed nozzles and reel-less transport, in combination with smart controlled circular plaiting and variable chamber adjustment, provide even fabric treatment without entanglements and the highest loading capacity with the lowest kier volume

“Further developments, including the new THEN AIRFLOW PLUS system with a round design are in the development pipeline and will once again result in further reductions in power consumption without sacrificing performance,” says FONG’s Europe Sales Director Richard Fander. “Similar innovations are being made to our hydraulic long shape machine, the THEN SUPRATEC LTM. The ability to transport fabrics with reduced tension and without the need for a transport winch which is being introduced on all of our recent machines will allow new fabrics to be created and further increase the efficiency of textile finishing.

Fong’s Europe will be at stand D101 in Hall 2 at ITMA 2019.

• Latex-free: UltraBond allows 100% recyclable thermal bonded nonwovens
• Sustainability & cost-efficiency: significant reductions in CO2 emissions and energy and water consumption for manufacturers of needlepunched exhibition & contract flooring
• UltraBond debuts at Domotex 2019 Stand B56 Hall 11

Beaulieu Fibres International (BFI) unveils a unique opportunity for carpet manufacturers to create fully recyclable needlepunch carpets, and benefit from production and resource savings, without influencing performance.

Launched at Domotex 2019, new UltraBond is a patented polyolefin bonding staple fibre that eliminates the need for latex or other chemical binders to bind nonwovens. It opens up a new path for creating 100% polypropylene (PP) needlepunch carpets which meet the same performance requirements as traditional latex-bonded carpets while reducing the end-of-life environmental impact. Functional properties such as pilling resistance, resistance to wear and abrasion, and also UV resistance are guaranteed.

Using UltraBond manufacturers finally gain the potential to cost-efficiently produce 100% recyclable carpets. In addition to the general benefits of making recycled PP available for the plastics production chain and reduced waste generation, environmental advantages and financial savings arise from a total lack of water and less energy use. As a 100% dry process, thermal bonding uses no water and results in a total absence of waste water. There is also a reduction in the VOC level of the carpet. This all leads to a significant reduction in a needlepunch carpet’s ecological footprint.

The sustainability benefits are quantified through lifecycle analysis (LCA) of an exhibition carpet application – among the primary applications for needlepunch carpets. Evaluations show that the absence of water consumption directly translates into a large energy saving of 93% when using UltraBond compared to a latex bonding solution, and also a potential annual water saving of over 20 million litres for 100 million m2 of exhibition applications in the EU. Without the addition of any other bonding agent, CO2 emissions are reduced by 35% over the full production process.

Karena Cancilleri, Vice President Beaulieu Engineered Products, Beaulieu International Group, commented, “Recyclability and achieving a greener, more cost-effective production process without compromising on current performance levels are significant unsolved topics within today’s carpet industry. By eliminating the need for latex and chemical binders through UltraBond, we offer needlepunch manufacturers a breakthrough they have been looking for that boosts environmental and economic sustainability. We see textile flooring as just the beginning. Together with our customers, we look forward to exploring the potential of this unique thermal bonding fibre in other applications such as laminated nonwovens or as an alternative to dry powders.”

Discover more about UltraBond from the Beaulieu Fibres International team at Stand B56 Hall 11, Domotex 2019 in Hannover, Germany from January 11-14, 2019.

• Italian expertise, research and green innovation.
• METALBOTTONI ups the stakes with one-of-a-kind interpretations, to enhance its market presence.

At Première Vision Accessories (Paris, 19-21 September) the company presents the new collection VÀNITA, a mix of leatherwear and sportswear, based on Made in Italy craft, with an increasingly wide and coordinated range.

Based on product experience, combining new trends in accessories. The METALBOTTONI strategy is enriched with product novelties which aim at exploring new existing market segments. A strategy which increasingly leads great artisan production skills to meet constant research and expansion of the range, with the world of sportswear becoming more and more pivotal; without forgetting the important sustainable innovations of the NO IMPACT protocol.

No Impact becomes “Committed Accessories”

The guideline for restyling the METALBOTTONI range over the past two years has been the recent implementation of the NO IMPACT corporate sustainability protocol, which has just acquired a new “dress”, associated with the following pay-off: “Committed Accessories”. It is a way of underscoring the constant green development of the company over the past few years, in terms of process and product: use of recycled raw materials, development of finishing without chemicals, implementation of processes which today have allowed to reduce electricity and water consumption to almost zero.

Moreover the range of NO IMPACT proposals for this season has expanded to include not only new metal finishing but also leather label completely made from processing scrap, thus establishing Metalbottoni as “partner for branding elements” also in terms of sustainability. Pure Made in Italy and constant expansion of collections towards sportswear The great skill in metal processing, which for sixty years now has characterised the top-of-the-range quality of METALBOTTONI products, is now combined with constant research work conducted by our in-house Style Office, resulting in new collections which are more and more in line with the trends emerging from major trade fairs. Maintaining a presence on strong markets (central Europe, Northern Europe and United States), increasing the depth of segments and intercepting new ones. This is the main goal also chosen for the Première Vision Accessories Exhibition where, alongside the autumn-winter 2019/2020 collections, there will be a preview of VÀNITA, the new collection dedicated to leatherwear and more.

METALBOTTONI is proving to be one of the most dynamic companies in the accessory industry.

Over the past two years, in fact, it has introduced numerous product and process innovations, aiming at increasing its range especially as regards sportswear accessories. This trend was driven by a substantial increase in demand by read-to-wear and luxury brands in the past two seasons, and today it means new proposals which account for 35% of the range for METALBOTTONI. New collections have been presented in the past two seasons expressly dedicated to the sportswear world, namely GRAVITA, the first line designed by the company for pressure buttons, and MÀRYA, the new beachwear collection. Also the line called LABORA, the classic collection of accessories for fashion and ready-to-wear has been constantly enhanced with proposals combining style and technical performance. This mix of fashion and sport elements is increasingly evident in the company’s product range, for example in the combination of different materials, using metal with nylon or other resins to create new and unique accessories.

Vànita: beyond leatherwear, a world of accessories

The meeting between fashion, luxury and sportswear has produced VÀNITA, the brand new collection which presents a new approach to accessories dedicated to leatherwear, from an allround perspective from luxury to sportswear. Developed starting from solid product research by the company’s in-house Style Office, VÀNITA is a true meeting of styles and elements, a combination of high product standards with unique elegance. This line introduces one-of-a-kind visions for accessories, exploring highly original pathways dedicated to the world of leather. The VÀNITA proposal ranges from accessories for leatherwear and small leatherwear, to those for shoes, bags and the sportswear worlds. There are two main lines within this collection: one is expressly designed for the world of luxury, the other has a more technical and sporty approach. A true mix between artisan metal processing, based on the great METALBOTTONI expertise in this sector, and “ingredients” such as nylon, rubber finishes or innovative 3D processing, which are often combined together.

“Our goal is to offer an increasingly comprehensive range which allows us to explore new segments on the markets where we are present” - says Gregorio Valli, CEO and President of METALBOTTONI S.P.A – “a ‘recipe’ which should be able to integrate our unmatched product expertise with a constant expansion of our range and continuous implementation of our pathway towards corporate responsibility and sustainability”.

METALBOTTONI has drawn up its new strategy for the year 2018, based on a targeted trade fair
schedule and on many product innovations. These innovations are part of a marketing approach
which is more and more branding ingredient-oriented, in order to highlight the added value
of the accessory as a component characterising and enhancing product recognition, as well as
strengthening its consulting activities for customers, thus offering true excellence in service.
There are three main elements pointing to a positive moment for METALBOTTONI: its recent
outstanding performance in double-digit on foreign markets (most notably in the northern
European region), the consolidation of consulting and support services aimed at redesigning the
perspective on the world of accessories, and its product range extension. The fourth pillar, actually
a fixture at METALBOTTONI, is sustainable innovation with the protocol called NO IMPACT which has
made a huge step forward thanks to new technologies which halved water consumption compared
to previous performances of the system, obtaining also better results in a shorter processing time,
saving electricity as well.

An ongoing pathway
There are many novelties to be displayed by METALBOTTONI at three of the most important events
in the industry early in the new year. The company from Bergamo will be present at Munich Fabric
Start (30 January – 1 February), then at Milano Unica (6-8 February), and finally in Paris for the new
edition of Première Vision Accessories (13-15 February).