From the Sector

Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) has launched a new international edition of Global Fashion Summit. Traditionally held in Copenhagen, the new edition in Singapore will further focus on the perspectives of manufacturers and supply chain partners to deeper understand how the industry can collaborate to reduce social and environmental impact in the entire value chain. Global Fashion Summit: Singapore Edition will take place on 3 November 2022 at Hilton Singapore Orchard.

The theme of Global Fashion Summit: Singapore Edition continues GFA’s focus on ‘Alliances For a New Era’. Under this theme, the Summit will call on the industry to accelerate change - encouraging more alliances between manufacturers, suppliers, investors, brands, NGOs, policymakers and more. It will also examine cross-industry alliances, in a bid to accelerate the transition to a net positive reality.
 
By bringing the forum to Asia, the new edition will include even more manufacturer and supply chain partner voices in the programme to discuss sustainability challenges, differences, and opportunities to collaborate with brand executives on equal terms. Plenary sessions will consider topics such as:

• Renewable energy transformation – what does concrete transformation look like from tier 1-3 perspectives and what measures are needed to implement it?
• Better wage systems – how can the industry establish fair compensation, underpinned by fair purchasing practices that will help end poverty for millions of garment workers?
• Performance measurement – how can the industry accurately measure sustainability performance and tackle data credibility challenges?

Half of the programme will be dedicated to educational and action-oriented business case studies with options for direct interaction and live reactions. These will include tangible learnings and concrete recommendations to mobilise guests to take immediate action following the event.
 
The event will foster further collaboration across stakeholder groups through productive roundtable sessions that create an exchange of views among key decision makers in both the public and private sectors. These meetings will be designed and set up to drive commitments and new alliances for concrete action.

The ITA Group, consisting of the Institute for Textile Technology of RWTH Aachen University (ITA) and their research and development service provider ITA Technologietransfer GmbH (ITA GmbH) are proud to announce their new partnership with METYX Composites, Turkey today at JEC World in Paris. METYX is a globally leading manufacturer of high-performance technical textiles for applications in the transportation, wind energy, construction, sports and leisure industries.

Ugur Ustunel, CEO METYX Composites: “The access to ITA´s competences along the entire textile composite value chain and to the impressive machine parks with over 250 machines from lab scale to industrial scale and the exchange with other partners will be very welcome for our future pre-competitive developments.” Dr. Christoph Greb, Scientific Director of ITA: “We are very happy to welcome METYX to our
network and to collaborate in many joint projects and studies on topics like recycling and sustainability, tapes and hybrid yarns or natural fibres just to name a few.”

Dr. Michael Effing, Managing Director of AMAC GmbH: „I am very happy to support ITA in developing and growing their network. ITA is located in the centre of the RWTH Aachen University Campus in close proximity to numerous other institutes for lightweight developments.”

The rescheduled Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles, now taking place from 9 – 11 October, will once again provide the industry with insight into the future through its fringe programme’s four categories: Design Inspiration, Business O2O, Textiles & Technologies and Industry Empowerment. And with the Online Business Matching sourcing platform returning this edition, buyers worldwide can still participate in the fair.

Each of the fringe programme’s four categories – Design Inspiration, Business O2O (online to offline), Textiles & Technologies and Industry Empowerment – features a mix of conferences, seminars and presentations that reflect the future of the home textile industry. Highlights of each category are included below, while further details can be found on the fair’s website: https://intertextile-shanghai-hometextiles-autumn.hk.messefrankfurt.com/shanghai/en/programme-events.html.

Since 2019, Messe Frankfurt has been working with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and United Nations Office for Partnerships as part of the Texpertise Network and supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The goals will be presented gradually at global textile events in order to highlight the most pressing challenges facing the textile and fashion industry worldwide.

Industry Empowerment: antimicrobial technologies and licensing in the home textile sector

Growing awareness of health and hygiene has increased the demand for antimicrobial and other functional textiles. Seminars hosted by the Chinese Industry Association for Antimicrobial Materials & Products will further discuss the increasing prominence of these textiles, as well as how the adoption of new antimicrobial textile technologies is expected to evolve in the future. In addition, experts will share the new trends of licensing and IP with case studies for the furniture companies and fabric brands.

2022 China Home Textile Trends

The China Home Textiles Trend Area will feature the research of the China Home Textile Association, The Department of Home Textile Trend Research and Promotion and Concept & Style Fashion Project Group Italy who shared their knowledge, inspirations and exchanged their visions of trend evolutions considering consumer demand, retail expertise, the contract market and new technologies.

Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn Edition 2021 will be held concurrently with Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Autumn Edition, Yarn Expo Autumn, PH Value and CHIC at the National Exhibition and Convention Center. Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn Edition is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Home Textile Association (CHTA).

The textile industry, one of the major industrial sectors worldwide, is going through a significant revolution, with changes taking place in various sections of textile processing. Biotechnology and biomimicry, for example, are continuously playing an important role in redefining the influence of the textile industry on society, and so is progress made in auxiliary chemistry, with advances investigated and then applied in almost every section of textile processing.  The outcome is amazingly promising.

Modern, real science is inextricably intertwined with environmental consciousness and they are definitely not mutually exclusive.

At RUDOLF GROUP modern, real science means pushing R&D so to constantly explore new technology and innovations that help transform the textile and fashion industries. We work to reduce the overall dependency on traditional and virgin resources.  Getting textile manufacturers as well as brand and retailers on board is key to achieve real change. By 2030 we aim for a significant fraction of our products to be either sourced through paths alternative to the traditional petrochemicals, or by upcycling waste and/or byproducts from other industries.

“This is the kind of genuine, tangible, environmental consciousness that truly defines us and that entails that RUDOLF GROUP has a responsibility for the needs of society as a whole.” Said Alberto De Conti, Head of Rudolf Fashion Division “We have a maniacal attention to the environmental impact of our operations and products. We have truly embedded in ourselves the notion that “sustainability” is a key issue and critical to the long-term survival of our company and of society at large. “

The combination of modern, real science and environmental consciousness leads to what RUDOLF GROUP call aspirational chemistry something unique and something that positions us as shining example and guiding light throughout the industry. That is, in fact, BETTER CHEMISTRY.

Two are the innovations rooted in aspirational chemistry that RUDOLF HUB1922 presents. The first one is our WASHLESS technology and the second one is a brand new launch: LASER SMOOTHER, which supports laser technology and helps creating much better denim looks.

WASHLESS

HUB1922 WASHLESS, which can be applied to both denim and non-denim, is the simultaneous application of
-    proprietary fluorine-free DWR (Durable Water Resistance) based on biomimicry to repel dirt
-    anti-microbial, anti-bacteria and anti-viral, non-migrating chemistry to stop body odour.
The combination of the 2 translates into garments that don’t require to be washed as much.

Life cycle assessment studies on clothes, detergents and washing machines show that home laundering is always the most energy‐demanding period during these products' life cycle, even higher than production or transportation phases.

“WASHLESS aims at changing consumer habits in clothing maintenance to a more environmentally friendly direction and represents a change that is the most feasible and efficient. Making washing machines obsolete is impossible, but even though the technologies in clothes cleaning have improved greatly, the washing frequency has not been reduced. We own more and more clothing and wash it more frequently. This increased amount of washing counteracts the technological improvements in home laundry. “ said De Conti.

It is only by understanding the climate change impact associated with home laundering that product innovations and consumer education can be explored. Studies consistently show that a carbon dioxide reduction of 105 MT and electricity savings of 142 thousand GWh can be obtained by reducing home laundering, on average, by 1/3. This is roughly equivalent to removing 12% of the 140 M passenger cars in the US, or taking 23 coal power plants off the grid. In addition, more than 60% of water consumed while laundering (2,000 billion liters) can be reduced through these strategies.

LASER SMOOTHER

Laser denim is the current dominant technology available to the denim industry to create locally abraded areas, vintage effects, whiskers, patterns, patches, and even intentional holes and tears in a garment. Laser technology uses less water, harmful chemicals (such as potassium permanganate) and energy to create a wide variety of denim looks.

However, laser is not always able to produce the desired look, on the desired fabric, in the desired time. Therefore, chemical companies have been developing laser boosters that can be pre-applied to the garments in order to intensify the effect of the laser to mimic heavier bleaching applications. Unfortunately, laser boosters can create blurred images where the definition is lower and the overall image less natural.

The brand new RUDOLF HUB1922 LASER SMOOTHER is an all-in-one formulation, very easy to pre-apply to garments before laser burning and that return a very natural image which is very similar to the highly desirable hand scraping. Laser smoother can be applied by traditional exhaust or through nebulization and it dries at normal temperature in normal tumble driers.  Advantages of LASER PRIMER are:

•    Remarkable enhancement of the fabric’s characteristics (heightening of material)
•    Overall effect much more natural and similar to manual scraping (craftsmanship dimension)
•    Reduced required laser power to achieve the wanted effect (conspicuous energy saving)
•    A faster laser burning process (significant time saving, depending on the final effect)
•    Any other chemical spray is not required (environmental friendliness)
•    Reduced cost compared to other solution (financial viability)

• conceptual and commercial garments presented at exhibition in London

After two years of research Mistra Future Fashion is honoured to present, in collaboration with Centre for Circular Design at University of the Arts London and Filippa K, an exhibition pushing the limits of ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ fashion. Started in 2017, the industry-embedded project Circular Design Speeds takes a unique systemic approach, showcasing what could be accomplished using existing value chains as well as what the future of sustainable fashion holds. Ground-breaking textile research from University of the Arts London is questioning normative use and design of garments in creating prototypes to be worn across a spectrum of 24 hours to 50 years. By implementing research into existing value chains, Filippa K have produced a coat that is 100% recycled and recyclable, as well as a concept dress that is 100% bio-based and biodegradable. The research results and garments will be presented at the launch event at the University of the Arts London, on November 23rd and open to public on the 24th and 25th of November.

On Friday November 23rd the exhibition Disrupting Patterns: Designing for Circular Speeds opens up at University of the Arts London. The exhibition is the results of a two-year research project called Circular Design Speeds aiming at pushing the limits of ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ fashion by testing new concepts for sustainable design in an industry setting. On display are exploratory prototypes, as well as commercial garments produced by industry partner Filippa K using existing value chains. In addition, research results on innovative materials, consumer acceptance, composting studies and Life Cycle Assessments are presented. The aim of this project is to implement research results in a real fashion industry context, focusing on speed of use and maximising fabric value retention in products.

The Service Shirt developed by Professor Rebecca Earley is designed to last for over 50 years. The concept garment explores the multiple complexities, challenges and opportunities associated with design for circular business models in extended use contexts. The Service Shirt was designed as a ‘deliberate extreme’ to have a total lifecycle of 50 years. This lifecycle includes in-house and external remanufacturing processes, as well as various use cycles – often moving between single ownership and rental and sharing contexts. It becomes the lining for a jacket and then crafted in to fashion accessories, before finally being chemically regenerated in the year 2068.

On the opposite side of the spectrum the Fast-Forward concept, developed by Prof Kay Politowicz and Dr Kate Goldsworthy, explores alternative modes of production and use for a sustainable ‘fast-fashion’ application. Advantages with regards to climate impact are enabled through lighter material choices, nonwoven fabric production, no launder, clear routes to recovery and redistributed manufacturing systems. A sliding scale of ‘speed’ from ultra-fast forward through to a more widely accepted length of use, with adaptations to production processes and end of life, is presented. The prototypes are made from a new bio-based nonwoven material co-developed with Dr Hjalmar Granberg at RISE Research Institute of Sweden & University of the Arts London. The composition of the paper is a mix of cellulose pulp and bio-based PLA fibre, making the garment 100% biodegradable or recyclable in existing paper recycling systems.

Working closely with industry partner Filippa K made commercial testing possible. By implementing research into existing value chains, Filippa K was able to produce a coat that is 100% recycled and recyclable, as well as a concept dress that is 100% bio-based and biodegradable. The garments are a part of Filippa K’s Front Runner series and will be available in selected stores on November 26th. With a focus on products’ length of use and maximizing fabric value retention, Filippa K are dedicated to becoming fully circular by 2030.

“Being part of the fashion industry comes with many challenges, especially when considering the fact that we are the second most polluting industry after oil. Our industry needs to change and we believe adapting to circular models, like nature’s ecosystem, is one important solution. We want to be able to offer beautiful clothing and to make business within the planetary boundaries.”
- Elin Larsson, Sustainability Director, Filippa K

To validate the design research presented, a Life Cycle Assessment was performed on the prototypes. Mistra Future Fashion affiliated Dr. Greg Peters, Chalmers University of Technology, together with additional LCA Researchers at RISE, conclude that the production of fibres and fabrics are the main processes impacting the environment during the garment life cycles. Therefore, to extend the lifetime of existing garments and design for re-use, as done in the Service Shirt, is indeed the superior alternative compared to a reference garment.

“Compared with garments of the same mass, the extended life garments represent a large improvement in environmental performance over the reference garments, outperforming the reference garments in all effect categories. This superiority is primarily a consequence of avoiding garment production via reprinting and reassembly of the initial garment to extend its useful life.”
- Dr Greg Peters, LCA Researcher at Chalmers University of Technology

Another way to circumvent the impacts of fast fashion is to develop materials with considerably lower impacts during production, and which also avoid the barriers to recycling faced by conventional garments. Instead of hinder consumers from buying new, the act of acquiring a new garment could in fact be sustainable. The paper-based short life garments considered in this assessment show considerable impact savings when compare to the benchmark garment. Dr. Peters says,

“The paper-based garments benefit from the lower impacts of the material (fibre production, spinning and knitting) compared with conventional cotton, from their relatively light weight and also on account of the lower impacts in garment production and use.”

Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles 2018 cooperates with the international trendsetter NellyRodiTM Agency again in offering the latest trend forecast to the home textile industry. Integrating different knowledge, inspirations and visions of trend evolution among the experts in the trend committee, three themes namely Caring Future, Crazy Future and Emo Future are established.
As the leading home textile trade fair in Asia, participants can always expect to see the latest items and discover the forthcoming market direction. To fulfil this, more than 1,000 suppliers from China and across the world will showcase a wide variety of products covering the whole spectrum of home furnishing, while the trend forecast, which is introduced during the show, provides both exhibitors and buyers with insight and guidance to stay ahead of the market.

This year, the show works together with the experienced international forecasting firm the NellyRodiTM Agency to form a trend committee consisting of different fields of expertise in order to gain the latest comprehension of international lifestyle forecasts. They have picked ‘FUTURE’ as the keyword of the season and three themes have been developed to illustrate this keyword.

• Caring Future: Now greener, more moral and socially oriented, creation draws from alternative imaginations to protect natural and cultural resources. It pulls inspiration from new eco-gestures and good altruist sense with a new credo – take care of nature and man
• Crazy Future: It plays on whimsical surrealism and petulance, the master of light-hearted insouciance. It plants a seed of madness in creation. Gaiety and fantasy amuse rational souls and titillate a taste for risk
• Emo Future: The need to console our cherished earth revives the emotion its immemorial beauty inspires. New nostalgia for the origin of things reconnects us to the essential. Neo-mysticism consecrates the elements and celebrates spiritual, benevolent nature. It inspires the perpetuation of the Traditions and rituals our ancestors practiced, in all their wisdom and humanism, to glorify nature 

These three themes will be demonstrated and discussed throughout the four-day fair in a series of events, while exhibitors’ products that resonate with the themes will be displayed in the Trend Area. Trend Forum tours will also take place, allowing show attendants to learn and discuss with designers and trend experts about the lifestyle trends.

Committee members with distinct specialties
The committee has contributed their expertise on retail experience, contract markets and new technologies, together with the sociological insights from an international consumer study in developing the themes. The following is an overview of the committee members.

• Mr Vincent Grégoire (France): Creative Director of NellyRodiTM Agency. Studied both interior and industrial design at the École Camondo in Paris, has been the artistic director and designer of exclusive products for the decorator Agnès Comar
• Mr Sun Yun (China): Partner and Design Director of Hangzhou Interior Architecture Design, founder of fashion brand HYSSOP Cornerstone
• Mrs Béatrice Brandt (France): Graduated from the Aix-en-Provence Graduate School of Management in Management Sciences with a major in marketing, 20 years of experience in marketing and innovation, now works as the CEO at Le Jacquard Français
• Mrs Hélène Pasteur (France): Purchasing Manager of Homeware/Leisure, Les Galeries Lafayette/BHV. Graduated from business school, entered Galeries Lafayette’s buying office in 1986 for the beauty, children’s wear, menswear, and accessory markets, managed the project that transformed BHV into BHV MARAIS from 2011 to 2014, now returns to the homeware department

More details of the trend programme will be released closer to the fair. The show will be held from 27 – 30 August at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai