From the Sector

Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn Edition will return from 24 – 26 August 2020 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Home Textile Association (CHTA). Stepping into its 26th edition, the trade fair will provide exhibitors the perfect opportunity to introduce new products and expand their distribution networks, as well as serving as a source of information and inspiration for professionals in every aspect of the industry.
 
Celebrating its 25th anniversary last August, the Autumn Edition of Intertextile attracted 1,147 exhibitors from 27 countries & regions, as well as 35,390 trade buyers from 117 countries & regions (2018: 104), reflecting the increasing internationalism of Messe Frankfurt’s textile fairs in China, and the growing opportunities for international suppliers to meet a wide range of buyers in Shanghai. The trade fair’s capacity to attract large and diverse crowds has reinforced its status as the leading business platform for the home textile industry in the Asia Pacific region.
 
In the next edition, a large collection of quality Chinese companies, as well as premier overseas brands will once again present the entire spectrum of home and contract textile products including:

• Textile editors
• Whole Home Products
• Windows & Upholstery
• Bedding, Bath, Kitchen & Table
• Carpets & Rugs
• Sun-Protection
• Wallcovering
• Digital Print & Technics
• Fibers, Yarns & Chemicals
• Textile Designs

Opportunities abound in China’s home textiles market
 
“The upcoming Autumn Edition of Intertextile is set to offer suppliers and buyers the best platform to capture new business opportunities, especially as we continue to focus on bringing together more key players from the textiles, interiors, architecture and hospitality sectors in China and internationally,” Ms Wendy Wen, Senior General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd said.
 
“Over the years, Intertextile has been evolving from a traditional trade fair to an immersive and interactive experience that inspires and engages attendees. Today, the fair is more than a business platform; it also delivers state-of-the-art home trends, valuable networking opportunities, as well as innovative and strategic solutions for brand development through a series of fringe programme events,” Ms Wen further explained.
 
As one of the selected exhibitors featured in the Talks & Tours series at the 2019 fair, Mr Thomas Luys, Sales Manager of LIBECO-LAGAE: “We had quite a diverse range of visitors, including an increase in e-commerce buyers, but also more traditional upholstery fabrics buyers. Our booth was also part of the Talks & Tours, so it was important to tell our story to a diverse range of visitors on this tour.”
 
 
To find out more about this fair, please visit: www.intertextilehome.com.
For more information about Messe Frankfurt textile fairs worldwide, please visit: http://texpertise-network.messefrankfurt.com.

• Textile Exchange’s Sustainability Conference - Milan, October 22-24, 2018
• The theme of the 2018 conference is United by Action: Accelerating Sustainability in Textiles and Fashion.

The conference offers an opportunity to connect with industry pioneers and learn about cutting edge solutions and innovations in textile and apparel sustainability. As a result, C.L.A.S.S., headquartered in Milan, the global resource for smart material innovation, education, marketing and communication, will be on hand to support this year’s theme.

Many of the materials the C.L.A.S.S. team will showcase speak to circular economy such as Re.VerSo™, Bemberg™ and ROICA™ by Asahi Kasei, Iluna Group and TINTEX Textiles and many others that use technological breakthroughs to offer fashion materials that provide significant reductions in water during the manufacturing process, an important step toward responsible future fashion systems.

During Textile Exchange’s Sustainability Conference, Giusy Bettoni, C.L.A.S.S. CEO and Founder and her team will have a dedicated space to engage attendees in an open discussion regarding the importance of fashion business strategies. The experience in the space, that will reflect an New York event created for C.L.A.S.S. by Ginger Design, will start with the vision of a film by Cristina Picchi that represents harmony between the various phases of the textile process and the cycles of natural elements. Visitors will walk through a three-dimensional installation designed by Cécile Feilchenfeldt to inspire creativity and explore the limitless possibilities using innovative smart materials.

“We are always proud to have a presence at international events including this year’s Textile Exchange’s Sustainability Conference. It is a great way for us to share our expertise regarding responsible innovation and new business model strategies. As C.L.A.S.S. is headquartered in Milan, we are proud that they selected our city for this year’s conference. Being held in Milan provides a chance for us to support Textile Exchange regarding smart material innovation, many of them produced in Italy.” said Bettoni.

Just off their return from Première Vision in Paris, Bettoni who is also the Sustainability Consultant for Smart Creation, recognizes the importance for her company to have a strong international presence to spread C.L.A.S.S.’ message to a global audience regarding responsible creation. 

As C.L.A.S.S. enters their second decade of business, they have expanded their business activities to include e-commerce that provides an opportunity for fashion start-up to purchase up to a maximum of 50, an initiative launched to support fashion start-ups. And a new division, C.L.A.S.S. Education, an initiative Bettoni co-founded with James Mendolia, also a Professor, Fashion Institute of Technology. Mendolia has been visiting universities to speak to fashion design, business, textiles and production students in Europe, Asia and North America to encourage attendees to infuse a new way of design thinking and move from a linear to a circular business model.   

• Connect people, data and processes with Lectra’s latest solutions to power up design and development teams

Paris – Lectra, the technological partner for companies using fabrics and leather, introduces collaborative solutions specifically developed for design and product development teams, enabling fashion companies to affront tighter deadlines and handle wider product mixes with speed and serenity.

With the rise of e-commerce, digitally dependent consumers expect personalized, innovative fashion delivered to their doorstep at the click of a mouse.

Fashion companies are struggling to keep up with consumer demands and looking for new ways to speed up design and development without compromising quality. Design teams work faster than ever to deliver fresh, eye-catching collections. Product development teams rush to transform new designs into consumer-ready products. Given the accelerated pace of the fashion marketplace, information sharing has become vital for these teams.

Lectra has developed two new solutions to fulfill the specific needs of these teams, Lectra Connected Design and Lectra Connected Development. These solutions deliver collaborative environments that integrate business applications to aggregate, standardize and store data from all design and product development stages. These innovative solutions make every-day working life less stressful by allowing criteria-based searches, inciting users to capitalize on data links, and providing them with innovative tools and services to speed up their processes.

Lectra Connected Design facilitates collaboration between textile and fashion designers, colorists, graphic designers, technical designers and their managers by providing design teams with a connected environment. Team members can access the platform via their Lectra Kaledo® design software and Adobe® Creative Cloud, share inspiration and review collections together or upload inspirations via dedicated mobile apps. This solution gives users the visibility needed to streamline, automate and monitor the entire design process to ensure that they remain creative under severe time constraints.

In the same way, Lectra Connected Development connects patternmakers, graders, technical design teams, managers, cost and margin specialists, marker makers and sample teams through data. It allows team members to connect through Lectra Modaris® 2D and 3D patternmaking software and Lectra Diamino® Fashion marker-making software. Thanks to the wide range of standard libraries and mobile applications provided, teams will improve the efficiency of technical specifications creation. The automation of business processes and real-time communication allow product development teams to avoid errors and deliver the right product quality and fit.

“We recognize first and foremost that today’s fashion industry professionals need to feel well-equipped and at ease in order to perform well under tight deadlines,” explains Céline Choussy Bedouet, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Lectra. “We are confident that by introducing a new and easy way of collaborating through sound data management, both offers will help design and product development teams work faster and more easily to build quality into the products they design and develop. That way, they can reach their fullest potential as key contributors to their companies’ success.”

• Debut BCI Pavilion joined by Sateri and Birla Planet Pavilions to showcase eco-friendly products
• Six special display zones cater to latest industry trends

Green products continue to be sought after more and more by consumers nowadays, and textiles are no exception. In order to promote sustainable development throughout the industry, a number of yarn and fibre manufacturers have endeavoured to introduce green products into the early stages of textile production, and Yarn Expo, as the leading yarn and fibre business platform in Asia, serves as an ideal stage for these suppliers to gain exposure to buyers looking for such products.

Debut BCI Pavilion joined by Sateri and Birla Planet Pavilions to showcase eco-friendly products

Amongst a record number of exhibitors at this October’s Yarn Expo Autumn, the debut BCI Pavilion as well as the Sateri Pavilion and Birla Planet Pavilion that include eco-friendly products are certainly amongst the highlights this year. Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is a global organisation with more than 1,000 members including spinners, weavers and garment manufacturers throughout the entire cotton sector. It aims to promote sustainable cotton production, benefiting workers, customers and the environment as a whole. They will form the BCI Pavilion in Yarn Expo for the first time, with five spinners showcasing their cotton yarn manufactured with eco-friendly cotton.

Sateri is a well-known brand in China which specialises in viscose rayon. This natural and high-quality fibre is made from trees grown on renewable plantations. They are the largest producer of viscose fibre in China with three mills and an annual capacity of 550,000 tons, and also have Oeko-Tex certification. This October, nine other domestic exhibitors will form the Sateri Pavilion to demonstrate their comfortable textiles and skin-friendly hygiene products made from viscose fibre.

With over 50 years of experience in manufacturing cellulosic fibres, Birla Group strives to provide greener, purer and safer products to its customers. The Group has operated in China for three years now, and values Yarn Expo’s effectiveness in helping them to promote their brand and attract a wide range of buyers. “We managed to get connected with a number of downstream buyers at the fair. We have introduced our company and products to them that there is great chance for future cooperation.” said Mr Peter Dong, Senior Manager of Aditya Birla Group.   Coming back this year, the Birla Planet Pavilion will feature three of their highlighted fibres – Birla Viscose, Birla Modal and Birla Spunshades at the fair.

Six special display zones cater to latest industry trends

The textile industry in China is undergoing a structural change with keen competition, so domestic suppliers have to develop innovative and quality products to satisfy the ever-changing markets. To match the specific needs of various buyers, Yarn Expo has established six distinct display zones gathering the leading domestic companies, namely Colourful Chemical Zone, Natural Cotton Yarn Zone, Fancy Yarn Zone, Quality Wool Zone, Green Linen Zone and e-Commerce Zone.

Not only are a number of chemical fibre products with innovative, eco-friendly and health & comfort properties on offer from exhibitors, but visitors can also gain insights into product trends in these areas from the 2017/18 China Fibre Trend Area and Innovative Textile Material Forum, both of which feature in the Colourful Chemical Zone. The Natural Cotton Yarn Zone is another highlight of the three-day show, where exhibitors will showcase their natural cotton yarn and a range of functional products. Around 50 suppliers will also showcase their latest collections in the expanded Fancy Yarn Zone.
In response to the strong demand for fibre and yarn products in China and the Asian region, the coming autumn edition of Yarn Expo will double its exhibition space, and will accommodate around 500 global yarn suppliers from 13 countries and regions. Together with Yarn Expo Autumn 2017, three other textile trade fairs are held concurrently from 11 – 13 October in the same venue: Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Autumn Edition, PH Value and the China International Fashion Fair (CHIC).

Yarn Expo Autumn is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; The Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; China Cotton Textile Association; China Wool Textile Association; China Chemical Fiber Association; China Bast & Leaf Fibres Textiles Association; and China Textile Information Centre.