textiles

Last week I attended the International Textile Show at the California Fashion Mart in Los Angeles.

The ground floor area was dedicated to Korean Manufacturers.  A sea of incredible colours and luxurious textures made one swoon.   Beautiful charmeuse prints, both conventional and digital, fell from racks and immediately conjured up whimsical designs.

It was a three day affair and I was able to crash on the last day.  There were seminars and showrooms and stalls.

Many of the papers I collected discussed textiles trends.  The new kids on the block are paisley, textured leather and shine on specialist fabrics.  Also classical floral, vintage inspired prints and woven woolens are deemed to be popular.  With the success of the Missoni capsule Collection for Target, zig zag knits and chevrons in lush colour palettes are being offered by textile designers.

I attended a seminar on Cotton which was particularly interesting.  Cotton Incorporated (www.cottoninc.com) is a non-profit research company offering a free service in exploration of new fabric developments in cotton and attempting to infiltrate certain niches, eg women's businesswear, that have not been traditionally known to have cotton apparel.

They are involved from the earliest stages, the cotton seed, right through to developing new machinery processes in addition to new combinations of yarns.

Wicking Windows Technology was developed to deal with cotton's inherent problem to absorb moisture and make it competitive with synthetic fibres.  The technology is applied to the inside of the garment and directs moisture generated on the inside to move to the outside where it will evaporate.


My favourite vendor was Mandarin Enterprises (International) Co Ltd (http://www.mandarinsilk.com/).  The colour trend photo for fall/winter 2012 (left) was taken at their stall.  Based in Hong Kong, they supply beautiful silks along with various kinds of woven fabrics in cotton, wool and synthetic fibres.


I was able to talk to a few fabric importers and it seems that Korea is the preferred choice for manufacturing.  Product from Korea is reliable and of good quality. 

Photo © Stephanie Flack and www.californiamarketcenter.com