I had the amazing opportunity of stepping into the grandiose world of fabrics and textile innovations in the biannual TEXWORLD show. Upon arriving, we were greeted and taken on a tour of the floor. When we arrived the trends area, we were lucky enough to listen to the art directors from Paris, Louis and Gregory. They mainly shared with us their enthusiasm on giving back to the planet with sustainable practices in the fashion industry. An interesting piece of information they shared was how scientists are experimenting on creating fabrics from bacteria, for instance the bacteria that comes from milk. Imagine eventually having clothes made from bacteria! What a concept to wrap around your head!
After they finished talking to us, the tour continued to the denim area. Here we could see the different materials that gave the denim look and feel. It is truly amazing the wide variety of jeans one can create.
When the tour ended, we walked around to learn and see what booths had sustainable fabrics and what were they doing to reduce their carbon footprint. On a booth where first, their catalog (below) caught my eye as they had different ultra light weight fabrics for winter jackets which you usually associate and heavy, weather resistant fabrics. I then noticed they had a section of fabrics that were categorized as "Go Green." The Erictex lady, explained that these fabrics were made out of recycled nylon and polyester. One way this was achieved was by reusing PET bottles. PET bottles are made out of polyethylene and terephthalate which make them easy to recycle. They mainly make these fabrics from other fabric waste though, by taking raw materials and re making it into a fiber.
As you can see from the close up image on the right, the specification says: 100% RECYCLE NYLON RIPSTOP which is a very durable and resistant type of nylon and it can be achieved with recycled materials!
It does take a lot of time, but by educating others we can definitely start to create a conscious world, knowing that it is capable of being sustainable and going green!
I didn’t see that booth myself that had the ultra lightweight winter jackets but they sound really interesting. Your photos also help explain the concept well, as when I began reading about these jackets I initially wasn’t imagining puffer jackets or ski jackets, but your photos make it easy to wrap my head around how these jackets will look and work.
ReplyDeleteNabila- Excellent post! I am delighted you thought the show was amazing and were so inspired by your tour and visit with Louis and Gregory. Also, like Olivia, I am excited by what you learned about the textiles in the “Go Green” section of the Erictex booth. Recycling fibers as well as recycling all those disposed plastic bottles is excellent- and a great innovation for water-resistant fabrications! I also absolutely agree that the key is educating others! Thank you.
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