Interviews

The Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week is Africa's largest trade show for fashion, sustainability and innovation. Here, Africa's fashion and manufacturing industry meets international investors and brands. In a run up to the eighth edition which gets under way on 4 November, Skander Negasi, Chief Executive Officer of organiser Trade and Fairs Consulting GmbH, speaks about prospects, problems and mitumba.

Munich Fabric Start is a big event, packed with diverse and distinct verticals within the event ecosystem. See this in the backdrop of the array of exhibitors and the diversity of visitors, and, presto, it becomes an indubitable place to gauge the pulse of the industry and palpable elements that will become trends in the near future. The best person to throw light on all this is Sebastian Klinder, Managing Director of Munich Fabric Start Exhibitions GmbH. A conversation with texfash.com.

Dutch design studio Raw Color has created a collection called 'Temperature Textiles', which is embedded with climate-change data. The collection features blankets, scarves and socks knitted with infographics about either temperate change, sea-level rise or greenhouse gas emissions. Raw Color Co-Founder Christoph Brach talks about the idea.

It was in 1997 that a young girl in war-ravaged Somalia began to train women and girls in income-generating tye-and-dye programmes. By 2012 Qaal Designs was started in Los Angeles with the sole idea of reuse, recycle and repurpose products using digitisation. This ‘global movement’ in sustainable fashion is now moving from LA to the streets of Nairobi, Mogadishu, Arusha, Kigali and expanding to the rest of Africa. texfash.com in conversation with Founder Nimco Adam.

Stephen Mayfield is a distinguished professor of Biology at UC San Diego. Tom Cooke came with decades of experience in product development. Together, they created at Bluewear Footwear the world's first biodegradable pair of shoes made from plant-based fabrics and oils that decompose fully. A riveting interview with texfash.com.

The Amphitex project of Amphibio is the first 100% recyclable chemical-free waterproof breathable textile made for the outdoor and sportswear apparel industry. In April this year, Amphitex by  Amphibio was announced as one of four Terra Carta Design Lab winners. CEO & Founder Jun Kamei talks about ideas and how he sees things shaping up in the near future.

Zipper major YKK is conducting lifecycle assessment of all its products to help guide development of sustainable trims, even as the fashion element is changing for this fashion accessory with consumer-led demands.

Implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) along side supporting measures is widely believed to incentivise eco-design. Texfash.com talks to Toby Connock, Consultant at Eunomia, the agency that was commissioned by the Changing Markets Foundation (CMF) and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) to conduct a study on the role of EPR and supporting policy measures in driving a circular economy for textiles in Europe.

The textiles industry faces accelerated change throughout the entire supply chain in the years ahead, driven by trends including sustainability and near-shoring. Print is just a small part of the complete textile supply chain but, at each stage, transformation is afoot and evolving at a fast pace worldwide. Michael Ryan, Head of FESPA Global Print Expo, tells texfash.com what it will be like to be at the four-day event at Berlin, beginning 31 May, and how the interplay between the printing segment and others in the value chain is expected to play out.

Researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) have developed a new indigo dyeing technology that, they say, is an eco-friendly alternative to current methods. Sergiy Minko, a professor of fibre and polymer science at UGA and a corresponding author of the study, shares some thoughts on denim dyeing.