Reports

The import and the scale of the event was such that even as it was palpably drawing to an end, no one was talking of the goings-on at ITMA 2019 Barcelona, but ITMA Milan 2023. Indeed. Textile technology—textile innovation, if you may—is moving at such a frenetic pace that what you would have seen today in Barcelona might just as well be obsolete by the time you are home. That, of course, is a hyperbole, but you get the drift. Themed around ‘Innovating the World of Textiles’, the 18 th edition of...

Every four years, the global textiles-apparel-fashion industry converges at ITMA. If there are a number of #mustattend events out there, this would be the mother of them all. It is an event that in many ways not only shapes the future of industry, but just living as well. And as the ITMA Services, which is organising ITMA 2019 at Barcelona this month, says on its website: “ITMA is the trendsetting textile and garment technology platform where the industry converges every four years to explore...

Close to half a lakh people from across the world would be converging in Frankfurt, Germany in mid-May. They would be flocking to the Techtextil event for a reason—leading international exhibitors will be presenting the entire spectrum of technical textiles, functional apparel textiles and textile technologies at the Messe Frankfurt event. Texprocess, the leading trade fair for the garment manufacturing and textile processing industry, will take place concurrently with Techtextil. Visitors will...

There are many who believe, not wrongly, that the best and safest bet to start an apparel business is with t-shirts. It is a product category that has hardly seen a perceptible dip in sales—right from the 1950s when Marlon Brando and James Dean made them popular, hip and chic. There are far too many angles to look at, and most of them still ring true—some truer then before. T-shirts remain fashion essentials and timeless. They are still a medium of expression, as they were when Disney-character...

If it is readymade, it is quite likely that it is not perfect; not for the body at least. And since the fashion industry virtually stands with a backbone made of readymade garments, the age-old problem suddenly appears to be one of imperfection (in the fashion industry). The apparel sector is seized of the issue, and professionals across the value chain are grappling with a worn-out issue that has found a new fabric. Take two relatively recent developments. In June last year, six major British...

Deliveries of new short-staple spindles and long-staple spindles respectively improved by 8 per cent and 46 per cent from 2016 to 2017. The number of shipped draw-texturing spindles and shuttle-less looms increased by 23 per cent and 14 per cent. Shipments of new electronic flat knitting machines and finishing machines of the category "fabric discontinuous" each rose by 70 per cent year-on-year. In contrast, deliveries of finishing machines of the category "fabrics continuous" rose by 5 per cent...

That one form of energy can be transformed into another is a fundamental law of nature, nay physics. So, when someone says that kinetic energy can be converted into electricity, that would raise no eyebrows. But when someone claims to have developed a fabric which does precisely that, many in the textiles industry would be snapped into rapt attention. Such a fabric has indeed been developed by researchers at the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. Researchers Anja Lund and...

A new amendment to a European Union legislation has modified several provisions related to textile fibre names and associated with labelling and marking of the fibre composition of textile products. It has also accepted the nomenclature of a new textile fibre called polyacrylate. The new law, Commission Delegated Regulation 2018/122, which entered into force on February 15, amends a number of sections and definitions of the existing legislation, Regulation 1007/2011. According to the preamble to...

A failure to find answers to domestic policy shortcomings that are responsible for today's labour market problems at the local levels could lead to global ramifications, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has warned. Governments will therefore need to meet, talk and negotiate, and arrive at cooperative “win-win” approaches to the opportunities, as well as the challenges, of ongoing global economic change, the WTO's World Trade Report 2017: Trade, technology and jobs has remarked. The 2017 World...

The silver lining that emanated from Gandhinagar over three gloomy, rain-drenched days was as far-reaching as it was clear. The scale of the Textiles India 2017 event, the inauguration by the Prime Minister himself, the ubiquitous presence of a contingent of high-profile Union ministers, and the infectious atmosphere prevailing over the three-day gathering at the sprawling exhibition complex in the Gujarat capital—all point to the textiles and apparel industry being set to get a fillip from the...