Buyers Want Innovation at a Price
By Louisa Smith
Denim keeps its hold on the international arena, but the message is clear: innovation and creativity combined with strong sustainable ethics are essential in delivering the right product.
Despite tough times in the textile industry, when it comes to denim there seems to be no end to its popularity. Inside Fashion checked out Denim by Premiere Vision to understand the constant appeal of fashion’s favorite fabric. This show is one of a kind - dedicated purely to the world of denim with the leading mills and denimwear designers meeting to discuss the latest developments. And it’s clear, that those who work in denim, live and breathe this classic fabric, as well as wear it.
“Denim is from the cradle to the grave,” explained Tony Carnot, director of denim design at Arvind’s Denim Lab. “It’s the comfort factor…there’s still a trend for good washes…buyers want a premium look but lower prices,” he said. Considering that the latest denim-look Huggies’ denim diapers which launched in New York in May, consumers’ love affair with denim clearly starts at an early age.
New for the season is natural indigo denim using 140-denier Lycra, compared to traditional 70-denier spandex that give a 50 percent stretch. “It’s important that stretch denim doesn’t look like stretch,” said Carnot.
Everyone's Focusing on Eco-Friendly
On the fiber front, cotton, with its constantly increasing price, is a problem that mills battle with but continues to be the staple fiber. However other fibers gaining ground this season include linen, wool and recycled cotton. An ecological is top of mind as mills redress denim’s heavy use of water in the finishing and dying process. Sustainable fibers come through, but interestingly it is the use of traditional indigo that is pushing the market. It offers mills and denim manufacturers added advantages over synthetic indigo in the final appearance, especially when teamed with eco fibers as seen at Arvind, Kurabo and TRC Candiani.
TRC Candiani, the Italian mill weaves on restored original denim looms to recreate authentic denim. But while their premium selvedge denim appeals globally, it is their innovative development of finishes that completes the look, with the focus on stained and rusted finishes this season.
Soft touch yet deceiving structures feature for the winter season, with denim weights averaging 11.5oz. Slub textures and irregular yarns create a new direction for tactility. Finishing continues to be key as the younger end of the market continues to demand innovative techniques in scratching, whiskers, rips and tears and patching up. For the mainstream market it is less destructive with cleaner look denim softened through ecologically sound washing techniques.
“You have to be cost efficient, to be innovative and bring something to the table that is unique,” said Mina Rea of Central Fabrics. This season’s collection includes recycled cotton that is gaining interest in 30/70 blends with conventional cotton through to using Lycra T400 for high stretch that can withstand rigorous finishing without losing its stretch.
Pushing The Creative Limits
Turkish mill Bossa invested heavily in R&D and launched a new technique called Indigo Soul. What is different about this denim that it is white on the surface with the indigo dye encapsulated in the yarn which when abraised and scratched, release to create a contrasting effect of the traditional blue denim surface with a white exposed filler yarns. “We started this development three years ago. There’s a playful element to the denim and the wearer can customize their jeans depending where they scratch the face of the fabric,” said Zafer Bozdag, adding that the company was developing recycled cotton using factory floor waste.
Although focused solely on one fabric, denim innovation is second to none. Prosperity Textile, for example, has their own garment design team and own laundry purely for presenting their denim textiles to garment manufacturers and not for garment production.
Japanese mills continue to be creative and cutting edge with innovative laminated surfaces, non-denim structures and oxidized finishes coming through. Metallic coating seen at Kurabo is offered in classic metallic gold or moving forward in iridescent holographic finish.
Color continues to feature, but indigo tones remain king. With denim weights getting lighter and stretch becoming an integral part of the denim market, it is the denim mills and finishers obsession with ecological aspects that is set to further enhance the market and ensure that the desire for denim continues to dominate for generations to come.
See the key demin trends and innovations for Fall '11 - complete with fabric swatches, photos, flat drawings and fashion illustrations - in the July 1-15, 2010 issue of Inside Fashion. We show you how to translate the top denim trends into bestselling fashion.