By Louisa Smith

Denim makers are a tight knit community and Première Vision has tapped in to this sector with its niche show purely for the global denim cognoscenti. From denim mills to finishers and trims, all aspects of the denim world are covered at the show.  It the narrow focus of this fair that gives it its strength, and neither rocketing cotton prices nor the blizzard conditions in Paris during the event stopped denim’s die-hard followers from being there. While the regular editions of Première Vision have a denim atelier, but it is focused more towards ready-to-wear brands that have denim lines as part of their collection.  This is different from the true denim brands who start work on their collections earlier and see Denim by Première Vision as the starting point of the season.

Soaring cotton prices have battered the denim industry, which relies on the fiber as its key ingredient.  So were surprised that cotton wasn’t the main topic of conversation. Instead the attitude was to ignore the probable outcome of rising raw material costs and shift the focus to what mills could offer in terms of added value for the end consumer (who will face inevitable price increases). 

“Our customers are trying to do blends, but denim is such a cotton driven category you have got to have cotton as the dominant fiber. Mills are looking for innovative and new ideas, offering fabrics with added value to the product to account for the increased prices,” said Jean T Hegedus, global marketing director-bottoms at Invista (Lycra).

Weavers were being clever in their use of blends with a variety of new developments, although this isn’t a key solution in reducing the price. As one denim industry insider told Inside Fashion.  >>How they're solving the problem