The last edition of Kingpins Amsterdam show, held at Sugar City, Amsterdam, on 12 and 13 April 2023, recalled a busy crowd of Dutch and international insiders.
Reasons for the present state is an exceptional series of events taking place in a very tight time-span like, for instance, a pandemic that lasted almost three years, a global conflict started a year ago and apparently not seeming to be nearing to an end, a huge earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, one of most neuralgic productive hubs for the denim and textile markets, along with other contrary occurrences.
Despite this, the whole denim industry doesn’t want to stand still and showed it clearly by gathering together again in Amsterdam to present new ideas, developments and projects that can stir the market and make it progress.
Along with that, despite good attendance levels, some key visitors from international brands were missing as some companies have started asking their employees not to travel in order to reduce costs or, in case they allowed them to travel, fewer people per company could leave their offices.
Not less important, as underlined by many players, many brands and garment manufacturers still have to deal with warehouses stuck with high amounts of unsold products, and, weavers are now facing a significant slowing down of their total capacity.
Despite this, companies entirely presented a series of new products inspired by a return to the '90s and early 2000s, with marble effects, colorful effects, stubby surfaces and slouchy hands, along with oversize jeans workwear inspired items, while always hyping on greater and stronger commitment to the environmental cause.
Denim is a canvas for endless interpretations, and field for innovative interpretations–this was never so true as today.
Among some of the most interesting innovations seen during the show, for instance, there was Soorty’s AI-generated denim collection, HumAIn, an inspiring new denim men’s, women’s and gender-fluid denim collection created in collaboration with internationally recognized trend forecaster, menswear designer and content director Volker Ketteniss.
While many denim manufacturers are cutting their investments, Sharabati Denim has presented a new selection of selvedge denim fabrics it is launching after an important investment and the purchase of about 200 Routi period shuttle looms from the 1960s. For the occasion, it presented a vast selection of an 85 cm-width selvedge denims available in indigo denim weave, ready to dye and black variants in weights that vary from 6.5 oz to 13.5 oz.
At present the company’s selvedge denim productive capacity is limited as only 60 looms are working, but soon about 120 will be operating.
Betting on more sustainable denim
Calik is always more committed to developing denims that care for the environment. Among its newest developments there is Re/J, a selection of denims made with 100% pre- and post-consumer recycled content.
Unlike 100% recycled fabrics in the industry, Re/J stands out with its vintage-authentic denim look and production method with desired elasticity thanks to the unique technology developed by Calik Denim. This concept maximises ecofriendliness by including value-added recycled fibers such as EcoLycra and Repreve PES, along with Dyepro, Calik Denim's zero water usage and no chemical waste dye-technology to all Re/J products for this season.
It also presented its B210 denim that, thanks to a specific technology, it is over 99% biodegradable within 210 days and if it is washed using a special technology degrades in 90 days.
Pushing innovation to the limit is key for Neela by Sapphire. The denim specialist has presented a series of innovative denims including one made with including up to 50% Viseta, a soft-touch 100% biodegradable fiber, and other denims using Tencel, modal, soy and banana leaves fibers.
Among others, it has also developed its 100% naturally stretch cotton denim Green Style offering elasticity achieved by using specific yarn-twisting technology along with specific weaving techniques.
Vicunha, the Brazilian denim manufacturer, has presented its new denim program made by using cotton grown in Brazil, recognised as the first worldwide BCI cotton producing country in 2021, according to ABRAPA, Brazilian Cotton Producers' Association. It has recently signed an agreement with the specialized Brazilian cotton grower Scheffer, as the only Brazilian denim manufacturer using it. Vicunha aims to increase the use of regenerative cotton for its offer in the near future.
Many interesting innovations were presented during the show by chemical manufacturers and finishing specialists, as such steps help add new surface effects or special color accents that can help jeans and apparel items look different.
CHT, while presenting its Lab102 division supporting the denim and garment manufacturing industry, has released new agents like are biodegradable, free from heavy metals, and chlorine, and help achieve extreme savings in water and energy consumption.
Its Organ IQ Biopower, instead, is a special cellulase enzyme mix used to obtain a stone wash look, without the use of stones and with a simultaneous reduction of lint formation. This process is sustainable, especially if combined with the use of its Organ IQ bleaching systems.
Officina39 has developed its new Recycrom Readytodye system that while it is based on at least 65% recycled textile scraps, is available according to a 15 color card palette, requires less or almost zero water, less energy, chemicals and time can make a difference as it helps to save resources, preserving the environment and increase efficiency.
Garmon launched Avol Galaxy, a new generation of compounds that help obtain marble effects on garments, though use no pumice stones, potassium permanganate, no activators, and work at room temperature.
Tonello has developed a special kit that can be used on existing machines and can obtain indigo piece-dyeing with a process carried out in a nitrogen atmosphere, without oxygen, with controlled reduction and oxidation, and through a highly reproducible and fully automated process, while reducing the use of chemicals and energy.
Jeanologia launched Atmos, a new treating system for achieving the authentic vintage look of natural aging and stone wash without the use of water, pumice stones or chemicals. Atmos is an innovative circular atmosphere washing process with zero discharge. It actually uses the company’s G2 ozone and Indra technology combined and can achieve most different effects like sinuous shapes, reserves, gradients, ozone bleaches and tie-dyes.
Playing with fibers is a must for contemporary jeans as each item gets added strength, performances, shape-retention, moisture management, comfort and softness, among others–even better if these fibers have caused a lower impact on the environment.
Hyosung presented a series of sustainable Creora stretch fiber innovations, meant to meet different brands and denim manufacturers’ requests.
According to a recent third-party life cycle assessment (LCA), the manufacture of Creora bio-based elastane also reduces water use by 50% compared to the production of regular elastane.
Among others, it also presented Creora Regen elastane, Hyosung’s 3rd party-certified spandex made of 100% reclaimed waste, a solution that allows denim brands to claim their jeans are fully made from recycled materials.
The international yarn manufacturer Roica by Asahi Kasei presented its premium & smart stretch yarn Roica V550, the sustainable degradable stretch yarn that is Cradle to Cradle-Certified and achieved a Material Health Gold Level Certificate as the fiber degrades under ISO 14855-1 tested by OWS decomposing to CO2 and water.
During Kingpins Amsterdam, Roica presented denim selections by Artistic Milliners, Candiani and Prosperity that use Roica V550.
When fibers count
Tencel highlighted some of the top solutions achieved by denim manufacturers for this Kingpins. In particular, a selection of denims by Artistic Milliners, Canatiba and Textilsantanderina highlighted a new circular approach to the use of Tencel. They used mechanically recycled Tencel Lyocell leftover fabrics and fibers and used them for new denims.
Tencel has also presented a selection of fabrics that use Tencel for their high moisture-management capacity, as it can absorb moisture twice as much as cotton.
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