Kingpins Amsterdam just closed its most recent edition held on October 23-24. Despite uncertainties including the international economic and political scenario, difficulties the market has been facing in the last seasons and the not-confirmed rumor that New York Denim Days might not happen in 2020, the show was generally busy and lively and gathered many top professionals and companies of the global denim and jeans industry. And–most important–it presented lots of hot novelties and inspiration for s/s 2021.
Sustainability–priority Number One
Among key novelties–and indispensable for guaranteeing a future to our planet–sustainability continues to play an important role as practically every exhibitor is focusing on it. Many companies have offered their own interpretation of denim mixing cotton with linen or hemp, both natural fibers that that don’t require much water and pesticides and can add a new casual attitude to anyone’s denim, while keeping the wearer fresh.
Candiani Denim added a third group of fabrics to its “Re” family of sustainable fabrics. After the launch of Regen, made with recycled fibers and Refibra, and Relast, made with organic cotton and the recycled elastomer by Asahi Kasei, it launched Resolve. This last fabric is made of organic cotton and a customized Roica premium degradable stretch yarn.
Many companies offered their denim selection made with recycled pre-or post-consumer denim. For most of them the resulting offer are mélange and very light blue hues denims as seen, among others, at Neela, Sharabati, Iskur and Artistic Milliners.
Naveena introduced 'Denim X.0' which includes new laser sensitive fabrics. Part of it is Beam Denim, specifically designed for laser applications, meant to save energy, water and time of rework.
Tejidos Royo presented its Dryindigo technology that dyes indigo without using water while fully respecting indigo color shades.
Accessory specialist YKK launched a new button that can be used more times as it can be unscrewed from an old garment and added onto a new one.
Hub 1922 has launched its new Laser Primer innovation, a foam surface treatment added onto fabrics before they are laser treated that help adding an enhanced aesthetic and better 3-D final surface effects to denim.
Garmon has launched its new Smart Foam treatment for garment finishing that helps reduce 80% water use and increase productivity as washing machines can treat garments three time faster compared to nebulization systems.
M&J presented a series of garments treated with laser without using any water though conveying great lucid though aged surfaces in mid blue or blue-gray shades.
Jeanologia has announced a partnership with Browzwear, a pioneer of 3-D digital solutions for the fashion industry, that will help designers to create, visualize and produce denim garments more efficiently and ecologically responsibly.
Colors are another must of the season and will range from acid glittery ones to pinks, oranges and earth colors–in addition to lots of light blue hues.
Evlox has launched its new E-Stamp fabric group made with organic cotton printed with environmentally friendly colors. These special prints can be customized with patterns that can be created upon request and stamped on both denims and flat fabrics.
A most beautiful installation was presented by Elleti as it showed a selection of garments treated and decorated as true art pieces as inspired by art movements such as Cubism, Art Nouveau, Abstractism and Pop Art, among others, implying that the company can treat garments as if each item was a single art piece.
Iskur is launching its new Macaroon group of fabrics created by layering different dyeing techniques–including batik–on the same fabric. The more these fabrics are washed the more colorful they become.
Calik has worked with new colors and techniques, creating a wide indigo and colorful palette that includes stripes and colorful and bright tone denims.
Some denim manufacturers focused CBD, a molecule lent from the cosmetic industry. Orta used it for its CBDenim group of fabrics with relaxing, cooling and skin-friendly properties.
Soft slouchy hands also a must for the season as presented by Tencel in its latest Broadband sustainable wardrobe also offering typically men’s and authentic denim fabrics.
Also part of this trend is Artistic Milliners’ Buttery Soft fabric family that offers selvedge denims and regular denims using various technologies including left hand weaves, Modal, Tencel and Supima cotton to add new gentle-to-the-skin and slouchy cool fabrics.
As part of this trend Bossa is launching its Free Denim selection that offers high-power stretch articles with low growth performance.
Cone Denim has offered a series of selvedge denims aimed to support benefic causes. It presented a Cone Pink Selvedge denim that is now being sold through its e-commerce White Oak Shop and supports the Alight Program for Breast Cancer Awareness, a Greensboro, NC, organization.
It also presented its Pride Selvedge, a rainbow selvedge aimed to be used for special denim accessories and to be sold in next weeks through its e-commerce, though also available for special edition products.
Denim is also aiming to evolve and reinvents its surface with new woven and surface effects. Among many there were various striped denims–especially as part of the evident return to workwear–as seen at Calik, Artistic Milliners, Cone Denim and Panther Denim, though also with cool checked woven effects as presented by Panther Denim, and lots of naps effects as seen at Evlox and Orta, in this case using a mix of cotton and hemp fibers.
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