Linen, Wool Fabrics and Other Fibers - Colored Wovens, Shirting and Knitwear
Even when the naturals are blended with polyamide or polyester, they maintain natural aspects and hand. Openwork, like gauze and tulle, has transparent effects. Chiffon and voile in multi-layers become translucent. Gingham checks, windowpane checks, hounds tooth and polka dots decorate shantung, taffeta, and the calendered and mercerized fabrics.
Slubbed, roving yarns, raffia and paper touches have vegetal aspects. Fringes, borders, jacquards and cut-yarns provide the ethnic inspiration. Floating yarns, large knits and Raschels, with imperfection give a handmade or ‘one-of-a-kind' appearance. Wovens have shrinkable yarns, blends of yarn counts, crepe, crepon, seersucker, matt, metallic and iridescence effects; washed-out, double dyes, iridescents, printed yarns and tie-dye, and finishings such as washed, wrinkled, cloque, burnt-out, paper and crispy aspects, all create interesting surface movement.
Unexpected grounds have been printed and woven and printed patterns have been embroidered. Pleating, wrinkling, laminating and perforating take finishing to the limit!
Natural elasticity and blends with elastane provide ‘relaxed' performance. ‘Clean, cool, smooth', more matt, less shiny. ‘Eco-techno' is more natural than technical in cotton, linen, woolens, and viscose blended with polyamide or polyester. Knits and all purpose jerseys are ‘relaxed'. Finishings are easy-care, wrinkle resistant, anti-stain, anti-UV, anti-bacteria, anti-everything. 'Intelligent' thermo-regulating fabrics, hollow fibres and breathable membranes have a strong presence.
Maseters of Linen
The fabrics are fresh and light. Simple fabrics are compact, soft, fine and fluid. Some are glazed and satiny and voile and gauze have iridescent effects. Linen and polyamide blend in fluid jerseys. Sensitive, high-performance linen/carbon or linen/ceramic yarns are easy and comfortable. Linens are decorated with embroideries and prints. Invisible coatings give a papery feel. Irregular textures have hand-made looks. Thick and fine yarns combine, and thick knits are made with sliver yarns and raffia effects. Colourful patchworks, stripes and Madras have an ethnic feel to them. Stiff pleats, leather or rubber coatings are some of the new techniques being applied to linen for the season.
Kultaturve Oy presented a most interesting collection of yarns, fabrics and textile laminates made from a new fiber called Eriotex (registered trademark). Cotton grass (peat moss) which has matured in bogs for a thousand years has been mixed with cotton, wool and linen. The resulting textiles are light, absorbent and porous, fire-resistant, anti-allergic and antistatic.
Dario Querci from Di Mazzone offered the following comments about their collection. "Textures and yarns are important this season. There is a big return of suitings, high-twist doublecloths, summer tweeds and home-spun looks with delave. There's a new trend in denim, which has a very clean look and is suitable for the office."
Linea Tessile Italiana's innovative and imaginative collection for the season included embroideries, jacquards, yarn-dyes and prints on linen bases. Some cloths have been oiled or chalked with rubberization.
More than Wool
"We developed a lot of synthetic fabrics blended with natural fibers, mostly cotton. The yarns and the qualities are finer than last season, and they are well constructed. For our novelties, we have mixed raffia together with cotton. We have developed a special membrane mostly used in sportswear, which is breathable and waterproof for the sportswear market, and our bonded gauze/poplin is extremely lightweight. We have a special bonding system where we put light qualities together for great transparent effects," said Franco Miliotti of Milior. Milior is known for high-tech yarns, and are constantly researching new filaments and fibers - any kind of new material from ceramic yarn, antibacterial, from poly-retainer to polyester films for plastic effects on fabrics. High-tech stretch with thermostat was an important addition to the collection. "Very interesting this season are colour and the fancies - large and small checks, ikats and batiks. People miss colour! We've also developed some yarn-dyes with some very fine yarns -some very strange materials - synthetic yarn dyes, blended synthetics and cotton yarn dyes. They're not easy, but produce some great effects!"
"Linen blends have taken over 100 percent linen. People want cleaner looks. Stretch, coatings like a waxed surface, or a touch of acetate for subtle shine are very important. Ornamentation and colour are the big words for the season. Our number one item so far has been a fringed linen/rayon blend with melange yarns," said Fred Rottman of Picchi.
"Definitely linen and cotton are strong this season: linen stretch, piece-dyed, yarn dyed linen blends and cotton/nylons. Very noticeable is the return of fancies and bright colours like sun, orange, yellow, pink and sky-light. Also important is the fabric hand. They must be soft and have body," stated Silvia Boncompagni, Marini & Cecconi.
Binicocchi created a beautiful line of wovens in natural fibers and blends with technical finishes, and wonderful laser and print effects. Most important were their tencel blends, linen blends, washable and stretch fabrics. "The checks were a strong direction followed by the plaids, all very bright and very colourful. The buyers responded very well to fresh effects on cotton/nylon fabrics, viscose/linen ‘crepe' with a ‘fashion hand, as well as shining effects and special resins, and brilliant fancies in bright colors like turquoise, fushia and orange," said Annamaria Cocchi of Binicocchi.
Shirtings
"Our cotton blends with lycra, and our stretch fabrics in bright color ways did very well in the swimwear sector, in addition to our more traditional line of dress shirting," said Barbara Bosatta of Taiana.
Nicole Semhon, the US representative for Alumo Textil, commented on the importance of colour this season. "End and broadcloths in pinks, particularly the lavenders, were walking out the door. The cashmere/cotton blends went well in the American market for the ‘dress-down' look. Linen and cotton blends made big headway, and the U.S. buyers were even looking at the voiles. The U.S. market is really beginning to understand the value of Swiss cottons. They have a great feel, are organic and skin friendly because we use no formaldehyde in our finishing process."
GARTEX used some very special finishes in the collection, like paper and lightweight coatings. "Their coated spun-bond, nonwoven spider-web fabrics, as well as their clipped jacquards, were big items for this season," remarked Jim Gordon, U.S. Agent for Gartex.
Knitwear
Sincronia created incredible effects using nylon with linen ‘fil coupe', cotton or silk gauze with viscose ‘fil coupe', in iridescent and solar colours. They launched their new ‘cellular' fabrics in 100 percent cotton this season. Worked like cells, they have a double-faced net effect, open on one side, diapered on the other. Sincronia is the first company to use the hollow fiber Meryl Nexten for knit fabrics, and is now testing it for wovens. Due to its weight, they can invent jersey fabrics where the traditional rhomb net is replaced by little drops, or double fabrics in two colours and two faces, with a relief texture on one side.
Marioboselli Jersey's polished linens and crepe cottons have been blended with silk for smooth surfaces. Viscose has been softened with a touch of polyester, or satined with nylon. Dog's teeth, bird's eye, vichy and micro dots in jersey reinvent classic shirting qualities with unusual hands and finishes for a more t-shirt concept. Stripes are regimental, degrade, structured or bayadere. Cotton/linen, soft nylon organza, washable crepe nylons and sueded polyesters are the most advanced offerings. Advantages of high performance move into informal wear with soft cotton/polyester nets. Teflon treated microjacquard, fancy and plains fused jerseys are used for reversible urban garments.
The new collection at Gruppo Dondi is elegant, avant-garde and comfortable due to the natural elasticity in the knits. The structures are light in open works and textures, and printed with abstracts and fantasy. Wrinkle-free and washing machine safe fabrics such as oxford, pique', honeycomb and diagonal patterns are enlivened with colours and coatings in order to emphasize natural outlines, and treatments for a crisp, firm hand.
Tibi Jersey ‘s spring collection is very imaginative, filled with colour patterns and fun!