Category: Denim Reports

Further to our two previous posts on the SS’15 denim (part 1 and part 2) trends from  the Denim by PV , this is the third and the last one. As mentioned before, the interest in denim looked much higher at the show and also the visitations to the show were much higher than in May  . We all look forward to its first edition at Barcelona next year.

Artistic Fabric Mills- Pakistan

AFM focused on super soft and super stretch fabrics for women – creating these fabrics with multiple combinations of fibers. Hasan Javed, Director , explaining the various super soft fabrics and other fabrics from AFM stable, says –

“Super soft, and super smooth hand feel is still very strong for the Spring/Summer season. We achieve this through different techniques. The most obvious one being the use of Tencel® and Modal® fibers from Lenzing in the warp. In addition to this, our new spinning expansion includes combers which allows us to combine thin combed warps with different wefts. New weft technology that we like to call “PLTC” combines four different fibers for a superior handle and excellent recovery at a more economical price. Combining constructions and using certain special warps allow us to use cotton wefts that provide linen looks. Moving away from the soft hand feel side, we have also introduced a new concept called “Mélange à trios”. This injects something novel into our PFD family; a Multi-fiber warp for double color or melange effect.”

Besides, they also  introduced fiber dyeing , Coolmax, transparent coatings, glitters etc.

Crescent – Pakistan

Crescent came up with the waterless washing of denim garments through usage of chemicals which , according to Idrish Munshi , enables them to completely avoid the usage of stone and use only 1 litre of water per garmen to achieve the stone wash effect. They also came up with the ‘Jeans of Steel’ – made up of super strong dyneema fibers . The jeans, first created by a denim mill as per Crescent , are over 25% more stronger than the regular 100% cotton denim and much more suitable for motorcycle wear and other outer wear applications.

Artistic Milliner – Pakistan

AM introduced  Selvedge denims for the women , besides their other products. Omer Ahmed, Director , says –

“We have 100% cotton, but what we have really worked on is to try to bring the contemporary technology to the selvedge area. For instance, selvedge is primarily for male fashion, but not so much for women. We have tried to bring the same for women – specially in stretch. We have taken the purist approach to these denim – to celebrate the purity of fabrics which has been there for over 100 years. We are trying to commercialize selvedge and make it more affordable. “

They also presented their performance range including Coolmax fabrics (for moisture management) , thermo cool , anti microbial , low friction fabrics etc. Artistic Milliners is also coming up with their Leeds certified factory at Pakistan shortly.

US  Apparels – Pakistan

US apparel focused on some key concepts . Pure Indigo light or dark for a summer with  contrast. Green cast for fashion and vintage…  Grey to recall the great time of rock,&roll. Alternative fibers like modal, tencel, viscose, natural fibers for soft hand feel. Hemp and recycled yarn for sustainability. Print fashion image by laser and washed by ozone for water less. A trip through the memory starting from 80’s when the Indigo was more red up to the stage of Summer 15 . Eco and green still on front line  for a lifestyle contemporary  and live.

Subsequent to our first report on DPV SS’15 , here is our second , and a little delayed report, on the show . This report will mainly focus on the products and collections displayed by different companies who participated in the show. But before we start, lets see what the reputed denim master Adriano Goldschmied has to say.
(to watch all videos and presentations, you need to go online here)

A Chat With Adriano Goldschmied

We had a small chat with denim Guru Adriano Goldschmied . On being asked where denim innovation was heading, he felt that the men’s denim is heading towards heavier weight and washing without stones. Women’s denim innovation was about bringing different fibres in the warp. He also felt that the low end of the market is improving more than the upper end of the market. See the video  below on the chat with Adriano Goldschmied.

Bossa – Turkey

Brings out various concepts . Ultranero – the super dark black fabrics which are not supposed to fade even after repeated washes. Ultra Indigo – uses indigo x indigo ie indigo in weft also to bring out that high indigo concentrated colors .Dust bowl concept has fabrics inspired by colors of the soil – mainly 100% cottons. Make-up– has a number of different colors and different types of yarns used in the weft including the twisted elastomers. The IVY – League collection is targeted to create comfortable fabrics for men in rigid as well as stretch and are inspired by the IVY League of the USA. Concepts like “Indigo Bodies” with very high recoveries are targeted to the female audience. Besides stressing on the eco sustainability concept , Bossa brings out the 100% recycled denim products and ,as their marketing and R&D team claims, that through the process of recycling ,through chemical savings and resuse of carbon dioxide, usage of solar energy in their new project- the company will emit 30,000 tons less to the environment  .
Here below is a  presentation of the images from the Bossa SS’15 Collection.

Bossa SS’ 15 Denim Collection | Denimsandjeans

Orta Anadolu – Turkey

Orta presented their collections in different families . The performance family called the Hero Tech family including the loom tech, True tech , Dare denim etc. Then there are the blended and the stretch families. As per Ebru Ozaydin , the inspiration for the SS’15 was ‘Aqua Weaves ‘– ie the colors of the ocean. Starting from very dark to light blue – all present in the ocean. Within this family they are the Ocean Blues and the Deep Blues (I-core fabrics which are indigo coated fabrics). The light color areas also has ‘ Powder Blues’ – flat fabrics coated with summer colors with a waxy finish.
Orta has also partnered with Eric Hill – a person who is on a mission to visit 194 UN countries around the world. To support him in his journey, Orta offers Dare Denim, a durable new fabric that features environmentally friendly processes and high-tech fibers, tough durability, thermo-regulation, abrasion resistance, water repellent finishes and anti-bacterial properties. Here is a video of a chat with Ebru Ozaydin at Orta .

Collection images here

Arvind Mills , India

Arvind brought out the NEO Denims – with an increased depth of the color which , according to Rajesh Gupta (Design head) “ are highly eco friendly due and enables to produce fabrics which start from high level of saturation and wash down very well. The user can get upto 20 washes starting from darkest color to the ice wash “. Mr Akhtar (CEO) in the video chat, given below, mentions that these are also very environmentally conscious products saving a large amount of water during the dyeing process. These fabrics were also combined with personalized writings which become apparent only after washing due to dark shades of the fabrics. SPICE denims from Arvind give the flexibility to the manufacturers to create their own colors in garment form. Apart from these , Arvind displayed their knit denims, jacquard denims, natural indigo dyed products and others.

Herebelow is a small video of a chat with  Mr. Aamir Akhtar

Also attached is a presentation of their collection images.

Soorty – Pakistan

Soorty came up with different concepts like One Dip – the fabrics capturing the mood of summer by providing the flexibility to the users to create their own colors in garment stage. The extreme sports range are very high stretch and high recovery fabrics for the sportswear application. In the coating kitchen range, they presented a large range of coating techniques. The fabrics included coated tattoos. Denim Art, Gold Miner, Rider, Planets and platter to name few. Post garment coatings including sprays added further ‘color’ to the garments. The 3Sixty collection used a number of colored wefts with multiple combinations of fibers including modal. The Dance collection of super fine , super soft fabrics are targeted towards the usage in jeggings for women.
Mr Shahid Soorty (CEO), upbeat on the response and growth , says –

“Soorty derives its passion from the garments. We believe garments are the  key and this helps us to produce great fabrics. Going forward, we are going for expansion in flat fabrics, garments and denim fabrics. The garment expansion is coming up in Pakistan and also Bangladesh  where we are setting up a 40,000 garments per day Leeds certified factory. This would also help us to give maximum solution to the customer”.

Calik – Turkey

Calik – Brings the ‘Botanical Sense Collection’ . Calik combined all its sustainable efforts under a “natural” collection, Botanical Sense. Botanical Sense takes inspiration and uses raw materials from the nature and makes it industrially applicable. The R&D center focuses on sustainable innovations in products, processes and technology and also collaborates with Turkish universities in developing and testing new ideas. For the launch, 20 new natural denims were introduced in Botanical Sense collection. The denims are made from organic cotton, BCI cotton, recycled cotton, linen, paper yarn,tencel and modal. All the dyestuff is either natural indigo or those approved by GOTS. Finishes are made with the recently introduced less water technology or natural ingredients. Overdyes are all made from natural ingredients. Calik claims that all the fabrics are certified.
They also brought an interesting collection of prints – inspired by the 500 year old art of traditional Japanese hand dyeing technology – “Shibori”- with the industrial application of printing on denims to achieve striking surfaces. Check the video below to understand more about “Shibori” from the Japanese master Hiroshi Murase. 
I spoke to Hiroshi Murase to understand what the Shibori art is about . He explains it in details in the video below :

Third part of our PV report coming very soon !!