H. Kenneth Greeson, manager of Textile Chemistry Research at Cotton Incorporated, is the 2019 recipient of the AATCC Olney Medal. Greeson is being recognized for his work in durable press finishing of cotton. He has spent many years working with durable press chemistry—in particular, resin and cross-linking chemistry—and has made several significant advancements in cotton durable press technology.

Most recently, Greeson was awarded a utility patent for his work on the formulation of a non-formaldehyde durable press finish for cotton, known as Purepress. This technology combines smoothness with enhanced strength, tear and abrasion resistance, as compared to the traditional DMDHEU finish. The Purepress finish has comparable whiteness, enhanced strength, no shade change, and no odor; it also requires a lower cure temperature than the traditional DMDHEU resin finish.

Greeson has been an active member of AATCC since 1982. Greeson has shared his knowledge through publications in AATCC Review and Textile Research Journal, in addition to serving as a reviewer for AATCC publications. In recognition of his service to AATCC research committees, he was awarded the AATCC TCR Service Award. In addition to his service to AATCC, he is also the secretary of the Southern Textile Research Conference (STRC).

Established in 1944 in honor of Louis Atwell Olney, the founder and first president of AATCC, the Olney Medal Award recognizes outstanding achievement in textile or polymer chemistry or other fields of chemistry of major importance to textile science. The award consists of a gold medal, a scroll, and an honorarium.

Festival of Fashion, Pure London announced a host of exciting new and returning brands for this weekend’s show including a collective of 11 high end Italian footwear, accessories and menswear brands via Regione Campania, making their UK debut from the 9th – 11th February at Olympia London.

Established names showcasing their AW20 collections include Great Plains, Lacoste, Religion, AX Paris, Chalk, Blank, Thought, and DK Company brands; B.young, Fransa, Part Two, Soaked in Luxury, Dranella, Culture, and Saint Tropez; featuring alongside names including Alba Conde, Greenbomb, Smith & Canova, 8 Paris Rocks, Maloka, Flare Street, Comfy Copenhagen, Matthew O’Brien, Castlebird Rose, Carloe London, The Others, Emme Cadeau, Dictate, Sharewear Clothing Scheme, HIGHONFLEURS and Hilary MacMillan and many more making an appearance at Pure London.

This season Pure London welcomes the collective participation of Regione Campania and a group of carefully selected Italian labels. Regione Campania aims to strengthen the exposure of local brands in the clothing, accessories and footwear sector. The objective is also to facilitate new business opportunities as well as partnerships with key retailers in the UK and Europe.

Exponential growth for Pure Conscious indicates that sustainability and ethical brands continues in importance, moving from being a ‘trend’ to an enduring way of doing business.

Religion Clothing has become a Pure London stalwart and will showcase its new AW20 collection 'COME AS YOU ARE' which focuses on layering. Rich textures and oversized prints in a palette of nature-inspired neutrals - caramel, cathay spice and taupe run throughout. Sumptuous velvet tailoring hits the mark for this season’s opulence trend. Dressed down with one of Religion's new graphic statement tees made from sustainable cotton, for an effortlessly chic day-to-night look. This season is all about versatility and contrast - dress it up, dress it down - Religion are staying true to their core belief of the pursuit of individual style for this exciting new decade.

Pure London will see Lacoste showcase what they can do with their women’s collections since Louise Trotter joined as Creative Director. SS20 also marked a significant move for Lacoste into using sustainable and organic materials fabrics, alongside the brands continued partnership with IUCN highlighting the conversation of endangered species with the Save our Species collaboration. Great Plains returns to Pure London for the first time in 10years.

London Beauty Artists (LBA) will be offering on-demand beauty services throughout the three days on Stand N32 with highly qualified, experienced and insured Makeup Artists, Beauticians and Hair Stylists.

Offering a wide range of premium textiles including bottom weights, suitings, finer fabrics, and household linen since 1897, Birla Century now aims to focus on its brands and export businesses.“We aim to shift 60 per cent of our business to brands and exports in the next two years. For this, we plan to move away from the trader segment to OTC and RTS businesses which offer better margins. Our aim is increase our OTC and RTS business from 3.5 lakh meters per month to 7 lakh meters each per month,” says Ashish Mehrishi, Chief Marketing Officer of the company

Aggressive growth plans

As timing, quality and pricing are crucial in both businesses Birla Century is expanding operations aggressively and hopes to be well placed in both these segments. “We offer products in both apparel and home furnishing segments. Our products in the apparel division include yarn dyed shirting fabrics and bottomwear. Yarn dyed shirting fabrics span 25 per cent of our entire production while peach dyed fabrics span the remaining 75 per cent. Our yarn dyed fabrics are used for making both formal and casual wear,” he explains. The company offers two ranges in its OTC business; yarn dyed OTC and whites and dhotis. “Dhoti is our trademark business. We plan to increase this business from 35,000 meters to one lakh meters next year. We also plan to increase our Whites business to about two lakh meters next year.”

Birla Century aims to venture into brands and export business for better profitability, and to work on a plant level. The company also aims to venture into printing business and manufacture around half a million printed fabric. “As this was the only product missing in our apparel division, we felt the need to add it on a big scale. We plan to set up this business by April-May 2020,” Mehrishi informs.

Issues plaguing industry

The apparel market is currently affected by various factors such as trade war. People are also suffering due to high GST costs while payment cycle is affecting the working capital. “However, we are working on these issues and hope to minimise their impact.”

Consumers are demanding maximum designs in minimum quantities. This is affecting many domestic shirts brands. “Their ‘End of Season’ sale has gone horribly wrong as buying patterns have shifted to two months which has delayed the cycle of payments and inventories.” However, there is always a market for brands that offer innovative and good quality designs.

Players are running at 30 to 40 per cent capacities yet their prices have not changed. Mills are oversupplied. Things have become extremely difficult for manufacturers as profit margins have shrunk. However, we are not affected much as we handle diverse segments like OTC retail, brand and exports business. We are on track to make our plant completely green.

In future, Birla Century plans to expand its OTC and RTS businesses to Tier II, III and IV cities and other remote areas. “Efforts are on to reach out to consumers and understand their basic needs and serve them to our capacity. Though our brand recall is not satisfactory, people are aware of us and the legacy of Birla Century,” he sums up.

Festival of Fashion, Pure London has announced a seminar programme jam-packed with the essential insights and trends for the buying season ahead with a roll call of industry personalities and experts joining the line-up.

From 9th – 11th February at Olympia London, the new and improved Pure London Runway stage will provide a dedicated space for catwalks, styling sessions and AW20/21 trends. Nomad Stage and Origin Stage will be host to some of fashion's biggest names discussing everything from sustainability to social media.

As part of its commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, the content programme kicks off on Sunday 9th February on the Nomad Stage with Kerry Bannigan from Conscious Fashion Campaign and Kirsty McGregor, Editor of Drapers Magazine for The Big Conversation 2020 - The Decade of Action. With tens of thousands of people pledging to make a collective change, Kerry and Kirsty reflect on the success of driving the message around the UN Sustainable Development Goals campaign, how to encourage more businesses to make positive steps to change, and how consumers join that journey.

Next up, TV presenter and content creator Kate Thornton talks to Lauretta Roberts, Editor of The.Industry about Authenticity: Kate will discuss how she has navigated her newest design collaboration with Bibi Bijoux, how their partnership evolved, how important it was to be involved in the creative collaboration, but most importantly how they have built a line that is authentic to her and connects with customers.

The Keynote Conversation features Dame Zandra Rhodes. Celebrating her Jubilee, Rhodes will talk about the ups and downs of continuing to thrive in the fashion world.

On the Origin Stage join Helen Cannon Jones, Garment Technologist from Rohan on Mastering the Fitting Process; identifying efficiencies, understanding best practice and incorporating sustainable objectives wherever possible during the fitting and production portion of your product life-cycle.

Jenny Holloway, CEO of Fashion Enter, Fashion Capital and FTA London hosts ‘Understanding garment marking in the UK and shedding light on the 'Fast Fashion is land-fill' misconception’, explaining how to create sustainable, commercially successful clothes.

For designers and buyers looking to move from linear to circular business models, Design Decisions that Work in a Circular Economy: Planning for Repair, Re-use and Recycling with Jeff Denby, Co- founder of The Renewal Workshop will cover everything from which notions you should select to make your garment repairable, to how to ensure your trim does not compromise recyclability.

Closing the Origin Stage on Sunday, join Designer Patrick McDowell; Jordan Wake, fashion journalist and assistant to Hilary Alexander and Nina Van Volkinburg for a discussion on The Future of Communication in the Fashion Industry.

The Pure London Runway will feature regular daily AW20 Trends Catwalk shows, Pure Brands sponsored catwalks, The Unique Style Platform FASHION FORECAST: TREND REPORT AW 20/21, as well as Styling Sessions from Lauren Engelke, Founder - The Sustainable Stylist, and Roberta Lee, Stylist & Founder of Ethical Brand Directory.

CHIC Organizing Committee has informed that given the need to prevent and control a new corona virus infection, a top-level response mechanism for major public health emergencies has been launched in Shanghai. In order to effectively protect the health of exhibitors, trade visitors, staff and the public and to ensure an efficient trade fair for all participants, the date of the CHIC, China International Fashion Fair, originally planned from March 11 to 13, 2020, has been postponed.

"Sicomin has partnered with GREENBOATS on the supply of Green Poxy bio-based resins for the FLAX 27- an 8.2m classically styled day sailer, the most complete natural fibre composite project realised by GREENBOATS to date. Sicomin’s hand lamination and infusion production processes have been optimized for natural fibre composites, providing an uncompromising performance."

Sicomin has partnered with GREENBOATS on the supply of Green Poxy bio-based resins for the FLAX 27- an 8.2m classically styled day sailer, the most complete natural fibre composite project realised by GREENBOATS to date. Sicomin’s hand lamination and infusion production processes have been optimized for natural fibre composites, providing an uncompromising performance.

Vacuum infusion with Sicomin’s InfuGreen 810, produced crystal-clear natural fibre laminates with outstanding mechanical properties, whilst the closed mould process also improved working conditions in the factory.

Available with a choice of hardeners to adjust the curing time as required, InfuGreen 810 also carries DNV-GL approval, providing a reassuring 3rd party confirmation of the product’s exceptional quality, performance and consistency.

GREENBOATS typically apply a bespoke life cycle assessment tool to optimize their projects for performance as well as sustainability. This detailed view of a project’s environmental impact and GREENBOATS expertise in product development has now created a number of larger scale composite applications for bio-based resins.

Sicomin are looking forward to continuing to work along side GREENBOATS in 2020, with industrial production capacity for their market leading range of GreenPoxy bio-based epoxies positioning the company to support the forecasted large scale growth in the natural fibre composite market.

“Our goal is to really get people excited about Natural Fibre Composites. Sicomin’s GreenPoxy products help us create sustainable composites with no compromise in performance or appearance.” Commented GREENBOATS founder, Friedrich Johann Deimann.

A new non-halogenated FR compound called PAL...VersaCHAR can achieve a new level of flame retardant performance as a coating for nonwovens and technical textiles.

It is being introduced by Dynamic Modifiers, a specialty compounder focused on custom polyolefin compounds and concentrates, based in Atlanta, Georgia.

PAL...VersaCHAR has been tested to 1,950°C – the highest to date – and shown to prevent all flaming drips of polymer. Char bodies form on the compound surface, protecting against flame creation and delaying heat transfer. Rapid self- extinguishing burn behaviour protects any underlying substrate to which it is adhered.

The compound has passed ASTM E84 (Class A) with a 15/10 rating, which includes ‘clean’ smoke generation of only 2.3% of the allowable ASTM smoke limits. In addition, the compound is light weight, at a specific gravity of 1.0, and 100% non-toxic in every respect, being free from heavy metals, halogens and VOCs.

Other properties include excellent cold crack performance, hydrophobicity, printability, extreme chemical resistance and the ability to be custom tailored for specific needs such as UV or antimicrobial performance, as volume warrants.

In addition to its use as a coating, PAL...VersaCHAR compound can be produced as a flexible film or sheet and moulded to shape or over-moulded to most materials, including metal for corrosion resistance As a polymeric compound it can be cast or calendered and typical durometers from 80-99A for flexible-to-high rigid formats are practical.

Separately, an adhesive has been created which bonds to many surfaces. In internal evaluations of two laminated plies of woven carbon fibre and two plies of glass fabrics, both passed a 60 second vertical burn with no ply separation, distortion or flaming drips from the adhesive.

Dynamic Modifiers envisages many uses for PAL...VersaCHAR, from aerospace to the protection of rigid structural materials in building interiors etc.

Gucci has partnered with The Lion Share's Fund to support wildlife conservation and tackle the crisis in nature, biodiversity and climate change. A program established in June 2018 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Fund aims to raise over $100 million annually for next five years by asking brands to contribute 0.5% of their media spend every time an animal is featured in their advertisements. Marco Bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci, said: “The Lion’s Share Fund is an important addition to our conservation strategy. Nature and wildlife provide Gucci with inspired creation that is an integral part of our narrative through our collections and campaigns. With the increasing threats to the planet’s biodiversity, groundbreaking initiatives like The Lion’s Share Fund have the potential to be transformative by organically connecting the business community with direct action to protect our natural habitats and most threatened species.”

Pure Origin will be held in the UK, February 9 to 11, 2020.

This is a show for international garment, fabric and supply chain sourcing. For this edition the spotlight will be on Turkey. Over 20 Turkish brands will participate. As the world’s seventh largest apparel exporter, and with 72 per cent of total apparel exports going to the EU, Turkey represents a huge opportunity for UK brands and designers, with short delivery times and integrated supply chain capabilities.

Pure Origin brings the entire fashion supply chain, from fiber to finished collection, under one roof. Pure Origin provides access to seven curated sectors across supply and manufacturing. It also features its own dedicated platform for content including talks, workshops, trend presentations and catwalk shows. Pure Origin is the UK’s number one destination for sourcing and manufacturing, knowledge and solutions. It offers apparel, fibers and raw materials, denim, footwear and accessories, and tech and innovations. As a convenient and cost-effective way for buyers to meet with UK and international manufacturers, the show brings together over 200 exhibitors from dozens of countries to create a wide range of business and networking opportunities, new thinking and innovation attracting buyers, sourcing, and technical personnel.

Vietnam’s raw material imports from China have dwindled because of the coronavirus.

The outbreak is expected to negatively impact ten major industries in Vietnam, including textiles. If the disease persists, supply and transport chains will be in trouble and in the worst case scenario manufacturing will have to stop or be delayed. So for instance leather factories may have to shut down if they can’t source the material from China. Production of rubber and plastic in Vietnam is largely dependent on China with 70 per cent of materials imported from the country. China accounts for 55 per cent of Vietnam’s fiber imports. China has shut down manufacturing in many cities to contain the virus. So textile companies in Vietnam have to tap other markets to meet production targets. They would have to source from say Japan or South Korea where prices are much higher. Profitability will be challenged by higher material costs as companies have fixed prices with customers since the end of last year.

In January, Vietnam’s imports of fabric from China fell 18.1 per cent. Exports of textiles, a key sector, in all markets fell 21 per cent year on year in January, while that of footwear fell 9.7 per cent.