For the widest selection of sourcing options in one place, the best place to visit is the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics expo to be held from March 14 to16. Country pavilions by Japan, Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan will showcase their wares as well as individual exhibitors from Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, including 2,800 + Chinese exhibitors. The fair is the largest gathering of Asian suppliers under one roof for the spring/ summer season.
To ensure convenience for buyers, international exhibitors are grouped by country or region, while Chinese exhibitors are located in product halls including fabrics for casualwear, functional wear/sportswear, ladies wear, lingerie and swimwear, shirting and suiting and accessories and denim. Around 3,300 exhibitors will showcase their apparel fabrics and accessories at the fair, with the Salon Europe zone hosting premium suppliers from Europe – including pavilions and zones from France, Germany, Italy and Turkey – while the International Hall also houses other overseas exhibitors from Argentina, Australia, Peru and the US amongst other countries.
Organised by the Japan Fashion Week Organization (JFW), the Japanese Pavilion will house 22 exhibitors and also feature a Japan Trend Corner. “The now mature Chinese market tends to seek out very different types of products and purchase in smaller batches, which is a world away from the mass-production focus of the past,” JFW noted. Included in this edition’s Japan Pavilion are three companies from the Nishiwaki region, which is famous for its ‘Banshu-Ori’, or Banshu weave. Banshu-Ori is a yarn-dyed fabric, woven into various patterns such as checks and stripes, with yarns that are dyed before being woven by weaving machines.
The Taiwan Pavilion, with over 40 participating companies, is a guaranteed source of innovation at the fair, with a number of exhibitors also offering eco-friendly options. Some of the highlights include: Keen Ching Industrial: they will have a number of their patented KCC-branded zippers at the fair including a durable double-coil zipper, an invisible zipper with a movable retainer box, a track type water-repellent zipper, a curved metal zipper and more.
