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Designers Jonathan Saunders, Mark Fast and Richard Nicoll have collaborated with The Woolmark Company to showcase elegant light weight Cool Wool fabrics in their Spring Summer 2013 collections during the recent London fashion Week.

As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, the time has come to wear warmer clothes. In this case, the tights shown below bring a touch of floral splendour to the cool days of autumn.

This article was written by Debra Cobb for our sister site Innovation in Textiles which has a technical textiles focus. However, the ‘fashion fabrics get technical’ message was so powerful and knits featured so heavily, that we thought we would publish it here too...

Fabrics for Autumn/Winter 2013/14 contrasted opulent surfaces and handles with compact density and functional technicity at the September 2012 edition of Première Vision Pluriel in Paris. Visitor traffic was strong over the first two days of the fair, according to Phillipe Pasquet, CEO and editor-in-chief of Première Vision, calling the opening day “historic, ahead of expectations.” Exhibitors were also pleased with attendance at the fair; Bel Maille’s Stéphane Ziegler commented, “Traffic has been very good with our current customers. We were very happy to see several new customers, including more Americans.”

The UK government announced yesterday over £2 million worth of support for a new skills programme led by a consortium of employers and the Textile Centre of Excellence in Huddersfield that will improve the skills of people already working and develop the next generation of skilled talent for these industries. The partnership includes manufacturers from textiles, technical textiles, apparel and textile services sectors, trade associations and Creative Skillset.

Cariaggi Fine Yarns Collection, a prestigious Italian spinner specialized in cashmere, vicuña and superfine wools is strengthening its presence in China yesterday, inaugurating a new sales office in Shanghai. The branch aims to follow Chinese and other Asian market customers more closely and as per the company’s heritage, will continue to maintain its production in Italy.

The Woolmark Company will showcase a selection of Merino wool innovations, trends and industry services at Spin Expo in Shanghai this September. Some of the highlight product developments on show include:

Cashmere World is the annual business platform for the international cashmere trade. This year, it marks its move from Beijing to Hong Kong with an interesting seminar series that provides a professional forum to discuss the latest developments in the global cashmere industry.

The recent symposium on cosmétotextiles held at Interfilière Paris highlighted the growing success of these hybrid fabrics, as well as posing questions about their future. A cosmetic textile is defined by the French Office for the Standardisation of Textile and Clothing Industries as “a textile article that contains a substance or a preparation that is intended to be released sustainably on to the different superficial parts of the human body, especially the skin, and which claim particular properties such as cleansing, perfume, change of appearance, protection, maintenance in good condition, or correction of body odours.”

Cashmere World organisers say the show is primed for a big and successful Hong Kong debut with many of the world’s most important cashmere producers and luxury brands invested in the exhibition.