Design

I spent the last two months working part time at the Royal College helping the second year knitwear students with their collections. I must admit I was quite impressed by how calm and collected everybody was around this time of the year, I certainly wasn’t!

A Nottingham Trent University fashion knitwear design and knitted textiles student has won the top knitwear design award at Graduate Fashion Week. Thea Sanders was presented with the Stuart Peters Visionary Knitwear Award at last night’s prestigious event in London.

A friend of mine recently introduced me to the beautiful work of Annie Larson. She said I should check out her website as I would definitely love it, so when I had a minute I had a look at her work, and what a pleasant surprise it was!

Stephanie Nieuwenhuyse is a Dutch designer who graduated from Kingston College last year. I stumbled across her work only recently but I was really taken by the contrast of the organic, soft shapes and the extremely architectural structures that feature in her garments.

Marie Ilse Bourlanges’s work questions these ideas of utility in relation to function and consumption: can a product be useful in a way that does not involve function, or consumption?

Integrated fibre, resin and intermediates company Invista has renewed its partnership with Billabong Girl clothing brand’s in a new swimwear collection. With the entire collection featuring Xtra Life Lycra fibre, the swimwear will be able to stand the test of time against degradation from chlorine, sunscreen, oils, perspiration or heat, according to Invista. Xtra Life Lycra is also said to resist fibre breakage five times longer than other chlorine-resistant elastane.

Lectra, a leader in integrated technology solutions for industries using soft materials such as apparel fabrics, technical textiles and composite materials has announced the success of its early-adopter program for its Modaris 3D system.

Invista, owner of Lycra brand, is teaming up with the WGSN Global Fashion Awards to find the fashion industry’s newest design star. This year in its 5th edition, the Lycra Future Designers Awards’ winner will be announced at a glamorous awards event on 30 October at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.

Leading flat knitting machine builder Stoll has made available a great video of its current Stoll Denim Collection which can be viewed here on Knitting Industry in HD (high definition). The Stoll Denim Collection shows a selection of the almost unlimited potential for denim in knitting.

IAF President Mr. Harry van Dalfsen has announced that IAF will launch an action plan on global responsibility. Speaking in the opening session of the Fashion Retail Summit in Mumbai celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), Mr. Van Dalfsen emphasized that the IAF is a truly global association representing both buyers and manufacturers and small and large companies.