The fashion industry was recently welcomed to the first Designplus Textile event: ‘New Technologies in Jersey Fabrics’. A wide range of industry participants were represented, including small fashion labels, high street garment suppliers and recent fashion graduates and the event provided an opportunity for networking between these industry sectors.

A range of technologies, processes and fabric suppliers were covered, informing small companies of facilities they could potentially use, compared with mass production of high street suppliers. The process and capability of Santoni Seamless Knitting was presented, and a range of samples were shown.

Quality issues associated with jersey fabrics were then investigated in terms of customer expectations, and practical advice was given to resolve problems. Garment dyeing was discussed as a way for small companies to introduce colour to their collection, where previously they were confined by minimum order issues. A small range of fabric suppliers were presented, incorporating samples from basic cotton jersey, to designer silk and wool jersey, all in small minimums. Finally a panel-printing sample facility in the UK was introduced, giving small fashion labels access to high street quality prints in small quantities.

The event closed with a Q&A session, where fashion designers were given advice on a wide range of textile issues from industry experts. Suggestions on how to move forward were received from both the panel and audience. There is potential for small fashion companies to collaborate for sourcing/purchasing fabrics where there are minimum order issues. Small companies must look to use the textile services that are available to them, to overcome issues of small scale production. The feedback from small companies was positive, and the Textile Resource will look to investigate and work with fashion labels to implement these new ideas.

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