Specials

BeBop Sensors is a leader in smart fabric sensor technologies. Based in Berkeley, California (US), BeBop Sensors last month launched a new RoboSkin line of skin-like coverings for tactile awareness for humanoid robots and prosthetics. RoboSkin fits all robotic body parts: limbs, fingers, feet, head, and torso, to make robots “feel” better. Founder Keith McMillen speaks about trends in the sector.

The Ethiopian government and the investors creating employment have a long way to go to offer women what the International Labour Organisation terms decent work. A recent research shows that the main actors determining labour conditions in Ethiopian factories have little concern for the potential damage that poor working conditions can have on their reputations.

Zipper major YKK is conducting lifecycle assessment of all its products to help guide development of sustainable trims, even as the fashion element is changing for this fashion accessory with consumer-led demands.

Here’s how and why Basel-based VYN claims to be the first sneaker brand to stand for responsible materials and manufacturing, eco-innovation (designed for self-repair), care services, and at the end of life, responsible disassembly and re-use of materials and resources, thereby creating a circular system.

How do cultural workers like stylists and visual merchandisers influence young people who want to keep up and stay in-step with the latest high end sartorial styles and the fashionable people who wear them? What role does social media play in stoking anxiety about who they are and what they should buy? texfash.com explores.

Traceability solution provider Haelixa promises to bridge current traceability gaps by physically marking raw materials and identifying them at any supply chain step, proving claims of product origin, recycling, manufacturing and quality. Chief Executive Officer Michela Puddu elaborates in this texfash.com Special.

Wednesday last, 22 June, marked the 74th anniversary of the SS Empire Windrush arrival at Tilbury Docks carrying Caribbean workers to help rebuild Britain after World War II. Style in My DNA by Jamaica-born fashion designer Lorna Holder chronicles 70 years of different fashion trends within the British Caribbean community and the influence it had on the overarching British fashion industry. An extract.

Digital technology is key to unleashing creativity, answering the call for more sustainability, more precisely and cost-effectively answering consumer demands, and providing the process digitisation necessary to make onshoring/nearshoring profitable and eliminate unnecessary supply chain complexity and risk, says Ronen Samuel, the Chief Executive Officer at Kornit Digital. A texfash.com Special.

There’s plenty of evidence that reducing the consumption of clothing by wearing items longer and buying second-hand is preferable to purchasing recycled fibre clothes. But even second-hand fashion isn’t without problems when you consider the scale and pace of clothing production today. Again, most clothing is simply not designed to be recycled. Even when it is, the fashion industry lacks the kind of infrastructure needed to really embrace a circular economy model.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel's (HKRITA) novel Garment-to-Garment (G2G) Recycle System shows that integral and closed-loop garment recycling can indeed be done, and sans any water and chemicals, but no big-time manufacturer or brand has been able to use this innovation at the industrial or mass scale. A texfash.com Special.