The 25^th session of SPINEXPO leading trade fair for fibres and yarns will take place from 9-11 March at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, where exhibitors will present their latest trends and developments.

The show is ready to welcome 170 exhibitors coming from 15 countries, selected for their quality and creativity. The Spring/Summer 2015 session of SPINEXPO will feature a new installation that explores the world of colour in greater depth, as well as a new trend area dedicated to activewear.

Sportswear properties for casualwear

Santoni, the leading Italian circular knitting machinery specialist, has teamed up with Dutch activewear developer Eva de Laat to explore ways in which to take the trend towards incorporating sports-inspired properties into casual wear forwards.

“Seamless and circular knits are benefitting from new technological developments in knitting,” said Eva de Laat. “By using different structures we can build more function into the garment without adding other elements that would increase the garment’s weight. The result is lighter weight garments that offer a lot more performance.”

“We are able to body map using circular knitting,” said Ms de Laat. “The advantage is that we can customize garments for different sectors of the market, such as high impact wear, well being (yoga, loungewear) and outdoor sports.”

Needle punch sweaters

Another company to present itself at the exhibition is South Overseas Group that manages a network of more than 20 knitting factories in multiple locations in China.

For the next season, South Overseas is developing several different new products. One of its newest creative projects is needle punch sweaters. Using a technique from embroidery, fibres or hairs from the yarn are pulled to the surface of the garment creating a fluffy texture. Aside from creating more texture, the technique is also said to help to smoothly blend different materials and colours.

Another innovation is the new brushed yarn.  Using a new brushing technique, South Overseas can create garments that have a fur-like look.

Yarn developments

In one of its latest developments, China based Yarns and Colors is experimenting with ways to add new properties to their yarn. The company has produced yarn that can change colour in response to the wearer’s body temperature, explained Paula Cheng, Creative Director at Yarns and Colors.

“These garments can serve as elegant office wear and then can change into something fun to wear out at night,” she said.  “We can expand on this even further by adding fluorescent colours to the yarn so that the garment can glow in the dark.”

Another novelty is the company’s new optical knitting developments where different images are revealed when the garment is viewed from different angles.  “We want to make more versatile garment. In a modern age, a garment needs to be aesthetically enjoyable as well as practically in daily use,” she explained.

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