texfash

Charting a radical new standard that designs elimination of fabric waste, the Shelly Xu Design (SXD) technology uses machine-learning and AI to create patterns that use every scrap of fabric efficiently. Award-winning designer Shelly Xu tells texfash.com how she combines great design with “bleeding-edge” technology.

Pune-based deeptech startup KBCols Sciences dips into the rich biodiversity of India to tech-source microbes and cultures them in bioreactors to produce natural colours of choice, using agrowaste as feedstock. The final product—bio-colours free from microbes—are a universal drop-in-solution to dye fibres.

Inspired by the brilliance of nature to develop materials from living and regenerable things, a Brazil based fashtech startup is harnessing the power of seaweeds to shape the future of textiles. texfash.com talks to the Founder–CEO of Phycolabs Thamires Pontes to know more.

Quite famously known as the ‘Green City in the Sun’, Nairobi has a bunch of students from its leading university figuring out an “incredible alternative” on how to use agro-waste, specially from maize—the principal staple food of Kenya—and pineapple, connecting the farming community to fashion in a way that both people and the planet not only survive but thrive.

A leading manufacturer of specialty viscose fibres, Kelheim Fibres GmbH, has a portfolio of functional biodegradable viscose fibres for unique products. Marina Crnoja-Cosic, Director – New Business Development (Marketing & Communication) talks to texfash.com about the ongoing innovation, the route taken on sustainability and how the market for viscose is shaping up.

The VDMA or Verband Deutscher Maschinen-und Anlagenbau or the German Engineering Federation, representing more than 3,600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies, employs around 3 million people in the EU-27 with more than 1.2 million in Germany alone. Focused on innovation, exports and SMEs, around 80% of the machinery sold in the EU comes from manufacturing plants in the domestic market. texfash.com in conversation with Dr Harald Weber, who has been the Managing Director of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association since January 2023.

Cradle to Cradle Certified is the leading multi-attribute standard used globally for more than a decade for designing and making products that enable a healthy, equitable and sustainable future, according to the world’s most advanced science-based measures. texfash.com in conversation with Nienke Steen, Global Lead—Apparel, Textile and Footwear, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.

The Bangladesh textiles industry before and after the Rana Plaza disaster is a different story. While earlier the focus was on capacity building of management teams on productivity, quality, and HR systems aimed at worker welfare, after the mishap the highlight was that the responsibility of making a factory safe does not rest with only the safety or compliance officer. Dr Rajesh Bheda, CEO and Managing Director, Rajesh Bheda Consulting, shares with texfash.com his observations.

The times they are a changing and Bangladesh continues to adopt advanced apparel manufacturing technology. Undoubtedly, if this country wishes to remain competitive at this critical juncture of its journey, the apparel sector needs to take the lead in innovation, exhorts Abdullah Hil Rakib, Director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

As the textile-apparel-fashion industry oscillates from greenwashing to greenhushing and greenblushing, a critical component of the backend is the dye. While it is becoming increasingly critical for manufacturers to shift to natural dyes, what also needs to be done is make them as popular as their synthetic counterparts and educate the customer about their basic goodness, mechanise dyeing and grow more raw materials so as to reduce the cost of the dyed product.