Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics unveils forecasts for A/W 23-24

The design of this year’s Directions Trend Forum is led by NellyRodi Agency, while top trend forecasters from Milan, New York and Tokyo round out the committee. Reflecting the themes set by the expert panel, exhibitors’ fabric samples will be displayed at the forum, making it an important destination at the fairground where buyers can find potential suppliers and anticipate future trends in the market.

The directions trend committee is comprised of top trend forecasters from the NellyRodi Agency (Paris, France), Elementi Moda (Milan, Italy) and TOBE TDG By The Doneger Group (New York, US), as well as Sachiko Inoue (Tokyo, Japan). The committee members combine their expertise and local influence to come up with the themes of the trend forum, the fair organisers said in a press release.

The trend guide includes SCIENCE +, CRAFT +, FREE + and PREMIUM +. SCIENCE + theme is inspired by progress, discoveries, unknowns, and the scope to reinvent future-focused perspectives in our daily lives. New and relaxing fabrics represent the trend, giving the wearer a superior and premium feel. Elegance and comfort are prioritised using visionary materials encompassing elements from chemistry and biology. Fabrics include man-made and natural materials, hybrid fabrics, thermal insulation and foam padded materials. The theme also emphasises gradational and blurred motifs, three-dimensional lace, and protective laminating as finishing.

Focusing on a sustainable society of tomorrow while striving to better ourselves, CRAFT +raises awareness of the inner comfort nature delivers, infusing a handcraft feel to cherish human warmth and tenderness. The colour palette reflects this notion with environmentally aware and earth-centric hues. Recycled, eco and organic fabrics that circulate resources are used, leveraging vegetable and botanical dyeing. Featured textiles include those that not only sustain the global environment but also regenerate it for the better.

Encouraging fantasy with boundless imagination to express the modern era in explosive colour,  FREE + explores designs that brim with the vibrancy of colours, encouraging optimism on our quest for esoteric inspiration across genres. Combinations of high-energy colours that uplift emotions are used, incorporating technical and functional elements. This uplifting spirit is also applied to the fabrics, which are decorative and fantasy-inspired. Further underpinning the theme are modern and colourful geometric patterns, bold graphical designs and interior decoration motifs.

A journey through desire, taking to the unknown within the mystical profundity of an intricate universe, PREMIUM + direction encourages us to envisage a life of fresh awareness and purpose while rediscovering spirituality and value anew. The colour palette fuses dramatic and mysterious darks with mineral-based bronze and gold for a lustrous and shady premium-feel reflection. Subtle yet stunning materials with glittering elements are incorporated, as well as luxury fabrics such as premium wool, alpaca wool, fluid and supple jersey. Foil finishing, graphic patterns, optical effects, superimposed prints and a wealth of embroidery round out the theme.

Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Autumn Edition will take place alongside Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn Edition, Yarn Expo Autumn, CHIC and PH Value, from August 29 – 31, 2022 at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai). The fair is organised by Messe Frankfurt ((HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Textile Information Centre.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)