Thousands of visitors are expected to flock to downtown’s fashion district next week for the L.A. Textile fair.
The fashion event, hosted biannually, has been hampered by the pandemic, but this year exhibitors are hoping for a resurgence.
“We don’t know how many people will come this year,” said Sabu Nath of Spandex House in New York City. “The last three, four years were hard because it was Corona-time and we didn’t get anything out of it.”
Hosted by the California Market Center (CMC), the LA Textile showcases the newest collections for textile, design and production resources. With an estimated turnout of 7,000 visitors and 120 exhibitors flocking to the CMC, LA Textile has become a cross-cultural hub in the fashion industry. Designers, manufacturers and fabric retailers fly from Canada, China or the East Coast to attend the event.
“Our objective at LA Textile is always to curate an event that showcases the latest trends and innovations in fashion and textiles to provide a unique platform for designers and suppliers to connect,” said Events Director Moriah Robinson in a press release. “We aim to create an inviting atmosphere that will educate, inspire and create meaningful and long term partnerships.”
Launched in 1993, the LA Textile show is celebrating its 30th anniversary. This year more than ever, the show has grown to being a multicultural destination. New pavilions will open, including a Turkish Textile section featuring Turkish mills and a Taiwan Textile exhibition showcasing over a dozen of Taiwan’s mills.
Exhibitors from around the world are planning to attend the fair. Hasan Erdal of Yarn Mavens said in a press release, “There has been a shift taking place over the last decade where the epicenter of the fashion industry has shifted from New York to Los Angeles. LA is really one of the few places around the world where new brands are born daily. These brands take a different approach to knitwear compared to their predecessors who thought of knitwear as an afterthought, instead it is a ubiquitous part of their collections.”
Eduardo Fleck, the international business manager of Savyon Textil located in Brazil, said that he sees shifts in the clients who attend the show because of the rise of fast-fashion businesses fostering low-quality materials to bring inexpensive pieces of clothing to consumers.
“We have been working with CMC for 15 years, so we have many clients there,” said Fleck. “The LA Textile show used to be good when people were looking for more traditional products. Then the market started changing when they started importing from China, which had cheaper supplies. But now it seems to be going back to how it used to be, so I’m hoping that we can find new potential clients.”
Savyon Textil will be presenting their specialty: knitted Jacquard yarns, a type of fabric with motifs woven into the weave on a Jacquard loom.
Exhibiting products at the LA Textile doesn’t come cheap though. “We paid $4,000 for a booth at the fair, and we do it every year,” said Nath.
The CMC showcases talents that are involved in sustainable fashion. Fleck touched on the effort of Savyon Textil to use greener garment production leverages and opened up about the real struggles of the company. While the company adopted the OEKO-TEX certification to ensure the use of sustainable raw materials and smart machinery, the real challenge remains the management of the water consumed during the dyeing process, he said.
“Inside the factory, the real challenge of producing textile is the design process and the treatment of water,” said Fleck. “We don’t use any aggressive chemicals so we can reuse 100% of the water and pour it back into the river. Regarding the material, we use biodegradable yarns, and are doing some trials with a recyclable yarn company. But it’s not been successful so far.”
Catering to every market niche, the LA Textile show is at an intersection of cultures.
Photo credit: Lily Sánchez / CC BY 4.0