Knitting Industry Creative Celebrates its First Birthday

Knitting Industry Creative is celebrating its first birthday this month.

Launched on 1 March 2018, Knitting Industry Creative is fast becoming the go-to place for professionals, students and anyone else interested in all things creative within knitted textiles. Endorsed by the solid technical pedigree of its influential parent website, Knitting Industry Creative is the new place to find inspiration, trend information and forecasting, show reports, and more.

Published on Knitting Industry Creative in April 2018, a month after its launch, and our most read article to date, is our special feature on textiles and clothing made from recycled plastic waste – Making Textiles and Clothing from Recycled Plastics.

According to a report from Dame Ellen MacArthur’s foundation published in 2017, fashion production currently creates greenhouse emissions of 1.2 billion tonnes a year. It is estimated that more than half of fast fashion production is disposed of in under a year, and one garbage truck full of textiles is landfilled or burnt every second. This, combined with a very low rate of recycling, leads to an ever-expanding pressure on resources. Textiles production (including cotton farming) also uses around 93 billion cubic metres of water a year, contributing to problems in some water-scarce regions.

Marking the Earth Day, the article discusses efforts being made by clothing brands, retailers, and other organisations to change the situation. Addressing a much wider problem of the current plastic pollution crisis, the companies are recycling plastic waste to create new garments and raise awareness among their consumers. Among these front runners are companies like Unifi, with its Repreve brand of recycled performance fibres, Aquafil, the company behind the Econyl Regeneration System, G-Star Raw for the Oceans, DGrade, Ganesha Ecosphere, Ecoalf, and more. You can read the full article to find out more and learn about other ways to address the problem of plastics and microplastics here – Making Textiles and Clothing from Recycled Plastics.

Knitting Industry Creative is also a showcase platform for emerging talent from within the industry around the world. The students from the School of Design at the Royal College of Art in London recently showcased some of their current developments during the Work in Progress show, which took place at the Kensington Campus. Carlo Volpi, a leading London-based knitwear designer and our expert correspondent, attended the event to witness the recent applications of knitwear/knitted structures outside the conventional fashion environments. Read his full report here – Work in Progress Show at the RCA.

Carlo also reported from SPINEXPO Paris for Knitting Industry Creative last month, bringing to you the carefully curated preview of the Spring/Summer 2020 yarn collections to be showcased at its colossal parent show, which will kick off in Shanghai this week. Learn more about the latest trends here – New Ideas for Spring/Summer 2020 at SPINEXPO Paris.

Knitting Industry Creative is also the place to find inspiring stories and interviews introducing you to the latest brands, initiatives and personalities. In a popular interview that was published on Knitting Industry Creative last year, we spoke with Kate Morris, fine-artist turned knitwear designer, who in 2017 set up her ethically and sustainably conscious knitwear label CROP. Kate talks to us about the creation of CROP, winning EcoChic Design Award 2017, and working with new Hong-Kong based upcycling brand, The R Collective… You can find out more about the brand here – In Conversation with Kate Morris, CROP – Conscious Knitwear.

Another one of our website’s most-read interviews of 2018 was by Wendy Friedman, a knitwear designer, who sat down with co-founder and F.I.T Professor Asta Skocir to learn more about AlgiKnit’s plans for becoming leaders in sustainable manufacturing. AlgiKnit is the New York based biomaterials research group, which developed a compostable yarn from kelp, which can be knit into zero-waste, fully-fashioned garments or transformed into a textile for applications in footwear. Read more in the full interview here – In Conversation with Asta Skocir, Co-Founder of AlgiKnit.

You can find more original reports from shows like MarediModa and last year’s Lycra Fiber Moves annual conference and fashion show, as well as inspiring interviews, features and trends updates on Knitting Industry Creative.

Thank you for being with us this year and stay tuned for more exciting stories and latest news!

Jana Bukolovska,

Editorial Assistant