PITTI FILATI:

This year the smoldering heat of high summer hit Florence right at the time of the show and temperatures soared to a searing 105 degrees while knitwear designers from around the globe gathered to see the new fall winter collections from the Italian spinners. The key messages evolved around sustainability and heritage inspiration from high end luxury revamped “after years of esthetic denial, rags and style paradoxes” as quoted from the Heritage trend-forum. New natural materials to create brush effects included fox and raccoon hair. Pitti Filati prides itself to be a resource for fashion designers and trend influencers from all over the world and this year’s theme “Pitti special Click” is all about that feeling of being in the “know”. Next to this Pitti Filati has the “Feel the yarn” contest with innovative designs from students from all over the world and the re-use forum with materials that have been reworked. Topping off the day with a quick breeze trough the vintage section we found Pitti a creative and inspiring show with a clear high-level mission,

SPINEXPO PARIS:

The new venue at the Carrousel du Louvre was very conveniently located with more spinners attending then at prior shows. The Paris Spinexpo show seemed slightly more quiet then Pitti but this could also have seemed to be the case because the space was more spread out with two separate areas. The Spinexpo trend themes focused on re-used and recycled, high performance yarn development, retro influences, structural stitches such as padding and abstract pointelles and minimalist cables and jacquards with a slightly frosted appearance. Must haves for all spinners where heritage and brushed surface yarns and multicolor novelty. Sustainable options are becoming the new normal: every spinner has options and in many cases polyester can be replaced with recycled polyester and cotton with BCI or recycled cotton. Colors ranged from beautiful powdered pales to deep emotional naturals and browns, set off with bright pop color in heritage yarns for a fresh approach inspired by tradition,