Seminar on wool trends and Merino knitwear innovations

AWI held a seminar in Taiwan on 14 October 2010 informing the attendees about wool trends and AWI Merino knitwear innovations for the fall/winter 2011/12 retail season.

This is the second year that the Merino knitwear innovation seminar has been held in Taiwan. This year AWI attracted more people from the wool and textile industry, especially from knitters. There were 25 attendees (director, general manager, sales & marketing, product designers) from 13 textile companies (wool top maker, spinners, weaver, knitters, and garment maker).

With retailers’ planning for the fall/winter 2011/12 retail season well under way, and orders due to be placed over the coming few months, the seminar was strategically timed to ensure maximum exposure for wool.

The wool trends part of the seminar included: the inspiration behind the season’s trends, colour themes, the textures of fabric, and women and men’s fashion looks for garments and knitwear. The AWI Merino knitwear innovations part of the seminar focused on AWI’s Merino Casual collection. This collection incorporates casual comfort with unique textures and finishes, such as: Merino Vintage with subtle fading, Merino Retract with a boiled look but lightweight and good drape, and Colour 3-D with unique texture effects.

Most of the attendees rated the content of both presentations as good to excellent and very helpful to their businesses, with several attendees requesting further information from AWI.

2010 Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show

The 14th Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show (TITAS) was held from October 13-15 at Taipei World Trade Center with 285 exhibitors on 556 stands, attracting 22,479 industry buyers from all over the world. TITAS is the only professional textile trade show in Taipei.

Eco-friendly and functional fashion set the trend for this year.

The Taiwan Wool Textiles Industrial Association exhibited at the show together with some wool textile companies. AWI visited their stands and talked to the spinners at the show.

TITAS 2010 took place when the ECFA* has just taken effect, which is one of the reasons why TITAS was very popular this year. International stands numbered over 100 for the first time. Due to the complementarities of the industries in Taiwan and mainland China, there were 25 manufacturers from mainland China participating in the show. This indicates that domestic and overseas exhibitors are showing tremendous interest in the potential business opportunities that the ECFA has created.

* The ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement) is a trade agreement between the governments of Taiwan and mainland China that aims to reduce tariffs and commercial barriers between the two sides.

For further information contact AWI Taiwan or your local AWI office.