In addition to the challenges it created, the pandemic has also accelerated more than one trend in the fashion industry, including the textile sector’s crucial role in spearheading innovation.
As the first wave of COVID-19 cases was spreading internationally and the importance of customers’ safety and health care came to the fore, a number of storied textile firms in Europe pushed ahead amid lockdowns and brought to the market a new family of performance-driven fabrics with antiviral qualities.
They were believed to become a new market standard along the same lines as odor control, wrinkle-free and natural stretch treatments, offering a response to the fears and preoccupations of the average fashion consumer in 2020.
Looking forward to 2021 with prospects of several vaccines being distributed globally, consumers might show less interest in antiviral fabrics, even less so as fear of getting infected by just touching or trying on clothes seems to be an issue of the past when less evidence was provided by the scientific community on whether fabrics and other materials could themselves represent a means for contagion.
Consumers have also become more educated about the risky behaviors they should avoid, and that isn’t primarily touching garments as the dominant means the virus spreads is airborne.
In the last few months, though, more suppliers have developed antiviral finishings and treatments, signaling that the potential of such fabrics remains large — and brands seem to be taking note.
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Fabio Tamburini, chief executive officer of Cotonificio Albini, the Albini Group’s production arm, which developed the ViroFormula family of antiviral fabrics in partnership with Swiss company HeiQ, said several brands spanning from luxury to contemporary have embraced their fabrics, including Italy’s Xacus and storied Hong Kong-based Ascot Chang, among others.
“Although the vaccines will allow us to get back to a normal and safe life as we were used to, we’re convinced that consumers will still be looking for antiviral fabrics,” he said, noting that increased travel and the use of public transport will drive consumers to look for safety in their fashion purchases.
“We’re still convinced that the antiviral properties are required market-standard in the future even when the pandemic will be fully controlled. The main goal for every [fashion] company is to respect and satisfy its clients’ needs and after all these difficult months, everyone wants to get back to its usual routine feeling safe,” he said.
At the Marzotto Wool Manufacturing company, which launched antimicrobic fabrics made of natural yarns treated with the ViralOff finish developed by Sweden-based Polygiene, ceo Giorgio Todesco ascribed their success to a shift in customers’ perception, with more attention given to technical performance.
The executive underscored that the ViralOff fabrics have been particularly appealing to retailers that provide their sales associates with uniforms, for brands in the Asian market and more generally in the contemporary fashion segment.
Along the same lines, Lecco, Italy-based Luxury Jersey, which also tapped into HeiQ’s Viroblock finishing like the Albini Group, saw a spike in demand by companies in the ath-leisure market, with around 10 brands already making prototypes.
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The company’s general manager Federico Boselli projected a less rosy scenario for consumer attitudes even after the vaccine is distributed and overall he believed that “consumers will be keener on hygiene and will pay more attention to microbes in general.”
To this end he forecast “a widespread circulation of antimicrobic clothing,” echoing the sentiment of Alberto De Conti, head of the fashion division at Germany-based chemical company Rudolf Group, which has conducted lab tests on its RUCO-BAC AGP technology introduced in 2005 and proved it boasts antiviral properties on the family of coronaviruses.
De Conti believes these fabrics will continue to play a pivotal role based on customers and brands alike seeking hygiene finishings, even though a vaccine might reduce their demand.
The executive also touched on another crucial factor: “Because of a proliferation of misleading information, the market has been increasingly expressing interest in reliable and understandable test results. The textile market is looking for real performance that can be communicated to customers rather than short-sighted marketing gimmicks,” he said.
To be sure, no company can casually claim antiviral properties in Europe and the U.S. and these companies have made clear these fabrics are no substitute for PPE, nor do they prevent the risk of contagion.
While some expect the market for antiviral fabrics to grow, thus fostering R&D activities and a reduction of their production costs, Todesco was less confident that demand will continue to surge in 2021 even if, he said, there will always be specific sectors to target, such as workers’ uniforms.
For more industry information, please pay attention to Knitting Fair.
Source: WWD
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The ease or otherwise of the passage of air is of importance for a number of fabrics end uses such as industrial filters, tents, sailcloth’s, parachutes, bulletproof, windproof, raincoat materials, shirting’s, down proof fabrics and airbags.In this article, Knitting Expo will introduce you the importance of Air Permeability.
Fabric air permeability is a measure to what extent it gives air passing through the fabric. Air permeability, a given area in the vertical direction of the air flow rate, a given time period, as measured by the fabric test area inside the pressure difference of the fabric. Basically, it depends on weight, thickness and porosity of fabric. The porosity of fabric is the demonstration of the air gap as a percentage within the fabric. It has been important for especially the tent fabric and parachute.
The reciprocal of air permeability, air resistance, can be defined as the time in seconds for ImI of air to pass through 100s mm2 of fabric under a pressure head of 10mm of water. The advantage of using air resistance instead of air permeability to characterize a fabric is that in an assembly of a number of fabrics, the total air resistance is then the sum of the individual air resistance.
Fabrics, are porous materials which allow the transmission of energy and substances and are therefore interesting materials for different applications. In general, they are used for clothing, interior and wide range of technical applications
Garments must be characterized by good air circulation between the skin surface and the environment, good ventilation at skin level and the possibility of eliminating the excess humidity generated through perspiration.
Air permeability, simply a physical ability of a fabric to let certain air flow through under differential pressure between either surface, refers to the speed at which water vapour molecules transmit into the top layer. Fabrics with different surface textures on either side can have a different air permeability depending upon the direction of air flow. Air permeability and fabric porous structure are correlated and indicate the breathability which makes great differences in the performance of materials. That is to say, air permeability and porous fabric structure affect how breathable a garment is; besides, air permeability can be measured, whereas breathability is more subjective.
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In the British Standard test, the airflow through a given area of fabric is measured at a constant pressure drop across the fabric of 10mm head of water. The specimen is clamped over the air inlet of the apparatus with the use of rubber gaskets and the air is sucked through it by means of a pump as shown in Fig.A. The air valve is adjusted to give a pressure drop across the fabric of 10mm head of water and the air flow is then measured using a flow meter.
Five specimens are used each with a test area of 508mm2 (25.4mm diameter) and the mean air flow in ml per second is calculated from the five results. From this, the air permeability can be calculated in ml per 100mm2 per second.
Classification of fabrics: based on fabric type there are four types of fabrics
Woven fabric: this has been defined as the interlacing/ interlacement of warp and weft yarns where minimum two sets of yarns are needed and warp yarn stay in vertical and parallel to the selvedges.
Knitted fabrics: This has been defined as the interloping/interlocking/ intermeshing of warp yarn where minimum one set of yarn is needed.
Non-Woven fabrics: this has been defined as the mechanical/chemical/thermal bonding to make non-woven fabrics.
Braided fabrics: this is defined as the intertwining/diagonal/interlacement to make braided fabric where minimum three sets of yarns are needed.
Correlation between porosity and air permeability of fabric is very complicated because changes of the textile structure (by the influence of the venting system), can be possibly classified as a horizontal increase in porosity. A correlation relationship has been elaborated between the percentage of open porosity for double layer fabrics and air permeability, considering the use of the different system of reed denting.
Fabric porosity is an important parameter in the assessment of clothing comfort and physical properties of technical textiles and the porosity are defined by the ratio of free space to fibre in a given volume of fabric. The porous are by voids between weft and warp yarns in the fabrics. The air passes through the pores from the surface of the fabric. Tightness factor can be used for fabric air permeability forecasting. The high correlation between the permeability to air and the tightness factor confirms that. Porosity is affected by yarn number or yarn count number. … Increasing loop length, looser the structure and so the values of air permeability increases.
Source: textile school
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