Riding the nonwovens roller coaster

June 1, 2023  |  Features

Given the amount of attention sustainability efforts in the nonwovens industry have gotten in the past few years, it’s easy to think these conversations and initiatives are relatively new. The truth is that they’ve been part of the industry for decades.
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Smart fabric helps the body heal itself

June 1, 2023  |  Advanced Textiles, Markets

The health and wellness market has been among the first to embrace advances in smart yarns and to take advantage of the versatility of engineered textiles. Supreme Corp., a producer of high-tech textiles and electrically conductive yarn and sewing thread, has created a revolutionary fabric called Th…
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Awnings encourage natural light and offer shade protection

June 1, 2023  |  Markets, Product Trends

Natural light can help reduce energy usage in our buildings. This is a lesson known for centuries but seemingly forgotten after the 1940s with postwar technological advances in air conditioning (coupled with the Modernist design movement that declared “ornament is a crime”). These stripped-down …
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Floating kites soar in Abu Dhabi shade sail structure

June 1, 2023  |  Projects

The client laid out the request: The concept included off-white, multilayered floating kites with minimal steel structure. The purpose was to provide shade over an existing courtyard in a large mixed-use, low carbon footprint development.
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Textile artist wins UK craft award

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

A textile artist took the top contemporary craft prize for U.K.-based artists this spring out of 400 artists of varied disciplines, with the winning pieces joining the U.K. Craft Council’s national collection. The winning works will be on display this summer in London, England. 
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Researchers test heat-reactiveness of fabric

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Research into reactive textiles goes on around the world. At Aalto University in Finland, researchers have developed textiles that change shape when they heat up, thanks to weaving in liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs). The work was done in collaboration with the University of Cambridge in England…
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Fair-trade products + blockchain = transparency

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Supply-chain transparency, meet blockchain. Students at the London College of Fashion (LCF) have used the technology to follow the production of fair-trade textile products and create irrefutable provenance of each piece created. They call the process “the future of ethical and sustainable fashion…
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Process patented to adhere aerogel to nonwovens

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Outlast Technologies GmbH in Munich, Germany, has patented the procedure to adhere aerogel to nonwovens, enabling materials as thin as 1–3 mm to be well insulated and still soft and flexible. The treated fabrics, sold under the name Aersulate®, can then be processed conventionally and made into c…
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Sock could evaluate fall risk

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Researchers at the Nottingham School of Art and Design have designed a smart “over-sock” that predicts near falls. 
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Wearable dirt? Researcher turns soil into fabric

June 1, 2023  |  Swatches

Penmai Chongtoua, an associate researcher in the Natural Materials Lab at Columbia University, working closely with the lab’s director, professor Lola Ben-Alon, has created fabric using at least 60% dirt. Although it is normal for the lab to be filled with buckets of earth and clay and fibers such…
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