text: Interfilière Paris: a Spotlight on the Lingerie Market - Digifair
  One of the best places to look for innovation in the world of lingerie, swimwear and activewear is Interfilière, a trade show in Paris part of the Salon de la Lingerie (along with Unique by Mode City). With over 280 exhibitors from 28 countries displaying the best in materials for the niche market, including lace and embroidery, the Autumn-Winter 2020/2021 edition of the event that took place from July 6th to 8th adopted the "All On Board" theme, inviting fashion buyers, textile suppliers, and retailers to head in the same direction, with all parties involved in developing an organic industry.
  With exciting trends, a special designer award and recycled textile innovations for lace, check out our highlights below:
  Autumn-Winter 2020/2021 Lingerie Trend: Keep It Natural
  Mother Nature continues to strongly inspire trends for upcoming seasons -- a demand for the return to the natural world that reflects in the motifs and colour palettes of garments. Green is the main hue, from bright shades to emerald and even shades of khaki, decorated with micro-floral motifs that are far from naïve but bucolic and pastoral instead, sometimes even stylised and blurry.
  This lingerie trend is bigger than just a wish of getting close to nature: it expands to materials and textile innovations that are eco-friendly and explore natural, sustainable technology that improves the lingerie, swimwear or activewear world, not to mention our own well-being. One example is aloe vera: its extract is being studied as a UV protection in fabrics and being incorporated in bedding textiles since the plant has skin soothing properties. Now, the activewear and lingerie industries are adapting it to their garments as well, with a fabric infused with aloe vera capsules that slowly release their components when the garment touches or rubs against the skin. It keeps the pieces cleaner as aloe vera is antibacterial, also combating odour, and reducing irritation for people with sensitive skin.
  Aloe vera capsules can be incorporated to lace, making it less irritating for people with skin sensitivities like psoriasis or eczema, and generally more comfortable for everyone. The capsules can be applied to several different fabrics, including cotton.
  D2P Billon: Designer of the Year Interfilière Paris 2019
  Every year, the Parisian trade show celebrates designers - and 2019 is the turn to celebrate the French knitwear manufacturer D2P Billon. Founded in 1904, the house quickly became famous for its tulles and veils, and in the 60s, they became pioneers in the swimwear market when they included Lycra® in their knits.
  With a 100% French production, they offer yarn-dyed or cross-dyed textured jacquards, Lurex or placed yarn-dyed stripes, stretch laces, crochets, 3D knits, structured knits, and much more. Sustainability is also a concern for Billon: they now offer a 100% recycled nylon yarn -- a solution that aims to tackle plastic waste and avoid the creation of synthetic virgin fabrics. This is also combined with investment in new technological machinery to decrease the consumption of water throughout production.
  Award-winning knits: D2P Billon is a traditional French textile producer focused on knit fabrics. They are still pioneers in the textile industry, now offering a 100% recycled nylon yarn for the swimwear and lingerie markets. Credit: Image courtesy of D2P Billon
  Maglificio Alto Milanese: Graphene And Sustainability for Lingerie and Swimwear
  This Italian company specialises in knitted fabrics, creating all types of circular knit for the apparel and intimates market. In this edition of Interfilière, they are presenting a new line of luxury fabrics called "Underwear Gold", with Tencel™, cashmere, and silk -- combining natural and artificial yarns with technology to create "second skin" fabrics that aim to be super comfortable.
  Maglificio Alto Milanese is also working on a new graphene fabric -- an innovative material with unique properties like thermal conductivity, which contributes to regulating the body's temperature and can have a wide range of applications within the lingerie, swimwear, and activewear industries.
  Underwear Gold: Maglificio Alto Milanese's collection was made with a special yarn blend to achieve a "second skin" level of comfort and softness. The Italian brand is also working with graphene fabrics for the lingerie, swimwear and activewear industries. Credit: Image Courtesy of Interfilière
  Encajes: Lace from Plastic Bottles
  This Colombian textile producer is using Repreve® yarn, created from discarded plastic bottles, to create a new collection of "recycled" lace -- tackling the plastic waste problem without using synthetic virgin fibres. Beyond their available 600 designs of lace, including Fascination, Raschel, Textronic, and Jacquardtronic in stretch or rigid, the company keeps investing in textile technology to develop innovative materials, such as the Skin Soft collection -- ultra soft laces made with special yarns, giving them a cashmere feel.
  [left] Encajes' lace sample - one from the 600 designs they offer. [right] Repreve® yarn, created from discarded plastic bottles, ready to be spun into 'recycled' lace. Credit: Image Courtesy of Encajes and Repreve®
  Interfilière Conferences: Focus On Innovation
  The 3-days of the trade show were not only about finding new fabric, material and trim suppliers, but also learning more about the industry. Interfilière presented its visitors with a series of interesting conferences, from trends such as "Lingerie Trends for AW20/21: New Keys to Success" with Virginie Corbasson from Carlin Creative Trend Bureau; and "Swimwear Market & Trends SS20" with Faustine Baranowski from Promostyl Paris, to the fashion business and marketing tips.
  "The New Swimwear 4.0 Saga" with Dominique Demoinet from Interfilière Paris, explored how industry 4.0 is redefining the industry, and "How Technological Innovations Will Revolutionize Retail" with Fabrice Jonas (from My Fashion Tech), Elodie de Loisy (from SkyBoy), and David Baussart (CTO Leaf) gave visitors new insights on how to explore technology to create more connections with customers.
  Education was also present in the conference program, with "Enhancing Your Collection Through Textile Design" with Camille Pianel and Agnès Denat, both from La Trame.
  Interfilière brings attention to the innovative technologies blooming in the lingerie, swimwear and activewear industries, also communicating and sharing new ways of improving them. If you can't travel around the world to source your dream materials, send your requests to our concierges who will find your dream fabrics, materials, and trims for you: sign up now.
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