In one of my most exciting partnerships to-date, I got invited to the Functional Fabric Fair at the NYC Javits Center! It a surreal full-circle moment for me. Back in 2018, I attended the very first Functional Fabric Fair as a new Textile Technologist in NYC (more about my story here), and now I’m back to share my insights with you through my very own blog! I’m so excited to share what’s new and what’s next. With materials, nothing has the same effect as seeing and feeling innovations up-close. While a blog post doesn’t perfectly capture the experience, I’ll try my best to share my round-up of exciting trends from this year’s Functional Fabric Fair.
As a quick note, even though I share the major materials trends I noticed from the show, they are not mutually exclusive from each other. What’s exciting is that lots of these solutions have overlapping traits! For example, I classified CoolCore a a ‘biomimetic’ material but it is also a chemical-free materials solution, which Filium is too. It’s great that these technologies are designed with so many environmentally-conscious traits in mind.
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Biomimetic Materials: Using Nature as our Blueprint
‘Biomimicry’ is the act of emulating natural processes to solve human-based issues. The idea is that when designing new materials, nature, through millions of years of evolution, has already perfected a solution to our challenges. And to my delight, several materials companies are tapping into this very concept!
- CoolCore: Produces fabrics with superior temperature regulating, and moisture management properties by altering the surface area and geometry of their fibers. Some of these shapes mimic the folds of mushrooms, which I found so fascinating!
- Cocona 37.5: These fibers use the ultra-porous structures of volcanic sand to absorb infrared energy emitted by the body. In turn, this technology creates a rapidly cooling system when you sweat.
Materials that Solve for Microplastic Waste
There is no doubt that fashion has a waste issue. But what makes it worse is the exponential increase in plastic fiber production in recent years. Polyester was introduced in the 1940s, and it wasn’t until the 2000s that it made up more than half of all fibers produced globally. Now think about this trend with the rise of fast fashion – big yikes!
I left the Functional Fabric Fair with a lot of hope to see solutions being built around reducing microplastic waste. These two companies stood out to me:
- Ciclo: This technology blends a patented additive directly into the synthetic fibers that help them to biodegrade under the right moisture and microbial environment! Compared to most solutions that attempt to reduce plastic waste after a product was made, this one is built into the material itself during manufacturing. Once the right conditions are met to biodegrade, plastic fibers using Ciclo technology can break down as quickly as natural fibers!
- ReTraze: I didn’t know this, but mountain plastic waste is much harder to retrieve than ocean waste due to high altitudes. At ReTraze, they focus on rescuing hard-to-reach areas such as mountains and islands (where a pristine marine environment is important to local livelihood). Each plastic chip or yarn is traceable to its source.
Fabrics Using Chemical-Free Solutions
With the rising concerns around ‘forever chemicals’ (e.g. PFAS – polyfluoroalkyl substances), many companies, not just apparel, are looking for alternatives. I was glad I found one at the conference that somehow does it all while remaining chemical-free.
Filium helps fabrics stay water-repellent, stain resistant, odor resistant, and quick-drying through a proprietary molecular bonding process. This is a game-changer because nearly every fabric on the market with these properties is treated with a chemical finish.
Below is an example of a cotton t-shirt where one half was treated with Filium, and the other untreated. See the difference in water repellency!
Luxurious Alternative Plant-Based Fabrics
The whole world knows about cotton and linen, but some lesser known plant-based fabrics that can be transformed into textiles include hemp and ramie. Despite their initial stiffness, these fibers are very resilient, requiring less resources to grow compared to cotton.
Hemp Fortex is one such manufacturer that centers itself on luxurious hemp blends. I felt several of their samples in-person, and was truly impressed by how soft each fabric felt. Macel is one of Hemp Fortex’s fabric blends that incorporate organic hemp with lyocell for an eco-luxurious feel.
My Biggest Takeaways from the Functional Fabric Fair
It’s easy to read the news and feel eco-anxiety seep in. Every step forward is accompanied by one step back. But stepping into the Functional Fabric Fair, I felt so much hope that there are passionate researchers out there, solving their way through fashion’s biggest issues. It’s no longer enough to offer an eco-friendly solution. We need to take it a step further by making them circular. While a linear model follows a take-make-dispose model, a circular solution keeps products away from waste for as long as possible. And if they do need to be disposed, we need ways for these materials to truly go back to the earth.
Hearing about solutions like Ciclo, Filium, and CoolCore shows how far we have truly come in materials science. Even though my post summarizes a few key ‘trends’ in the industry, they also don’t exist mutually exclusive of each other which means most of these technologies solve for more issues than one! I am excited by the future of fashion, and for more brands to adopt these solutions into their fabric sourcing strategy.
