TITAS 2010

Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show 2010 (TITAS) took a great ending almost three months ago. I was there to observe and report.

Somewhere around 21 countries and 68 brands participated in this event. Even some of the local celebrities, were there to “help” with the media exposures.

Now, look at what I got!

Awesome! I love free stuff! Too bad they didn’t toss in a few snacks, but hey, it’s free. So I am all good.

The subjects of the show are eco-friendly and functional fashion fabrics. Since eco-friendly is one of the biggest trends of the decade, I will skip it here and give details of this “green is the new pink” thing later in my entries. So for now, I am just going to pinpoint some of the thing that caught my attention during the show.

Rayon, the hand feel was just fantastic. It was light, thin and soft, yet draped down so smoothly and beautifully.

I don’t mean to brag about it or anything; it is one of the better qualities I have seen so far. No doubt the creative possibilities are limitless with Rayon. Too bad, up until now the capacity of Rayon is still fully booked in Taiwan. That means, even if you got the money to spend on it, you still have to get in the line and wait for a long time!

The coffee charcoal fabric produced from used coffee grounds was on display. It produces less carbon dioxide in manufacturing process when compare to bamboo or coconut charcoal fabric. Nonetheless, it is new so it is expensive.

Blends like 40D(Nylon)*90D(Cotton-like Nylon), or 70D(Nylon)*160D(Cotton-Like Nylon) was on display. The reason was pretty obvious. Everyone was looking for cotton replacement as cotton raw materials were becoming more expensive every day. Nonetheless, the fabric itself was excellent and it sure was a more economical alternative when compare to the current cotton price.

Ultra fine denier nylon was on display as always. The weaving techniques of ultra fine denier fabrics are becoming more mature. The abrasion, thus, becomes better. But the price point remains sky high. Thus, this does not change the fact that the mainstream fine denier product is still 15D in Taiwan because of its high price/performance ratio and stability.

This particular one is 10D.

Here is the Formosa Taffeta 20D(FD)x20D(FIR)

And 30D(FD)x70D(FD)

I also found some poor fish swimming on a piece of fabric!

All in all, TITAS 2010 brings about lots of interesting things and many of which are topics widely discussed nowadays. I am seeing a lot of progress. From signing a MOU with Euratex to signing an ECFA with China, all these initiatives truly sharpen the competitiveness of Taiwan’s textile industry on the global scale. But, of course, the core competency lies in the development of innovative textile product itself. With that in mind, Taiwan’s textile industry will be able to savor the success for many years to come.

Wait! What’s in it for me though? I suppose I will be able to keep my job and make more money for someone else! Just how pathetic is that >_<