Exhibitors and visitors can experience innovative textiles and new processing technologies live during the new Innovative Apparel Show, organised by Messe Frankfurt, during Techtextil and Texprocess, the leading international trade fairs for technical textiles and nonwovens and for processing textile and flexible materials, which are set to take place from 4-7 May next year.

For this purpose, four universities and fashion schools will present their pioneering designs. “We are not putting on a fashion show in the classical sense, but we want to offer visitors and exhibitors at both fairs an unconventional platform where they can allow themselves to be inspired as well as exchanging views,” explained Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt.

“The major aim behind this is for people to appreciate the link between Techtextil and Texprocess. We want to bring together processing technologies in the treatment of clothing with technical textiles, nonwovens and other flexible materials.”

Catwalk

The Innovative Apparel Show combines two items on the programme into one event. First of all, there is a moderated live walk across the catwalk.

The universities and fashion schools will then present their items of clothing and explain the methods of processing as well as the materials used. All in all, according to the most recent count, the first Innovative Apparel Show will present around 30 ground-breaking items of clothing.

“We shall be seeing, for example, experimental joining technologies, interesting functional materials or new forms of apparel,” commented Professor Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer, responsible for coordinating the project at the Lower Rhine University of Applied Sciences.

Fashion installation and prize ceremony

Four universities and fashion schools will be taking part in the Innovative Apparel Show. These include the Frankfurt School of Clothing and Fashion Design, the Lower-Rhine University of Applied Sciences (Department of Textile and Clothing Technology), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Zwickau University in Western Saxony.

The event, which takes about half an hour, will be held seven times, twice on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and once on Thursday. The moderation and choreography, which will be held in English, will be the responsibility of South-African show producer Kevin Oakes.

For the entire duration of the fair a Special Show will present the items of apparel created by the schools. The area devoted to this is divided up into three clear themes: High-Tech Fashion, Creative Processing and Functional Materials. All visitors may vote for the public award, which will be presented at a prize ceremony.

www.techtextil.com

www.texprocess.com