Mills Counter Competition With Innovation at L.A. Show

LOS ANGELES — Textile companies preparing for next week’s Los Angeles International Textile Show are emphasizing better quality and proprietary fabrics as they face continued competition from low-cost Chinese materials.

Among the new spring-summer 2007 offerings on display at the show — to be held at the California Market Center for three days beginning Monday — are a merino wool-silk blend from the U.S. subsidiary of New Zealand’s Designer Textiles; novelty prints on seersucker and rippled gauze from Los Angeles’ Robert Kaufman, and snake and crocodile prints embossed on silk taffeta woven to produce ridges imitating animal scales from France’s Bucol.

“We’re just starting to pick away at the fashion market,” said Jose Fernandez, director of North America for Designer Textiles USA in San Francisco, adding that the company hopes to expand beyond the outdoor industry that uses its functional cloth for jackets and base layers. “This is our first big push into creating a presence [in fashion].”

Emmie Goldenbaum, director of marketing for Robert Kaufman, said it is crucial for textile manufacturers to keep evolving and diversifying in order to survive.

“You have to have your hand in everything to make it now,” said Goldenbaum, noting that the company supplies hospital scrubs manufacturers and the quilting industry as well as sportswear companies.

Goldenbaum said she has noticed a backlash against inexpensively mass-produced goods from China.

“We have a little bit of a higher price point, but people expect quality out of us and they’re willing to pay it,” she said. “People want quality goods.”

Sam Rojhani, sales manager for Reseda, Calif.-based Italo Leather, which deals solely in lambskin leather from Italy, said his customers are asking for better quality leathers to be used in garments and handbags.

“They’re asking for different articles that are more expensive,” he said. “Also, they are looking for different patent leathers. Patent is hot right now.”

John Marshall, sales manager in Los Angeles for Solstiss SAS and Bucol, said he doesn’t feel threatened by China and India because he targets high-end markets for bridal gowns, couture, designer labels and Hollywood costumes. That’s not to say that the brands he represents rest on their laurels. In addition to the new animal prints, Bucol also is applying floral prints from its 86-year-old archive on cigaline, which is made of pure silk with a honeycomb-like weave. Solstiss is highlighting two-tone lace that uses different colors for the edges or background.

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“A lot of people are expecting lace to be really hot,” Marshall said.

Still, the demand for high-end materials has done little to stem the pace of mill closings in the U.S., Europe and New Zealand in the face of competition from China, India and other countries. U.S.-based textile suppliers said they also must grapple with inflationary pressure and high oil prices, which hit $70 a barrel on Monday, which increase costs on freight and synthetic fibers such as polyester.

“I’m concerned about inflation,” said Terrence Chermak, president of Los Angeles’ Britannia Mills Ltd. “Once oil prices start rising, that finds its way into every sector and that puts price pressure on everything.”

Amanda Read, manager of the West Coast office of New York’s Nipkow & Kobelt Inc., which sources fabrics from South Korea, said the increase in oil prices certainly increases the cost of the company’s fabrics. She acknowledged that the impact of escalating prices is not immediate because there is lag time due to inventory levels and fibers having been purchased for future business.

“There are mitigating factors that hold prices down for longer or at least keep them from escalating as dramatically, as what we see with petroleum,” Read wrote while on a business trip in South Korea.

Still, as 75 percent of its goods are made of polyester balanced with nylon and feature novelty treatments such as foil, glitter and nail heads, Nipkow & Kobelt has to fluctuate with the market.

“There isn’t anything [other than polyester] out there that we can use for our fabrics, especially if we have to apply treatments to them,” said Kristin Gallant, a sales representative in Nipkow & Kobelt’s Huntington Beach, Calif., office.

In the case of Designer Textiles, the knitting mill must contend with the popularity of cashmere and a perception that merino wool is synonymous with itchy sweaters.

“Cashmere still carries a premium over merino wool,” Fernandez said.

In addition to developing a supple knit out of a merino wool and cashmere blend that will be introduced this summer for fall 2007, Designer Textiles offers ultrafine fibers of merino wool that are narrower than a human hair. Fernandez also hopes that merino wool can gain converts who like the wash-and-wear appeal of an environmentally friendly fiber such as merino wool.

“There’s a growing trend toward natural fibers, especially those that are sustainedly grown,” he said.

The move toward environmentally friendly, or green, products and businesses is a development that could give a boost to Green-Spun Textured Knits. Jim Jakubecy, owner of the one-year-old company based in Gastonia, N.C., said his fabric is made of cotton salvaged from cutting tables, scraps, wastes and garments that do not make it to the consumer. Jakubecy said he blends the recycled cotton with acrylic or spun polyester to strengthen the material. The result is a heathered effect, giving the textile an earthy look that Jakubecy claimed cannot be replicated through conventional dyeing.

“You get some very unique fabrics made with this yarn,” he said. “We see a very bright future in this.”

But future prospects are dimmed by concerns that the domestic pool of knitters, finishers and yarn suppliers that provide services and materials to Green-Spun is shrinking, Jakubecy said.

“They’re the ones struggling because of overall lack of volume in the country,” he said. “The future is in the supply chain, not consumer acceptance.”

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