NEWS

On October 31, the third phase of the 136th Canton Fair opened with the theme of "better life". The third offline exhibition lasted for 5 days, exhibiting five professional sectors such as home textiles, fashion, stationery, toys, pregnancy, baby and children, health and leisure, among which textile and clothing are the major categories.

In the traditional view, the garment textile industry is at the low end of the manufacturing industry. In fact, under the rapid changes in the global market environment and the status quo of some garment and textile factories moving to Southeast Asia and other countries and regions, the road to the sea of domestic garment enterprises is moving towards technology, environmental protection and high-end.

With the advent of the AI era, how to integrate fashion design and fashion trends? How to achieve functional clothing while maintaining a high level of appearance and comfort? What are the updated ways to play the sea? This is the answer that the Chinese garment textile enterprises at the current Canton Fair are exploring.

Soft carpet made of plastic bottles, biodegradable nylon jacket

How does the concept of environmental protection affect the textile and garment industry?

"Recycling waste plastic bottles as raw materials, through the processing process, it is melted and decomposed, made into polyester yarn, and then woven into polyester fabric. And you end up with this soft carpet." On October 31, Zheng Yong, general manager of Yaven carpet, revealed to Nandu Wan Financial News reporter that "the proportion of recycled plastic waste as production raw materials reached more than 95%", the company uses recycled materials to produce composite carpets, which integrate anti-fouling, softness and style design, and meet the European and American markets' environmental concepts gradually deepening and high requirements for environmental protection. It has successfully opened up a local outlet and maintained a double-digit growth in sales this year.

Anoop Sehgal from New York, USA is Zheng Yong's old friend, the trip to the Canton Fair is to find polyester carpet products, "environmentally friendly products everyone is interested in".

"The domestic textile industry has formed the most developed complete industrial support in the world, but now some garment factories have moved to Southeast Asia and South Asia, how to maintain our competitiveness?" We use the advantages of the industry, combined with the multi-scene changes in the international market demand for carpets, to achieve the environmental protection of carpet raw materials, and constantly iterate products to maintain a competitive edge." Zheng Yong said.

"Through environmentally friendly printing and dyeing, reduce water pollution caused by traditional denim washing." For example, it used to take ten barrels to wash a batch of jeans, but the new technology can greatly save water in the washing process." In the denim clothing booth of Guangdong Textile Import and Export Co., LTD., a variety of denim upper and lower garments using environmentally friendly nylon fabric were displayed on site. Designer Zhang Mingcheng said that denim originated from the American western denim, in color and pattern, the traditional concept of Europe and the United States prefer to "raise" out of jeans. On the basis of the use of environmentally friendly fabrics, we are exploring the renewal of printing patterns to maximize the effect of "denim".

At the scene, Russian buyer Aksana told Nandu Bay Financial News reporter, she is based in Guangzhou, this time for a number of Russian friends to look for goods on the spot, she noticed that a vest of the booth is "particularly soft", "in fact, the style design is very common, and there is no special place, but the key is that it is very soft, and the use of biodegradable environmentally friendly nylon fabric, which meets the needs of environmental protection. So I like it very much."

Graphene + chip heating cotton jacket, inflatable rescue three-in-one jacket

How else can technology empower our clothes?

"Today's outdoor camping apparel is actually moving in the direction of more everyday development." Chen Geng, president of Lao Guangjiao and Fujian Shangfei Clothing Co., LTD., believes that today's outdoor clothing should be both functional and powerful, but also take into account the level of appearance and comfort.

At the company's station, a storm jacket that seems ordinary, but can integrate minus 20 degrees Celsius insulation and water rescue in one use scenario, won the Silver Award of the 2024 Canton Fair Innovation Award. The product, called "Inflatable Amphibious Rescue 3-in-1 Jacket", is equipped with four inflatable capsules in the inner bladder, which is insulated by manually filling air, and the inflatable gallbladder can also help the wearer float when falling into the water, to minimize the loss of temperature of the main torso, and strive for more survival chances.

The product designer Huang Ying told Nandu Bay financial news reporter, the design inspiration comes from her friends engaged in outdoor rescue, the other side said that the current market rescue clothing design lacks beauty, hoping to design a storm jacket that can be used for rescue and daily wear.

"The inflatable 3-in-1 jacket also features a quick-release zipper on the front and sleeves for quick one-hand slip on and off. A whistle with a compass function hanging from a zipper. In case of accidental injury, the fixed loop of the back shoulder blade and waist can be turned into a simple stretcher when inserted into two branches in the outdoors, and a single companion can directly pull the shoulder sleeve ring, which is more convenient to bring the injured. The inflatable U-shaped pillow lifts the neck, which helps to wait for help for a long time." Huang Ying showed the details of the product one by one.

Wang Tongfei, a 38-year-old dressmaker who started his career designing bomber jackets from Liaoning province, is thinking about even more extreme cold weather scenarios.

"Graphene-heated products are used in winter clothing, and the technology has been iterated many times. The first generation is fiber-to-point heating, the second generation is ordinary graphene heating, and the third and fourth generation products we are now developing with domestic universities are a combination of four groups of nanochips and graphene embedded in cotton clothes to resist extreme cold weather." Wang Tongfei, chairman of Liaoning super Peng Clothing Co., LTD., said that the cotton jacket can be in a minus 40 degree environment, with an adaptive switch inside to maintain a constant temperature of 37 degrees, below the temperature chip combination will automatically start, using an ordinary 10,000 MA charging bank can be continuously heated for 6 hours, its introduction, this product according to the style and design, From 200 yuan to 1000 yuan, quite cost-effective, the product has been piloted in Harbin Railway Bureau.

"Our biggest export sales are to northern Europe and Russia, where there is a high demand for winter clothing."

At the scene, Zacharias from Canada is the first time to participate in the Canton Fair, he helped the company to find cold clothing, he told Nanda Bay financial news reporter, Vancouver's winter is "quite cold", so the winter cold clothing market is huge, the first time to the Canton Fair he felt novel, "I have seen similar clothing, but do not understand its raw materials." "The idea of nanochips being heated in combination with graphene is pretty cool."

How will AI change clothing design?

Canton Fair garment enterprises to give the answer

Wang Tongfei introduced that his company starts from labeling and now does its own brand design, "From the labor cost, we may not have the advantage of low-cost labor compared with Southeast Asian countries." Now, foreigners will instead get low-end products to Southeast Asia production, high-end clothing design will find China. Because of our fabrics and accessories, the entire clothing industry chain is very complete, coupled with the intelligent digitization of the factory is ahead of overseas regions such as Southeast Asia, the future development, through the application of new materials, coupled with science and technology to give clothing new product value, I think is one of the future directions of clothing independent brands."

In the era of AI, the use of tools to improve the efficiency of clothing design and recreate clothing production and sales links is already on the road to exploration.

"Be sure to react quickly, especially in a market downturn, because if you don't have data in the past, you won't know which one is selling well." Clothing designer Zhang Mingcheng said, "We use big data collection, combined with the grasp of customers in different countries and regions, to find popular styles, design, and through the 3D way, rather than the traditional way of proofing, waiting for guests to confirm, improve the design efficiency." Zhang Mingcheng told reporters that in the era of AI, through the advantages of enterprises with big data and customer group data, to grasp the popular fabric and design, become the new link of current clothing design. "Now, of course, it is also necessary to combine the style of the customer and differentiate the design." Zhang Mingcheng said.

Aided design by AI tools is rapidly changing the fashion design industry. Long Bo, head of clothing design AI tool D.SD, believes that the AI product can be displayed online from clothing design, model modification, and sample display, relying on tools to complete trivial work and improve the efficiency of designers.

"In the field of AI, there is a phrase called 'design equality.' In the past, it was necessary to hire a designer or spend a lot of money to design landscape style fabrics and patterns. Now, even if the designer does not know much about landscape painting, he can generate demonstrations through models and then create continuously. This is completely different from the design logic of the past. Longbo said, "Compared with AI, the most important skill of designers will not be replaced, and that is aesthetic." The greatest mission of a designer is to improve the aesthetic, to use the tools to complete your design."

During the Canton Fair

There has been a significant increase in the number of foreign consumers of local brand clothing

The fashion craze of the Canton Fair spread from the exhibition hall to the whole city. A person in charge of BENLAI, a brother brand of fast luxury fashion brand URBAN REVIVO, said that during the Canton Fair, the number of visitors to the store increased significantly, especially foreign customers accounted for more than 5% of the average daily customer flow and 35% of the sales. According to the statistics of payment methods, Southeast Asia accounts for 60% of the customer base, and Europe and the United States account for 40%.

cici, a clerk at BENLAI's Grandview Square store, said that all employees in the store have downloaded mobile translation software in advance to provide foreign customers with multilingual services to help them better understand product features and shopping processes. Sami Si Attallah, who came from North Africa to attend the Canton Fair, arranged a four-day exhibition agenda, and the night before returning home, he and a few friends visited Grandview and took a fancy to the original simple design. He said that although he has designer bags and clothes, he is actually more concerned about texture. "I like to wear designer clothes and I like to mix everything. In fact, I wear quality, not brand. I'm not used to wearing anything on a regular basis, so I like the design and the quality of BENLAI."

The person in charge of the brand introduced that originally as a popular performance technology casual wear brand, the product is based on classic and basic profile design, easy to match, suitable for daily wear and formal occasions. In addition, the autumn and winter season also launched a series of hardshell jackets using Teflon three anti-technology fabrics, "far infrared heat storage" cashmere series, the selection of safe velvet as the core filler down series, and so on. The person in charge said that in December this year, BENLAI's first overseas store is expected to land in Thailand, which is located in One Bangkok in the center of Bangkok, and will continue to deepen the layout of the global market and enhance the global influence of the brand.