Textile Insight - May, 2009
Insight on What’s Next
When economic difficulties arise, innovation often goes downhill. It is enough to deal with budget cuts, lean-to-the-bone staffing and sales declines; funding the next big thing can reasonably get pushed aside when time, money and energy is in short ...
Softshell Evolves
Price point and Lifestyle Trends Shape Design Direction
Ask five people to define softshell and you’re likely to get five different answers. One would think that after a decade of softshell progress a simple definition would be universally easy to come by. And yet, perhaps it is this inherent elusive natu...
Retail Re-Emerges
Traditional department stores are no longer strong enough to anchor malls, established specialty shops are trying on new business models and once little-known dealers ( from of all places, Nebraska! ) are catching on
The shake-out of shops over the past year, and an increasingly cost-conscious consumer, are re-inventing the shopping environment. As the haze of this economic crisis begins to lift a couple things are becoming clear. New formats for retail are emer...
Decontamination Wipe
Texas Tech’s Technology Targets New Markets
There is a new nonwoven textile wipe that is being recognized internationally as a protection against chemical and biological attacks. The wipe was developed by Texas Tech University in response to a call from the U.S. government for a new decontamin...
Back from the Brink
Glenoit Reclaims U.S. Position
For close to a decade, Glenoit was skirting on the edge of becoming another doomed American textile maker. A victim of changes in sourcing trends and management from afar resulted in a steep sales drop, leaving this once secure sliver knit supplier o...
Trendsetter: John Patrick
Patrick’s Fall/Winter 2009 fashion show was staged in a church basement that also houses a thrift shop, complete with a homegrown bake sale, as fitting for a brand based on values, honesty and sustainability.
Art Smart: This collection’s roots are tied to painter John Sloan, an early-20th century realist painter capturing New York’s gritty working class neighborhoods and the principles of socialism in his work. “Now is a new realism and a new paradigm,” s...
Shopping With Erica Tannen
Scoping Out Specialty Stores with Small Town Style
After 25 years of owning and buying for specialty retail companies, Erica Tannen found a smart, new way to use her skills. She launched the e-list, a breezy online newsletter dedicated to “all good things on the shoreline.” In other words, quick hit...
Will Retail Rise Again?
Counter to most consumers, I find myself shopping a lot lately. While others are cutting-back and resisting retail, I — at heart a non-shopper — am increasingly cruising store aisles. In the past few weeks I’ve roamed outlet villages located off the ...
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