KARACHI, Oct 8: The new look Interstoff Asia Autumn that opened on Wednesday at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre with around 289 exhibitors from 16 countries concluded on Friday.

According to the organizers Messe Frankfurt, Hong Kong, exhibitors from around the world brought their latest collections and an array of fringe programmes made the event more useful and colourful for the participants and buyers as well as the participating and visiting professionals.

Many textile businesses take advantage of Interstoff Asia as a significant marketing platform to promote their products. This autumn the show especially highlighted Korea and Taiwan products.

The Korean pavilion named ‘Fabulous Korea’ included more than 20 companies showcasing functional fabrics, as well as a range of fashionable fabrics and environmentally friendly textiles. There were seminars on Korean Textile industry and manufacturing organized to create technical awareness among the participants about the textile production.

Manufacturers and suppliers from Taiwan have also chosen to showcase their products under a special banner “Amazing Taiwan”. The Amazing Taiwan pavilion brings together over 20 Taiwanese companies, some of whom highlighted functional fabrics, a specialty the country is renowned for while others displayed fashion and casual wear fabrics.

With the increasing importance of functional textiles in daily lives, the number of manufacturers and suppliers shifting their production towards value added ‘intelligent’ textiles. The new look Interstoff Asia especially illustrated this new trend with a functional textiles demonstration area divided into three themes: work, leisure and sport.

Highlighting how these textiles are easily merging into lifestyle, the Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF) conducted simple fabric tests on-site, revealing the hidden properties. The functions tested included electromagnetic shielding, anti-static, oil repellence and quick dry for the work section, water repellence, sun protection, moisture absorbance, breath ability, waterproof, infrared far for the leisure section and soil release, flame resistance, and reflectivity and for the first time the windproof function for the sport section.

This section also displayed functional fabrics that cannot be tested in a trade fair environment. The fabrics in this section included environmental protection, anti-mosquito, anti-bacterial, negative-ion, abrasion resistance, wrinkle free cotton, two-way stretch, down proof, antifungal and cool feel. The display was divided into three categories: action, well-being and fashion.

Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF) also conducted a seminar on Friday and later Peter Krueger from Lenzing delivered talk about the functional properties of Lenzing fibres.

At Interstoff Asia, visitors also interacted with exhibitors who are involved in the creative process including manufacturers and suppliers of yarns and fibres, basic and novelty fabrics, textile designs, CAD and CAM from countries famous for their creative talents such as France, Japan and the UK.—APP