New textile event to launch in NYC

NEW YORK - Canada-based textile company Continuum Textiles and the Kingpins Denim Show have teamed up to launch an invitation-only boutique textile tradeshow, focused on sustainability, which will debut in January 2012 in New York alongside Kingpins. A seminar will be organised by the US-based not-for-profit Textile Exchange, which is also backing the event. Created by Andrew Olah of Kingpins and Anne Gillespie and Stuart Adams of Continuum Textiles, the new event aims to showcase progressive textile fabrics for sustainability. “Exhibitors in the boutique event will be selected by their ability to provide quality products and service, and the integrity of their sustainability stories,” said the organisers. The show will differ from a regular fabric exhibition format, due to Olah’s claim to dislike the conventional tradeshow experience, wanting to create something that “felt like a party hosted at my own home.” This has led to the development of this small, informal Continuum show, in which it is hoped there will be around 20 exhibitors. It will run parallel to the Kingpins show (the established exhibition of which Olah is the founder and owner), and will share the After Party of the first night. Staff of Textile Exchange, said they will deliver a seminar and be a resource to visitors. “We are hearing constant frustration from suppliers that there isn’t the follow-through from brands in terms of making real purchasing decisions,” explained La Rhea Pepper, Managing Director of Textile Exchange. “This show will be a way to encourage this to happen,” she hoped. Gillespie and Adams of Continuum concluded that “product sustainability is not an endpoint; rather it is movement along a continuum towards a fully sustainable system that balances economic, social and environmental factors.”