Knitch Magazine

This September, KnitchMagazine trekked to France to attend the Premiere Vision Pluriel trade show. This event attracts designers from throughout the world who want a preview of the yarns and styles that will be available for the Autumn/Winter 2010/11 fashion season.

Premiere Vision Pluriel was held from September 15 to 28, 2009 at the Parc d’Expositions just outside of Paris. This was an absolutely enormous show that filled several halls of the expansive convention center, presenting six different yarn-related programs in separate sections: Expofil, the show of yarns and fibers; Indigo, the exhibit of textile design and creation; PremiereVision, the fabric show; ModAmont, that presented trimming and supplies; LeCuiraParis, the leather and fur show; and Zoom, for the manufacturers of fashion. We were most interested in the first three: Expofil, Indigo and PremiereVision.

With over 1,600 exhibitors featuring every aspect of fashion, from design right up to the manufacturing processes, the show attracted more than 55,000 guests from throughout the world. This is a considerable increase over last year’s show. The key words were optimism and dynamism and you could feel the buzz throughout the facility as attendees admired and touched the fabrics and fibers that were on display.

The first things that struck us when we arrived at the show were the incredible size of the event and crowds of people lined up to be admitted and the secretive nature of the displays. Rather than make their wares visible to the general audience, manufacturers hid their products in booths surrounded by tall wooden walls that showed just a glimpse of fashions to come. Unless you were invited in, you weren’t going to see their creations. This is because the fabrics and designs are carefully guarded secrets lest the ideas be copied by another manufacturer. Cameras aren't permitted unless you're a member of the press. Beyond the "private" viewings, there were lots of filmed and live fashion presentations and wonderful, touchable displays in each area that presented contributions from the various exhibitors.

The Indigo textile section attracted fashion professionals who came looking for prints, embroideries, jacquard motifs, weave patterns and other sumptuous decorations. Visitors not only enjoyed a massive screen presentation of themes for the autumn/winter 2010/11 fashion season including: “colors + black & white,” “raw splendor,” “to the fullest,” “assembled florals” and “ironic classics,” they were also treated to body painting performances by Australian artist Emma Hack. Some even got to participate in the painting.

Expofil was of particular interest to KnitchMagazine because we’re so interested in yarns and fiber. Even regulars to the show remarked that this year provided a particular sense of inventiveness with bold colors and innovative products that were excitingly daring and imaginative. Many believed the styles they were seeing heralded a new optimism for improvement in the world’s economies. We can only hope this is true.

Predominating the show were the noble fibers – sumptuous alpaca now eclipsing cashmere as the fiber of choice. What intrigued us most was a new approach to the blending of fibers that creates a softer, more luxurious feel. Yarns seemed softer and lighter and we look forward to seeing which of these the North American distributors incorporate into their lines.

Over in the LeCuiraParis section of the show, we saw the desire for softness and opulence reflected in the most ingenious fur treatments including absolutely irresistible combinations of fur and lace. If the European show is reflective of what we can expect next year, we’ll be seeing increased interest in furs and, we suspect, in fur yarns.

Within the Premiere Vision area were four distinctive forums: Seduction, Distinction, Relax and Pulsation for evening wear, formal wear, casual wear and sports wear respectively. We were immediately struck by the fantastic dimensional textures of many of the presentations. From the fluid and elegant formal fabrics to the traditionally tailored woolen womens’ wear, we saw a varied and eclectic collection of fabrics in everything from jacquards to chiffons. Although the fashion creations were often highly structured, the look and feel was soft and fluid in patterns that ranged from untamed animal prints to delicate garden florals. But always with an updated approach to color and finish…and often with gender-bending ambiguity. What impressed us most was the new technology that has been applied to novel mixtures of fabrics – like denim and vicuna – producing startlingly innovative textures and designs.

This year, the Premiere Vision Grand Jury Prize was awarded to the Italian weaver Ratti for his silk and wool double jacquard. They described it as, “an ode to the light found in shade and defies weaving constraints with virtuoso ingenuity and poetry.”

The Innovation Prize was awarded to a product by the Japanese exhibitor Iwanaka. This 3D weave that was inspired by velvet techniques “captures air between its two fine layers of voile for a strangely puffy and springy handle, a surface with heavy undulations and a diaphanous lightness, a volume, pleats, splittings and indentations with uncharted behavior.”

The Imagination Prize was awarded to Swiss exhibitor Jakob Schlaepfer for his stunning fabric of foam cubes wrapped with gilt imitation leather and then glued to tulle. This fabric lies somewhere between creative genius and utter madness! We can’t wait to see how the designers use it in their fashions.

The Premiere Vision area included a number of fibers and fabrics that are ecologically responsible and sustainable. We saw vegetal and organic cotton, linen and hemp, and a variety of recycled synthetics. Manufacturers boasted that they use clean, natural dyes and finishes as they strive to attain harmony between nature and humanity.

Colors that dominated the presentations included deep darks, with shades called “Heart of Night,” “Black Hole,” and “Black Forest.” “Lipstick Red” and “Theatrical Red” was popular in everything from frothy laces to slick, glamorous synthetics. And metallics glistened throughout the show in gilt leathers, and gleaming fabrics and trimmings.

Everything was rich and opulent – from the brilliant whites and inky blacks to the luxuriously deep jewel tones. Neutral shades of gray and beige were accentuated with brilliant hues of blues and bold streaks of the radicalized reds. Pulling their colors from the earth and skies, designers provided us with the visual ecstasy of gleaming jewels moderated by natural, primitive shades of stone.

Having had this sneak preview of next winter's fashions, we excitedly anticipate gorgeous new textures and fiber combinations that celebrate the spirit of imagination, innovation and vitality. Black and grey will continue to be the basic colors but the palette is made brighter through the introduction of bold new shades that explode with energy and brilliance.