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The global textile market size reached US$ 985 Billion in 2022. IMARC Group expects the market to reach US$ 1,268 Billion by 2028, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2% during 2023-2028.
The total export volume of China’s textile industry makes up over half of the global market. The main environmental problems caused by the textile industry include water pollution, air pollution and solid waste pollution. With 1.7 million tons of CO2 emitted annually, accounting for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the textile industry is a major contributor to global warming. Plastic fibres are polluting the oceans, the wastewater, toxic dyes, and the exploitation of underpaid workers. The textile industry is responsible for around 20% of the world's industrial water pollution. |
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In Ghent I have been most generously entertained by the fabricators and designers to be found at the looms of this decorative city.
My first port of call was the excellent Museum of Industry, a former weaving mill located on the Leie canal and full of clearly described processes that underlay and enabled the industrialization of weaving in the Low Countries. Peppered with observations on the currently inevitable discussion of environmental and societal damage caused by the industry, this was not only a celebration of success, not merely an educational romp through the early processes, but as much a recognition of the further steps that are urgently required to address the impact the fabrication of fabric has on our environment and so many lives. |
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Armed with such knowledge as my mind could hold, my next port of call was Annabel’s, hosted by the enthusiastic creative director, Kylian van der Have. Annabel’s is a long-established weaver, started by a single family in the early 1970’s (with a penchant for yellow rather than the traditionally green weaving frames) and grown to operate across international markets, as all weavers now seem to have to do.
Here I am introduced to weaving of traditional fabrics in modern circumstances, employing base twine sourced from the east, materials and results subject to rigorous in-house testing, the predominant client being the UK – from where industrialised weaving began –, hearing of the only slowly emerging environmental controls on the industry, and seeing (and hearing) for myself the detail and the implications of mass production. |
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What becomes clear is that, while the markets have shifted, the methods of weaving have changed very little over the years, Cartwright’s nascent power loom with Kay’s flying shuttle remain an extraordinary if society changing invention, only substantially enhanced by the Jacquard technique that evidently underpins the advent of the computer. But unlike the computer, Cartwright’s machinery while regularly refined in the detail, has remained largely unchanged in the process; and the output and the purpose, while more refined and precise, more decorative and more resilient, is essentially the same as it always was. Which I suppose is fine if it ain’t broke, but I can only hope that the less palatable components and processes of the industry improve more substantially and more rapidly.
That said, Annabel’s do what they do well and cleanly and with more than one eye on the environment, with attempts at controlling the less beneficial impacts of their suppliers, the adoption of nontoxic finishes and a solar powered factory that also feeds the neighbours. Which brings hope.
That said, Annabel’s do what they do well and cleanly and with more than one eye on the environment, with attempts at controlling the less beneficial impacts of their suppliers, the adoption of nontoxic finishes and a solar powered factory that also feeds the neighbours. Which brings hope.
But it is with some eagerness that I approached VDS Textiles who, while employing much the same machinery, are focused on examining the potential of the output.
In these days of near-hysteric self-aggrandisement, the website of VDS and their appearance in the wider internet is intriguingly opaque. There are threads of tubular and 3D weaving, snippets of conductivity and resistance, but little detail as to content and output. It should have come as no surprise to me that the reason for this apparent internet reticence was that VDS is poised at the cutting edge of new products, where NDA’s thrive and the benefits of the process and output are secret until proven and patented.
The eponymous Guy van de Storme is a man of passion, an aesthete and a scientist, a man who enjoys testing and participating in the crazy ideas of his clients, making them come to fruition wherever practical - and they are often times not - and providing inventive new fabrics and new fabric systems that meet new challenges. (Not surprising too that Guy’s old factory is now given over to artists, allowing their ideas to come to fruition wherever practical - and they are often times not - and providing new concepts to challenge and inspire).
Guy is generous in his time, and much of the morning is spent discussing the opportunities for the weaving industry for the betterment of human activities. Here I learn about what else could be offered by invention, with fabrics as passive energy receivers, storage and distributors, as the open 3D-grid substructure of industrial water cleansers, of robust personal protection and improved large scale agricultural storage. Here I learn of Guy’s work for Vollebak, a company well worth a look, being purveyors of clothing allied with robotics, habitation, computing, data and AI, and apparently ‘brilliantly bonkers’.
In these days of near-hysteric self-aggrandisement, the website of VDS and their appearance in the wider internet is intriguingly opaque. There are threads of tubular and 3D weaving, snippets of conductivity and resistance, but little detail as to content and output. It should have come as no surprise to me that the reason for this apparent internet reticence was that VDS is poised at the cutting edge of new products, where NDA’s thrive and the benefits of the process and output are secret until proven and patented.
The eponymous Guy van de Storme is a man of passion, an aesthete and a scientist, a man who enjoys testing and participating in the crazy ideas of his clients, making them come to fruition wherever practical - and they are often times not - and providing inventive new fabrics and new fabric systems that meet new challenges. (Not surprising too that Guy’s old factory is now given over to artists, allowing their ideas to come to fruition wherever practical - and they are often times not - and providing new concepts to challenge and inspire).
Guy is generous in his time, and much of the morning is spent discussing the opportunities for the weaving industry for the betterment of human activities. Here I learn about what else could be offered by invention, with fabrics as passive energy receivers, storage and distributors, as the open 3D-grid substructure of industrial water cleansers, of robust personal protection and improved large scale agricultural storage. Here I learn of Guy’s work for Vollebak, a company well worth a look, being purveyors of clothing allied with robotics, habitation, computing, data and AI, and apparently ‘brilliantly bonkers’.
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Here I learn of some significant failures too, including ideas for self-powered flight that have come too early for the current capability of composite fibre. An idea before it’s time. This is not something we often experience or countenance in much of the infrastructure sector, but it is recognised that we would not be as capable today had it not been for a few brave souls testing the limits, identifying the shortfalls and focusing their attention on resolving the weakness of the day.
There is a joy in the simple fact that these ideas are still being developed, being funded, being taken seriously so that one day we might all look at the weaving industry, and the delivery of infrastructure in general, not as an environmental and social pariah, but as underlying a fundamental enhancement of the planet’s wellbeing.
There is a joy in the simple fact that these ideas are still being developed, being funded, being taken seriously so that one day we might all look at the weaving industry, and the delivery of infrastructure in general, not as an environmental and social pariah, but as underlying a fundamental enhancement of the planet’s wellbeing.