Italy's in July registered the biggest foreign trade surplus since July 1998, national statistics agency Istat said on Monday. The recorded surplus was of 4.5 billion euros (5.8 billion U.S. dollars), including a 2.7-billion-euro increase in European countries and a 1.8-billion-euro growth in non-EU countries. Istat noted that the surplus was over 2 billion euros higher than in July of last year. According to local experts, the record-high figure was a consequence of the recession hampe

If life’s a party, then London designers RSVP’d with the perfect options from their spring 2013 shows. London fashion typically exhibits a heavy street style influence, but this season, that East End edge took on a refined polish. Source: Vogue

Silk has long been viewed as the finest natural fabric known to humans -- flexible, smooth, beautiful, shimmering. But it is taking on new uses these days that boggle the mind. Violin strings? A short report in the March 10 issue of the journal New Scientist says they give a "thrilling tone," a unique and brilliant timbre. The violin strings use silk from Nephila maculata, the golden orb-weaving spider. The more common source of silk is, of course, from the cocoons of the moth Bombyx mori.

DuPont Biomaterials has taken the development of its Sorona fibres - which are made from a polymer derived from renewable plant sources such as corn instead of traditional petrochemical ingredients - to the next level with variants designed for trousers and jeans, seamless apparel and swimwear. The new products have been created with strategic customers, and provide apparel designers with sustainable, high-performance fibres and fabrics. Sorona offers "exceptional" softness, comfort stretc

LAGOS, Nigeria — At Nigeria’s Katangua Market, that castaway from the West means big money. Shipping container after shipping container arrive in the market in Lagos, filled to the brim with plastic-wrapped bales of secondhand clothes from the U.S. and elsewhere. Traders scour, barter, hem and haw over T-shirts, bras, pants and shoes sent to help clothe a nation of more than 160 million people where the textile industry largely collapsed years ago. But while much comes in as Western donati

The Textile Institute Fashion and Technology Special Interest Group together with its partner the University of Northampton is pleased to be able to announce this exciting new event for the leather sector, taking place on 24 October 2012, at the Sunley Conference Centre, University of Northampton, Northampton, UK. Having such a vast supply chain, leather quality starts with the farmer and finishes with the final consumer, with everyone in between requiring leather knowledge at different level

India's cotton harvest is likely to fall this year after two successive record crops, but only marginally after late rains helped ease the impact of a slow start to the annual monsoon. A survey of 10 traders pegged the average output for the year starting Oct. 1 at 34 million 170-kg bales, down by 3.7 percent from a record 35.3 million bales last year. The smaller crop, combined with high domestic prices and slower Chinese demand, mean that while India will remain the world's number two cott

Safeguard measures proposed by the European Parliament under the EU’s duty waiver for Pakistan will not be enough to reassure the European textile industry. Represented by Euratex, the sector says it is “profoundly disappointed by the way EU policy makers have decided to use trade as a political instrument, totally disregarding the economic interests of the EU textile and clothing industry, its companies and workers”. The European Parliament voted on 13 September (342 in favour, 97 against and

Price of Top 10 Popular Fabric This Week Total Price Index Source: Textile Index