31 January 2024
The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp has revamped its stand, immersing visitors in an immersive experience that will appeal to international fashion and design professionals.
The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp is refreshing its stand with the intention of attracting international designers and plunging them into an immersive experience.
This scenic space is the Alliance's centre of interaction at professional trade shows for the fashion and interior decoration markets (Première Vision, Milano Unica, Proposte, Filo, etc).
The Alliance commissionned textile designer Céline Thibault and interior designer Géraud Pellottiero to create the new stand; intentionally light, the designers paid particular attention to detail and finishing, creating an immersive and experiential space dedicated to what’s new in European Flax-Linen and Hemp. Modular, it can be assembled into various architectural arrangements as required.
The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp is refreshing its stand with the intention of attracting international designers and plunging them into an immersive experience.
This scenic space is the Alliance’s centre of interaction at professional trade shows for the fashion and interior decoration markets (Première Vision, Milano Unica, Proposte, Filo, etc).
The Alliance commissioned textile designer Céline Thibault and interior designer Géraud Pellottiero to the creation of the new stand; intentionally light, the designers paid particular attention to detail and finishing, creating an immersive and experiential space dedicated to what’s new in European Flax-Linen and Hemp. Modular, it can be assembled into various architectural arrangements as required.
In partnership with our members who are specialists in composite materials, part of the decor is made of 100% bio-sourced panels.
The CT&GP designer duo, set designers Céline Thibault and Géraud Pellottiero, create environments where location, expertise, materials and movement are combined.
Céline Thibault is a graduate of the Paris design school ENSCI - Les Ateliers (2013) in textile design/industrial design, while Géraud Pellottiero graduated from the École Boulle (2011) in Paris with a degree in interior design. Together, they won the Grand Prix Design Parade Toulon Van Cleef & Arpels -2019 award with their bath-themed installation Zou Maë! which incorporated the use of Linen.
An official partner of the Design Parade of Toulon and the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories, Hyères, the Alliance decided to continue the dialogue with the designers in spring 2023, tasking them with setting up its pop-up at Paris department store La Samaritaine as part of the Paris à poil(s) exhibition. Since the language and values of the creative duo are aligned with the Alliance’s philosophy, as part of its mission to support young designers, the agro-creative organisation once again called on the talent of CT&GP to design an immersive experience around European Flax-Linen and the versatility of its applications through the scenery of its new stand.
Today, European Flax-Linen embodies an entire range of environmental and creative aspirations and is inspiring a new generation of designers.
Designed to be used over the next three years, the new stand has been created with a clear intention: to showcase the various applications of Flax-Linen, such as composite panels, agricultural materials - straw, scutched fibre, hackled fibre and flax ropes.
The full potential of Flax-Linen is thus revealed in a clear and considered way so that the new textile creations by the members of the Alliance can be revealed to their best light.
The new stand design will display the Alliance members’ creativity by presenting the season’s materials in a sampling space: The Linen Dream Lab©, as well as the European Flax™ and Masters of Linen™ certifications, and a selection of Linen clothing by the latest finalists of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories, Hyères.
Each season, the Alliance works in collaboration with its member spinners, weavers and knitters in Europe to share the latest innovations in Linen.
The stand presents the new fabrics created by spinning, weaving and knitting companies that are members of the Alliance. This presentation gives visitors the chance to get hands-on with a wide variety of fabrics and to learn about their innovative characteristics.
The stand also includes a presentation of the Linen Innovation Book, which contains a selection of materials that best exemplify the season’s themes and innovations.
The theme for the spring/summer 2025 season: Moving Linen, is about motion and emotion. The creativity of Linen producers’ will be on display, challenging stereotypes about this ancestral material.
Innovation is inherent at every stage of transformation, in the blends with sustainable fibres, with a view to new touches and properties.
For spring/summer 25, linen enters the stage with vivacity and elegant fluidity.
Skilled yarn spinning techniques and handles, key elements of excellence and quality, are quintessential.
With a sportier dimension, Linen accompanies the body’s movements and can be used for urban or outdoor activities with its balanced intrinsic performance. In addition to this rich Linen offer, Hemp also appears in the creative proposals for 2025.
The fabric library, which is part of the Linen Dream Lab©, the Alliance’s signature European Flax-Linen and Hemp showroom in Paris, travels to the trade shows!
In the centre of the Alliance’s stand, it comprises a sampling area and workspace for professionals.
There, the wealth of fabric examples from European Flax™ and Masters of Linen™ certified businesses; spinners, weavers and knitters who are members of the Alliance, can be explored. There will also be a “yarn library” in the form of yarn cards.
The space offers visitors a dedicated area designed for their needs in which to learn about and source fabrics. There will also be a display dedicated to composite Flax (for technical uses) to serve as a source of inspiration.
The fabric library can be visited after contact details are provided to Alliance team members, as access is granted to verified profiles only. For confidentiality reasons, access is not granted to spinners, weavers and knitters.
In order to consolidate the leadership of its certifications with an adapted marketing plan, the Alliance has laid out an ambitious trajectory for strengthening and reaffirming certifications of origin, producing reliable environmental impact data, and demonstrating functional properties.
Committed to continuous improvement, the Alliance is developing the European Flax™ certification and its tools to better respond to the expectations of certified businesses, brands and consumers.
European Flax™ = 1,105 certified companies (35 countries)
+ 1,081 % january 2020 - december 2023
Masters of Linen™ = 39 certified companies
+ 28 % january 2020 - december 2023
Unique functional and environmental properties aligned with current societal aspirations
CSR
• Proximity & traceability
• No irrigation(1) from sowing to harvesting,
including during dew retting (vs water retting)
• Certified seeds, GMO-free(2)
• Renewable resources
• Helps preserve the soil
Rotational crop that contributes to optimal soil quality and increases yields of the following crop(3)
• Low in inputs
Limited use of pesticides and fertilisers(3)
• Zero-waste plant
100% is valued and used
• Scutching: fibre extraction
Mechanical process, without solvents or water
• Ethical production
Carried out by a skilled local workforce
TEXTILE
• Ventilation & breathability(4)
• Thermoregulation4)
• Moisture absorption & management(4)
• Positive influence on sleep(5)
TECHNICAL
• Rigidity & lightness
• Strength & resistance
• Sound insulation
• Thermal insulation
• Vibration damping(6)
(1) Barring exceptional circumstances
(2) Source: European Flax™ Charter, 2012
(3) Source: Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of scutched European Flax™ fibre, February 2022
(4) Source: European Linen Comfort and Performance Study, Cetelor Laboratory for the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp, 2014
(5) Source: The Impact of Flax-Linen on Sleep Quality, Cetelor for the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp, 2022
(6) Source: Study on Vibration Damping, expanded European Scientific Council of Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp, March 2023
The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp is a guarantor of data on Flax-Linen.
It commits the industry to measuring its impacts using a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) using methods such as the European PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) methodology.
In addition, as a voting member of the PEF Apparel & Footwear technical secretariat, the Alliance for European Flax-Linen and Hemp helps to co-design the sectoral PEF rules for apparel and footwear to make sure that the specificities of Flax-Linen are considered.
Through these collaborations and as part of this structuring work, the Alliance aims to:
Next steps:
To provide complete data to end users and the Flax-Linen industry, the Alliance is currently co-constructing average data for Europe for each processing stage of long and short fibres: long fibre hackling, short fibre carding and hackling, preparation, wet spinning, etc.
The partnership between the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp and the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories, Hyères, aims to facilitate access to textile and technical innovations in European Flax-Linen for finalists in the fashion and accessories contests.
The organisation bolstered this commitment by becoming an official partner of the Grand Prix of the Jury Première Vision. This collaboration also allows finalists to receive material sourcing support. Finally, the Alliance provides them with Linen fabric, allowing them to realise their collections.
The enthusiasm among young designers for European Linen attests to the ability of European Flax™ and/or Masters of Linen™ certified materials to meet the needs of up-and-coming talent in search of fresh creativity, innovation and sustainability.
Linen provided them with inspiration with its broad spectrum of uses and surprising technical and aesthetic properties. Each of them took ownership of Linen, adapting it to their own field of expression.
The young designer Fengyuan Dai gained a degree in fashion design and model making in France. He presented his collection Équi-Libre at the festival. This collection reflects his bicultural experience bridging Chinese tradition and the Western lifestyle. By using Linen, he explored various creative techniques, making pieces with a balance between raw and refined. He worked with six members of the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp team to design original clothing and accessories by using Linen from Ireland, France, Lithuania, and Austria, as well as recycled materials, demonstrating his commitment to creativity and environmental responsibility.
Bag made from technical components: ECOTECHNILIN.
Top in a Linen-Cotton blend: SAFILIN (Fr)
100% Linen Trousers: NORTHERN LINEN (NL)
Originally from Wales, Alec Rhys Bizby graduated from the London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins, London. The designer presented his collection Dwi Yma, in homage to his Welsh origins. He opted for eco-friendly, local materials, even reusing some pieces that he had made during his studies. Bizby was able to create a Linen reinterpretation of a traditional Welsh blanket that symbolises comforting and indestructible family ties.
100% Linen cagoule and trousers: JOHN ENGLAND (UK)
Marc Sanz Pey, a designer graduate of IED, Barcelona, is committed to eco-friendly fashion. His collection Sol Fleet is inspired by Ibiza and its history linked to hippies in the 1960s. He decided to use Linen from different European weavers to create eco-friendly pieces. He now hopes to integrate Linen into his future brand’s identity.
Trousers in Linen blend: TEXMODA (IT)
Top in Linen blend: NORTHERN LINEN (NL)
A graduate of the Ewha Women’s University, Seoul and the Weißensee School of Art, Berlin, this designer questions the concept of men’s fashion and makes it gender neutral. To this end, she prefers using eco-friendly materials such as Linen to create sustainable and sophisticated clothing. She worked with two linen weavers to design her collection.
100% Linen Gender neutral dress: RIOPELE (PT)
100% Linen Skirt: LIBECO (BE)
So many events that are in line with the Alliance’s ambition of turning European Flax-Linen and Hemp into the premium sustainable fibres of choice around the world.
Flax-Linen, the fibre of civilisation(s): the event book that unveils the history of a thousand-year-old textile
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