Welcome to natific news especially if it is your first view of our monthly letter sent to natific friends and users. Just like our software and services, natific news will only contain the most up to date relevant information supporting the whole supply chain to become more effective. Each month we will feature a world leading CAP certified dye house and profile our new clients, you will also receive invitations to webinars and other information valuable for you as a user or potential user of our software and services. Your input is important to us, so let us know if the information you receive is useful and what you would like us to cover in the future.
A NEW YEAR! Where to start? At natific we often speak about building quality into the design and naturally include sustainability. To actively address potential issues from the start. A great way to start 2015 is to prevent issues with poorly specified colors rapidly escalating down the supply chain, creating huge additional costs. Just like forecasting fashion trends, it’s possible to foresee problem scenarios in your production.
Labdips are a significant supply chain cost and resource drain as new swatches frequently are developed and sent back and forth across the world creating weeks of communication and misunderstandings. Industry wide research and assessment consistently shows that a larger number of repeat lab dip submits do not improve the quality of the color matching for the final product.
We have worked hard to tackle this issue. Feedback we mostly hear from brands, retailers and suppliers regarding our color and quality compliance services is time and money saved, together with increased quality. Outcomes that also can be translated into sustainability. Brands, retailers and suppliers all experience:
• Higher efficiency and shorter lead time
• Great saving of airfreight charges, extra labor etc.
• Improved managing and resolving of color errors
• Better focus on the quality of the color and fabric
A first step is to be able to anticipate how your choice of colors, finishes and materials most likely will perform during the production.
Let’s have a look at navy and white, as every spring season will see fashion brands with navy and white as a strong feature range. It is usually a big volume buy as it is a safe classic combination that people like and never seem to tire of this fresh change from the harshness of black of the little black dress of the Christmas and New Years festive seasons.
Two levels of navy are always popular. One is very deep and dark and the other a lighter tone like “French Navy”. This color trend is also usually fashioned to garments with a nautical influence and this of course includes stripes usually with cream or white. This years trend for stripes extends to multicolor combinations, giving newness and excitement and of course new challenges for the dyers.
Prior to sending any requests to your vendor or mill about this trend, technical inputs to consider are:
- How to ensure colorfastness to water, perspiration or washing?
- How to ensure the navy part does not bleed on the white strips?
natific know the best available technologies to achieve required high fastness performance, e.g. by:
- Selecting the best performing dyes
- Color block the white strips
- Spin Dyeing by using WRSD technology*
*SpinDye’s revolutionary new way of producing fabric reduces water and chemical usage and cuts the carbon footprint number in half. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing pigment, chemicals and a lot of water. With SpinDye, pigments are instead added to the spinning solution before the solution is extruded through the spinneret. Through this process, the color pigments become a part of the fiber and the SpinDye fabric gains excellent colorfastness.
Natific color management and quality services provide support for all the steps needed for the quickest and most effective route to streamline your color process and quality compliance. You can read further at our homepage or contact us on support@natific.com if you are curious in knowing more.