In summer as in winter, lightness has become a feature of collections The 19 August 2021 - Fabrics - Accessories

In knitwear, manufacturers manage to combine fineness and warmth. Weight is reduced thanks to the use of fine gauge yarns made from blends of natural and synthetic fibres.

Wool makes an appearance in the casual segment. It offers a pleasant sensation of well-being and has added “easy-care” properties to produce casual tops that are easy to wear. Blends of linen and polyester are used to create lightweight sweats to be worn both indoors and outdoors. Either short or oversized, they play with extreme lengths and enrich silhouettes with attractive colour variations.  

For dressier tee-shirts, subtle tone-on-tone geometric patterns worked in mohair-polyamide blends are characterised by their delicacy. Demonstrating their transparency, they suggest rather than show off, ideal for audacious and elegant tops.

Shirts and dresses in denim also become more fluid through the addition of cellulose fibres such as viscose and lyocell to the cotton. Available in ample, generous forms, they are attractive for their subtly silky appearance and can be nonchalantly layered. To complete the detail, metallic-look ultra-lightweight press fasteners blend discretely into the products.

In the Sport & Tech sector, jackets and coats are seeking to be ultra-lightweight while maintaining high performance. Multilayers are given metallic coatings and are water-repellent or windproof. These aesthetic choices define a large range of products such as ample hybrid parkas, midway between sport and urban, with the look of a flying beetle, or puffa coats that are padded to the maximum but with a controlled weight, structured by plastic buckles with a metallic appearance.

Micro ripstops in bright colours can be seen on sports blousons with extra-light zips, discretely combining shower and wind-proof properties.

In a more city spirit, lightweight warp and weft fabrics revamp elegant trenches. Their fineness combined with their enhanced thermal properties do not hinder movement, making them ideal for urban mobility usages.Produced in a double-sided plain-check pattern, they can be easily imagined on the lapels and yokes of jackets creating beautiful looks that are revealed in the wind when travelling by scooter or by bike.

Shearlings adopt laminated techniques. Designed to be used on long, enveloping coats for very cold snaps, they offer optimal weather and wind proofing while redefining the fur coat, thanks to their simpler lines and slimmer volumes.

Simultaneously chic and easy to carry, the season’s urban bags are designed in full grain leathers that are almost weightless, while offering eco-responsible performances such as reduced-impact finishes or waterless production. Cracked effects enrich the range of leathers with a paper spirit to produce shopping bags with an unimaginable lightness. Other leathers maintain the natural grain of the skin while being pared down to the maximum. The skin is then given more substance with a specific process at the drumming stage, thus maintaining its lightness and plump volumes, ideal for bowling bags in particular.   

In a more technical spirit, leathers with a rubbery appearance are enhanced with impermeable and stretch properties. Used on sneakers, these leathers are remarkable for their flexibility and their simple aesthetic appearance, suitable for both urban and sporty models.

For “evening” wear, tanners have concocted full grain suede leathers that combine softness, suppleness and water-repellent properties. Combined with pastel colours, they bring a touch of elegance to the season’s high-heeled boots.

Specialists of dipped lamb offer leathers like a second skin, used to produce boots with oversized notched soles for a post-apocalyptic look, and able to resist anything the weather throws at them.

Among exotic skins, salmon offers new visual appearances and a softness that is timely given the desire to enjoy our new-found freedom, which will be a popular theme in the next AW season. They boast of being both resistance and ultra-malleable, thus ideally suited to small mobile objects such as mini-pouches for headphones or cases for mobile phones.