Textile Toolkit

The Textile Toolkit will come with a selection of swatches specific to the direction of the toolkit, along with a pegboard and hooks to assemble your swatch cards, mood images, silhouette cards and yarn samples for your team. Each toolkit costs 300Euros plus shipping (or 2500RMB with free shipping in China) and the items are paired digitally with Materialliance, allowing you to scan the QR code on any of the swatches or yarns which will take you directly to the information page of the yarns and programs used to create the samples, in addition to related trend reports and connected showcases.

Materialliance is shaping up to become the leader for circular and seamless knitting trends and R&D resources, as more trend services become less focused and niche due to companies trying to appeal to every sector possible. The in-depth professional knitting know-how and creative developments of the Materialliance team is a much-needed addition to the circular and seamless knitting industry, as the technology is constantly being improved and programs updated, creating a need for the designers, product developers, manufacturers and yarn spinners that work in this area of the industry to have access to a much more knowledgable narrative than currently being offered on the general fashion industry trend sites. 

One of the biggest impacts on the knitwear industry from covid has been the reduction in trade shows where it was easy to find new yarns and see inspirational stitches, meet up with manufacturers and make key contacts for projects and brands. Now there is a virtual way to find this information on the Materialliance website, where they have created not just a trend space, but also a marketplace, community match-making and funding tool, allowing you to buy and sell your products to other community members, as well as connect with other designers, factories and developers that offer the services you need to complete the vision for your brand.

The introduction of the Textile toolkit is a welcome relief for those of us working in the textiles industry, for whom photos and digital images do not provide enough information as we crave the physical material in our hand to sense the weight, stretch and softness, all properties which cannot be defined online. As the majority of trend services became digital over the past 15 years, this tactile part of the creative process was discarded; the Textile Toolkit offers a great way to re-introduce this missing aspect. With the themed boxes focused on specific fabrics, techniques or properties, offered at an affordable price, we can pick and choose which Toolkits to add to our design studios for reference as we see fit.

The additional yarn cards that are included are a great way to discover new developments by spinners, as the technical aspects of circular & seamless yarns are an important driver of sales for the majority of brands using Santoni technology and services. The combination of the digital and physical elements of the various QR codes providing content and program information offers a service that is not found anywhere else or on any other platform for this industry.   

To discover more about the Textile Toolkit, register at Materialliance and explore the rich world of circular and seamless knitting, or email mec@santoni.cn to order your toolkit directly