Supima Design Lab promotes US-farmed cotton in Paris

Paris Fashion Week may have ended but Supima Design Lab was still on Paris time on Thursday. The US cotton company which represents cotton harvested in Arizona, California, Texas, and New Mexico organized a digital fashion show and roundtable to celebrate the ascent of their long-haired fiber within the upper echelons of Parisian elegance.

According to Buxton Midyette, VP Marketing and Promotions, the Supima Design Lab, in its 3rd year, provides three lenses through which to “capture a snapshot of what’s going on in fashion today.” The first is the US-based Supima Design Competition; second, the finalists of the annual Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion accessories; and thirdly the show of looks from a curated group of leading designers working with Supima cotton to reflect their dna and vision.

2020 finalists of the US-based Supima Design Competition were Amanda Forastieri of Drexel University, Kyra Buenviaje of Rhode Island School of Design, Jenny Feng of Fashion Institute of Technology, Sakura Mizutani of Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Jennie Nguyen of Kent State University, and Terrence Zhou of Parsons School of Design. A look from each collection, including the winner, Drexel University’s Amanda Forastieri, was shown digitally. Her striking color-infused statement stood out in a show with an otherwise predominantly subdued palette.

Supima presents US graduate fashion with established Parisian brands

The main partners of the 35th annual Hyères International Festival, whose founder Jean-Pierre Blanc also participated in the roundtable, are a who’s who of luxury giants: LVMH, Kering, Chanel, Chloe, Premier Vision and Swarovski, and it is heartening to see US graduates’ names sharing space with these globally renowned brands.

The presentation also featured looks by leading Paris-designers Lutz Huelle, Dice Kayek, Jean Paul Knott, Thierry Colson and On Aura Tout Vu, all happy to showcase their use of Supima cotton in a largely black and white palette perhaps representative of the stark reality the global fashion industry is living through. “Covid has sharpened awareness around natural fibers,” said Godfrey Deeny, Global Editor-in-Chief, Fashionnetwork, during the roundtable discussion, who also expressed regret on fashion’s “ecological crimes” of yesteryear.

Emerging and established designers were on the same page as this “sharpened awareness” translated into spotless shirting aplenty––with Victorian elements and shirring at Colson, or button-down with deconstructed sleeves at Huelle. Both established label Dice Kayek and emerging talent Maximillian Rittler presented black overdresses with white undershirts, while On Aura Tout Va embellished a crisp cotton coat with black and white feathered shoulders. It was impossible not to interpret the prevailing aesthetic of black on white to be about evoking new beginnings, the Supima cotton a blank canvas. After the year we’ve had so far, that’s an idea we can all get behind.

Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk for the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.

Header image plus looks from Dice Kayek and Maximillian Rittler, from Supima