Country: Italy

Busi Giovanni, an Italian hosiery knitting machine manufacturer, has unveiled a new textile sport shoe body, which is knitted on the company’s patented Twin Layer machine and equipped with Rimaglio automated toe-closing device.

The two fabrics that form the sock are knitted contemporarily and can be joined as required. They merge into one single fabric at the welt at the heel and at the toe of the sock, thus no sliding. The automated Rimaglio device, situated at the side of the knitting machine, downloads the sock from the machine, after completion of the knitting operation. It then transfers the sock to the linking device, where it is sewn loop by loop.

The sock is turned inside out, so that the linking remains on the inside of the sock, resulting in a perfect traditional-looking linking. After being sewn, the sock, already reversed to the right side, is removed from the machine and is ready for the next boarding operation.

Also Read – Gibaud produces new socks line using Busi Giovanni knitting machines

Also worth noting is that Twin Layer is a high production single cylinder sock machine with latch needles in the dial that enable it to produce technical sport socks with double fabric. The machine is provided with a patented device that uses the dial needle for the production of an internal layer and the cylinder needles for the production of the external layer.

The Italian capital city, Milan gets ready to host the annual excursion of designers and creatives from all over the world coming to attend Salone del Mobile from 4th to 9th April this week. Salone is a furniture design fair like no other and is often dubbed as the Mecca of design by some and the best place to witness the latest innovations in furnishing products, materials, textiles and techniques by everybody else. It keeps getting bigger every year with not just furniture companies but also fashion luxury and ready-to-wear brands dipping their toes into the world of interiors.

Also Read – Jeremy Scott forays into the world of furniture

With more than 300,000 attendees from around 165 countries, the 56th edition of the furniture show is also highly anticipated amongst fashion insiders because of an increasing number of couture and mass fashion brands entering the business of interior and home décor. Whether it is through collaborations big pocket designers, capsule collections or stand-alone stores, fashion and furniture is coming together in a big way. In the last few years, brands like Hermès, Missoni, and Marni have really stepped into creating full-blown home collections while others like COS collaborated with artists and lighting experts on one of kind events during this week as a way to share brand identities and get people talking.

For this year, everyone is looking forward to see Louis Vuitton’s curated exhibition called ‘Objets Nomades’ as well as Marni transformative show of a gigantic playground with objects and sculptures of jolly design inspired by the world of toys called ‘Marni Playland’. As the week anticipates about a 1000 exhibitions from over 2000 companies at the official tradeshow and plenty other parallel presentations all over the city as part of the unofficial ‘Fuorisalone’, it would not be surprising to see many fashion designers making their debuts during this period.

Leading Italian warp knit seamless specialist Cifra SpA has announced plans to invest in new Karl Mayer RDPJ 6/2 EL double needle bar jacquard machines in 24 gauges to meet increasing demand for its seamless products. Investment plans have not yet been disclosed and said to be out once both companies finalize it.

During a recent visit to Nippon Mayer, the Japanese subsidiary of the Karl Mayer Group, Cifra SpA CEO Cesare Citterio, said, “We are buying more machines to increase our capacity to meet increasing demand. We have big ready orders in our sportswear business and we are also seeing a strong return in demand for hosiery section. We also wish to explore the possibilities of innovative products using 6 bar and EL system at the full of it potential.”

Also Read – Italian WKS specialist Cifra reports strong growth in sportswear

It’s worth mentioning that Cifra SpA has the largest plant of double needle bar jacquard machines in the world, which have been supplied mainly by Karl Mayer. For sportswear Cifra mainly uses Karl Mayer HDRJ 6/2 and HDRJ 4/2 in 24-gauge (needles per inch). And, the company with its 24 hours production schedule produces 150,000 pairs of stockings per day.

Nippon Mayer has been a long-term partner for Cifra and is said to be delighted with Cifra’s new investment plans. “Cifra, with this investment, is even more the world leader in warp seamless technology,” commented Mr Hirokazu Takayama, Head of Technology at Nippon Mayer.