Boffins and fashionistas unite
MELBOURNE: An upcoming forum on fibre development will enhance the overlap between the fibre research and fashion sides of industry according to at least one speaker.
The conference, titled 'The future is fibres - realising the commercial opportunities of future fibre development in Australia', has been organised by the TCF Technology Network to highlight the latest fibre innovations created by new technologies.
Network officer Lachlan Caddy confirmed the event's main focus was how emerging sciences enabling new nanotechnologies and biotechnologies were driving a revolution in new materials.
"Many future materials will be based on fibres, including, nanofibres, fibres from biopolymers, new nanofibrous composites that copy natural material structures, complex hierarchical structures engineered from fibre components at nano, micro and macro scales."
However according to head of school RMIT University Keith Cowlishaw "fashionistas" should not be deterred by the forum's somewhat technical profile.
"We're hoping to lure as many forward thinking designers and fashion technicans to the forum as we can," Cowlishaw said.
Scheduled to take place on Thursday August 23 at Richmond's Amora Hotel Riverwalk, speakers include Cowlishaw himself as well as Deakin University Alfred Deakin professor Xungai Wang, CSIRO head Nigel Johnson and polymer fabric specialist Gale Pacific general manager Paul Cacioli.
Cowlishaw said his presentation would concentrate on the issues surrounding supply chain and its relationship with bringing new fibres to market, in particular to the fashion industry.
"We have so many advanced materials, including smart fabrics and performance fabrics that do not have to be confined to functional uses and could easily be of interest to the fashion industry.
"The point I will be trying to drive home is that - while CSIRO and Deakin are both specialists in the technical aspects of fibre research and RMIT also has its own research branch - there are currently enormous untapped opportunities for those in the fashion industry to take advantage of new fibre technologies. By the same token research institutions should be improving their understanding of how to market their work to the fashion industry."
By Belinda Smart