Kingpins Amsterdam, held at Sugar Factory April 15-16, served as a platform for several creative collaborations.

The Indigo Art Museum, created in partnership with Arvind Indigo Art Museum and supported by Arvind, highlighted artists working with indigo beyond fabric. Designated as a space to explore indigo as material, process, and expression, it featured x-ray denim artwork by Blueprint Amsterdam, Buaisou, Chiaki Maki and Juan Manuel Gomez.

Work by Juan Manuel Gomez

Artists also served as the design inspiration for the Kingpins Show’s “Most Sustainable Product” collection. The collection featured garments made with fabrics by Calik Denim, Naveena Denim, Vicunha and others, each containing ingredients like Tencel, pineapple fiber and regenerative cotton. The fabrics were used to create a total looks based on the style of Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michael Basquiat and other influential artists. 

As part of Rajby Textiles’ CRS efforts, the mill presented Denim With Purpose, a collaborative initiative with the Karachi Down Syndrome Program. Rajby worked with five members of the program to paint and print tote bags that were then distributed at the show. The artists were paid for their work. Each tote included a hangtag with an artist biography and photo.

Denim With Purpose

Creora by Hyosung TNC showed another edition of Future Fit Forum, this time partnering with Jeanologia to add finishing to their exploration of denim’s future.

As with previous editions, Future Fit Forum challenged designers to transform discarded Levi’s 501 jeans and a few yards of new denim made with Creora bio-based fiber into garments that represent the future of denim. The new fabrics were made by Kassim Denim. Designers included Arianna Andela, Betina Grosser, Bohloeki Sibolla, Miko Underwood, Sue Barrett and Veronica Fourcade.

S|Style, an independent platform that encourages emerging designers to work with a set of sustainable criteria, showed “Denim Edition,” a collection of garments made with next-gen fabrics and low-impact finishing technologies. The project, which is supported by Kering’s Material Innovation Lab, invited designers to experiment with advance dyeing, washing and regenerative cotton solutions, underscoring water-saving alternatives. 

Denim Edition

The roster of international designers included Gerrit Jacob, Jeanne Friot, Nadya Dzyak, Sia Arnika, Gisele Ntsama and Phan Dang Hoang.  

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of stone washing, Artistic Milliners, Endrime and Denim Theater curated an installation of archival stone washed pieces and contemporary designs washed with new technologies from Tonello, Officina+39, HMS and LandRe. 

Jeanologia showed Future Vintage, a collection of garments inspired by the finishing technology firm’s archive. The collection combines Billy, the company’s new AI platform, with laser technology and Atmos, a process with G2 ozone technology to eliminate manual processes, reduce variability and minimize environmental impact.

The firm also combined its laser technology with digital printing in a capsule collection with Sartex

Tonello presented Denim Illusion, collection that challenges perception of traditional denim. The collection uses DyeMate, which dyes non-denim garments with indigo through a controlled, low-temperature process, with Sulfur Essence, a process that combines sulfur dyes and indigo to recreate the look of discharged and overdyed denim.

Denim Illusion

Garments spanning nylon half-zips to French Terry sweatshirts, garments look faded and worn-in and feature hallmarks of denim like whiskers, creases, abrasions and breakages that tell stories of time and use.

The latest collection from Isko Luxury by PG emphasizes artistic resilience in the face of AI.

“Today, artificial intelligence can generate beautiful, sophisticated and highly realist images. However, with this collection, I wanted to return to pen and paper—to regain control by returning to pure technique and the passion that only a human being can infuse into a project,” said Paolo Gnutti, PG founder.

The collection features eight design concepts: heritage tailoring lives on in Indigo Atelier; Noir Aristocrat elevates black denim with wool-like textures; Chenille Denin adds tactile softness; Heritage Black/Black experiments with overdyes; denim adopts the look of fur and pony hair in Fur Denim; Spectrum offers multicolor weaves; Noble Denim balances of structure, comfort and technical performance; and Inner Print offers traditional denim fabrics with surprising prints on the back. 

Isko Luxury by PG also showed a new collaboration with Soko Chimica called Luxury Beyond Convention. The partnership was conceived to move beyond conventional processes and uses Soko’s Hydrogel, Lumia and Frost technologies.

Luxury Beyond Convention