Image courtesy of zimmerman.com
Zimmerman, the very popular Australian women’s brand, is about to be sold once again. Or so fashion wagging tongues are claiming!!
After being acquired by Italian investment firm, Style Capital three years ago, it appears that Zimmerman is to be sold for 1 billion euros, as reported by Milanese business daily, MF Fashion. According to MF Fashion, in 2022 Zimmerman’s revenue was reported at 270 million euros, and revenue for 2023 is expected to exceed 336 million euros. The brand obtained international visibility by showing consistently at New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week. MF Fashion did not comment on who the potential buyer might be.
Founded in 1991 by Australian fashion designer Nicole Zimmerman and her sister Simone, the brand started as a quirky swimwear brand and later evolved to a sexy bohemian brand that was know for its floral prints and stylish dresses.
Getty Images for Supima Design Competition)
Supima is back
The 16th Supima Design Competition comes back to New York Fashion Week (NYFW) on September 7, 2023. The competition will be hosted by Jeremy Scott. The competition will bring together eight next-generation fashion designers for a $10,000 prize and industry mentorship.
“I’ve been happy to be a small part of helping bring new talents to the larger public’s awareness on the past two seasons of Amazon Original’s “Making the Cut.” So, it was a great honor to be asked to host the Supima Design Competition’s Sweet 16. How could I say no? I look forward to seeing all the finalists’ work, detailed Jeremy Scott.
The finalists Amber Kuia (Academy of Art University), Carla Pierini, (Drexel University), Alexander Ziemba (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising), Hee Jin Hwang (Fashion Institute of Technology), Wendy Weng (Kent State University), Tianze Wu (Parsons School of Design, The New School), Sahara Clemons (Rhode Island School of Design), and Mariana Espinos (School of the Art Institute of Chicago to a panel of judges and industry professionals. The 16th Supima Design Competition will take place at 3pm on September 7.
Image courtesy of kobenhavnsuniversitet.eu
Polyester breakdown
For sustainability advocates, the fabric polyester has been anathema to the recycling and sustainability movement. The challenge has been separating cotton from plastic, the two main combinations that make the blended polyester fabric.
Well, young chemists at the University of Copenhagen have come up with a breakthrough solution that can make polyester recyclable. “The textile industry urgently requires a better solution to handle blended fabrics like polyester/cotton. Currently, there are very few practical methods capable of recycling both cotton and plastic—it’s typically an either-or scenario. However, with our newly discovered technique, we can depolymerise polyester into its monomers while simultaneously recovering cotton on a scale of hundreds of grammes, using an incredibly straightforward and environmentally friendly approach,” explained the young chemist from the University of Copenhagen.
“We can take a polyester dress, cut it up into small pieces and place it in a container. Then, add a bit of mild solvent, and thereafter hartshorn salt, which many people know as a leavening agent in baked goods. We then heat it all up to 160°C and leave it for 24 hours. The result is a liquid in which the plastic and cotton fibres settle into distinct layers. It’s a simple and cost-effective process,” said Shriaya Sharma, a doctoral student of the Jiwoong Lee group at the department of chemistry and study co-author.
Currently, the breakthrough solution has only been used in the lab, but there is a lot of potential for applications outside of a laboratory environment. The young chemists have already been in contact with businesses that explore the possibilities of taking the solution to the industrial level.
—William S. Gooch
