It'll Fit'll - Fashions for people with Down syndrome: Los Angeles Textile Show

Hi Guys -

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. There's been a lot going on within It'll Fit'll and the other facets of my life and I'm still figuring out how to juggle all of it. Obviously, I continue to drop a ball here and there. This post, for example, was written weeks ago but I haven't posted it. It's not as fresh as it was in early May, but I hope you'll still be interested...

Some of you may remember that I wrote a blog entry about my upcoming trip to Los Angeles for the Textile Show. That entry was a good long time ago, because the show was in mid April. I was hopeful that I could find thick, soft cotton interlock (comparable to the soft stretch cotton that’s used for receiving blankets) fabric for our line of bodysuits (which we’ll call body shirts and most folks call “onesies”. That familiar term is, unfortunately for us, trademarked by the Gerber Corporation. So, we can’t use it to describe our product.)

At any rate, I’d been confounded in my search for that fabric. Having attended two prior, fruitless, fabric shows – one in Chicago and one in New York City – I was concerned that the elusive cotton interlock was somehow unattainable for It’ll Fit’ll.

That third show did turn out to be the charm for us. We found the perfect, PERFECT fabric for our needs. It’s super soft (so it’s a pleasure to wear against bare skin), heavy weight (so it’s durable), and reasonably priced (so we will be able to make bodyshirts that are affordable for you). When you add the fact that the company contact person is nice, reasonable and has great follow-up – we couldn’t ask for more. Hurray!

We also found sources for other fabrics and components, but those weren’t as worrisome to me as the cotton knit. All in all, the trip was highly successful – even more than I expected and, despite my worry on this one, I’m always overly optimistic.

That’s the quick and dirty report on the LA Textile Show. For those of you who are interested, as I would be, I took some photos to share. The software limits me to 5 (a small fraction of what I shot) so here's a small sampling.

This was the lobby of the show and the Trend Gallery. The Trend Gallery displayed a wide variety of fabrics, trims, buttons, accessories that represented an overview of the offerings from participating exhibitors. It was essentially a preview of the color and fabric trends that we'll be seeing in the Spring 2009 fashion cycle.

The Trend Gallery was vast and almost overwhelming. Nearly every time I visited the gallery (it's less overwhelming in small doses) it was buzzing with people. This was a rare, quiet moment in a corner of the gallery.

This shot shows a few fabric booths. The layouts and quantity of offerings were many and varied. Some booths were overflowing with fabrics and some had very edited collections.

This booth had buttons, buckles, snaps. You name the accessory and there were booths that carried it - belts, ribbons, handbag handles, snaps, zippers...