P&G Hosts Future Fabrics Forum in Berlin

GERMANY: At P&G’s Future Fabrics forum, which was held Nov. 13 in Berlin, Ariel and Lenor/Downy brought together a prestigious mix of fashion, fabrics and human psychology experts to address the latest advances in fabrics and how unconscious decisions affect clothing perceptions.

A keynote speech, given by John Turner, P&G’s research and development director, focused on why people’s preferences and perceptions toward their clothes change. Turner revealed that P&G Fiber Scientists are introducing new advances in the “3-Step FibreSCIENCE” approach—to clean, protect and enhance, which focus on prolonging and improving the multi-sensorial fabric properties that influence people’s perception of their clothes: the look, the feel and the scent.

“Our closets are full of clothes, yet we only wear 20% of them 80% of the time, so why aren’t we wearing the rest? Why have we fallen out of love with a garment that we spent our hard earned money on? P&G is looking at fabric care from a new angle to find out the answer,” said Turner. “We’re breaking new ground by applying the latest research in the cognitive science of human perception to understand why we reject a garment and how our relationship with clothes changes over time. By applying this knowledge to our FibreSCIENCE expertise we are redefining what Fabric Care means for consumers and their clothes.”

As P&G Future Fabrics official partner, fabric trends forecaster Première Vision opened with a presentation on fashion as a multi-sensorial experience, which illustrated how fabrics are more than visual—an alchemy of look, feel and handle or behavior. Also revealed was the current industry trends in textile and fabric innovation where imagination and technology are combining to produce exciting sensorial fashions that are also washable, easy to care for and sustainable.

In addition, Giles Deacon introduced his exclusively designed machine washable collection for P&G Fabric Care. The collection included the Dress for Yes collection for Lenor and designs for Ariel and Downy.

“After a year of working with P&G Fabric Care I have seen their advances in fabric care. I’ve spent time with the talented team at the innovation center in Brussels and (witnessed) the progress in their work there. I’ve been inspired by what Ariel and Lenor/Downy can do to ensure that clothes remain beautiful long after they were designed,” said Deacon.

“For this new collection I was inspired by the macro-trend of multi-sensorial fashions and fabrics. Aware that both Ariel and Lenor have the capability to preserve and protect these fashions I set about creating designs that bring the best of each brand to life. For Ariel it was all about making first impressions last, color, confidence and impact. For Lenor, I focused on giving people the confidence to wear an item all day and feel as great in it in the evening as they did when they first put it on in the morning.”