This year, Kingpins Shows, the upon-invitation denim trade show, is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a specialised US trade show and its 10th anniversary as its European edition in Amsterdam.
The upcoming edition taking place on 24 and 25 April, at Sugar City, in Amsterdam, Kingpins Show will host about 100 exhibitors including denim weavers, garment manufacturers, chemical specialists and other denim insider companies.
For the occasion, the show will celebrate this milestone year with a series of new initiatives, programs, seminars and events.
At the end of the first day of the show, starting at 5PM, a celebration happy hour powered by The Lycra Brand will kick off celebrations of this dual anniversary that will continue later this year.
Several new additions will debut for this edition of the show.
Discover The Gallery
The Gallery is a new materials trend space featuring the very best fabrics and trims from show exhibitors. The installation is designed to spark creativity and imagination and provide a starting place for attendees to explore new mill and trim products.
Fabric suppliers will showcase a few of their best fabrics among different categories including Manmade, Natural, Performance and Recycled. Swatches will be displayed in an installation that lets visitors touch and feel the fabric to get a sense of the beauty of the textile.
Trim suppliers will display some of their most-iconic products in mood board vignettes or as inventive wearable pieces in a shadow box installation.
Best fits from Future Fits Forum
Expanding on a panel discussion held at the New York show in January, Kingpins will launch the Future Fits Forum, a new initiative led by Michelle Branch, founder and creative director of Markt & Twigs, Inc., the global creative firm specializing in denim messaging.
This two-part initiative includes an installation in The Boxes, Kingpins’ trend and inspiration space, featuring custom garments that explore the evolution of denim fit.
The Future Fits Forum installation will be another new project held in collaboration with Creora that will feature physical garments created by six designers, as well as one digital piece created by an AI designer.
Each designer was given two pairs of vintage Levi’s 501 that were rescued from a landfill, as well as new denim fabric made with Creora’s bio-based stretch fiber. The aim of the project is to encourage designers to take these sustainable materials made up of a mix of vintage and new, and use their expertise and imagination to envision the next generation of denim fits.
Branch will also moderate a panel featuring four of the designers in the project, involving Imogen Nulty, global director, Scotch & Soda; Danielle Elsener, founder, Zero Waste System Decode Mfg.; Floyd Rorije, co-creative director, Gatto; and Lucia Rosin, founder, Meidea.
Celebrating indigo and denim with a museum
The show has teamed with the Indian denim specialist Arvind to create a museum piece for the mill’s Indigo Museum, which celebrates artisans working with denim and indigo.
Artist Amit Ambalal created the special museum piece “Birds of a Feather Flock Together,” made with wire mesh, fabric, resin and indigo to be hosted by Arvind’s museum.
More initiatives
Among other projects, next Kingpins will present Most Sustainable Product, a project that will highlight the latest developments in sustainable materials and processes from Kingpins exhibitors.
Also on show will be One Denim, a diverse collection of denim garments made from a single fabrication. One Denim was designed to demonstrate the breadth of designs that can be created from the same fabric.
Kingpins will also expand The Boxes, its installation space for creative collaborations. One returning installation is Key Pieces from Inspiring Wardrobes Around the World, a collection of inspirational garments from designers, artists and other members of the global denim community. As part of the project, Kingpins Managing Director & Global Sales Manager Vivian Wang will moderate a panel discussion with some of the creatives who contributed to the installation.
Tranformers Foundation gets back
On the second day of Kingpins Amsterdam, on 25 April, a workshop organized by Transformers Foundation will take place at 9:30AM, inside the show location.
Topics of the discussion and networking moment will be new solutions and approaches to engage and lead the change for transforming the denim world.
The Kingpins Show features a selection of vendors that include denim and sportswear fabric mills from the U.S., Japan, China, India, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Thailand, Spain and Mexico; wash houses; full-package manufacturers; trim providers; and makers of technology, wash chemicals and business solutions.
Launched in 2004, Kingpins expanded from its original location in New York to also include shows produced around the world, including Amsterdam, where it has produced events since 2014.
