The future of the Thai textile industry is likely to lie in functional and eco-friendly textiles that fit with growing environmental awareness, said the Thailand Textile Institute.
"If we take a look at past consumption trends, consumers tended to look at design. However, nowadays they look at the overall function of clothing and whether it helps protect the environment," said THTI executive-director Virat Tandaechanurat.
"They [customers] want function,fashion and eco-textiles. Nowadays many people are crazy about the environment."
Natural fibres for commercial use that the institute has developed are now ready to be introduced to the market.
Under partial funding by the Office of Industrial Economics, the THTI has been researching functional textile for commercial purposes since last year.This year, two of the fibres - banana fibre and coconut charcoal in polyester fibre - won the Design Excellence Award 2009.
Burnt coconut shells, when turned into activated carbon charcoal and mixed with polyester fibre, create a textile with 1% moisture absorption that can resist up to 80% of bacteria.
Clothing made from coconut charcoal fibres would improve wearers' comfort and reduce odour from bacteria in garments such as socks.
The innovative coconut charcoal in polyester fibre was developed in only six months through a collaboration between the THTI and researchers from educational institutions and manufacturers such as TTL Industries Plc, Salee Colour Plc and Sunflag (Thailand) Ltd.
"Thailand has a lot of coconut shells lying around and people do not benefit from them. We can make use of the carbon function," said Mr Virat.
The institute focuses on exploring materials that can replace widely used synthetic fibres made from chemical polyester.
"The textile industry looks at benefits and functions as well, not only fashion.Therefore raw material will play a very significant role. In the future, people will be asking whether this shirt causes harm to the environment," he said.
So-called functional textiles have special properties due to fibre and fabric technologies. For example, comfort, endurance and lack of odour are desirable in garments.
"In children's clothing, for instance,people have been asking whether it is fireproof or not. Therefore, we, as manufacturers, need to prepare and study the market closely," said Mr Virat.
SET-listed People's Garment recently introduced the CoolMode fabric label,initiated by the Thai Textile Institute to encourage operators toproduce environment-friendly fabrics.
Thailand's pioneering of coconut charcoal in polyester fibre will encourage manufacturers to invest both in producing the fibre and clothing, he said.
The fibre is environment-friendly,as activated carbon from the process can be used in other industries, and polyester can be used as bioplastics in the future.
"This way, we will be using plants instead of petrochemicals," he said.
The new fibre could also offer cost savings. Thailand produces little natural fibre but imports almost 400,000 tonnes of cotton and silk per year at a cost of almost 50 billion baht. Ninety percent of cotton used in the country is imported,he said.
"Therefore if there are other fibres that can be used with them [cotton and silk], it will lower production costs," he said.
Of the 17 factories in Thailand producing synthetic fibres,90% produce polyester.
The THTI also plans to develop natural fibres from plants such as hemp or kanchong ."We have been in the right direction in our research over the past five years.We don't receive any money, but I consider it to boost the industry's competitiveness, since it will create product differentiation in the market," said Mr Virat.
"In the fashion industry, differentiation and variety are the most important components, but we also have to have a quick response to customers, which comes from a strong supply chain. This is then integrated with creating products that answer consumers' demands."
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Environment is of course very important because the planet is like changing climate.
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