Trend Report Shirt Spring/Summer 2021
Creating a lasting impression
With superior functionality and real added value for our customers
The trends and market developments were already evident before the crisis. And now they are rolling out in fast-forward mode: more casual, greater appreciation for premium quality, more mettle and greater sustainability awareness. What does this mean for ETERNA?
Creating incentives to buy
Lots of boldness, lots of trends, lots of colours – true to the motto: Stronger than ever before! Because those who want to rely on the supposedly safe, beaten track are already left behind. That’s our philosophy. It means that more than ever we will rely on change and the innovations that get people talking.
Concentrating the collections
What is dispensable? Comparable products. Standards that are good but undistinguishable and which already abundantly clutter our space and wardrobes. Classic products for daily use will be exposed to considerable pressure, and dosing will play an important role in this regard. Of course we cannot entirely do without them, but we will streamline our range in favour of new impulses.
New, successful basics
Basics must offer true, relevant added value in order to survive on the market. Ideally, this should be a new type of added value. This may relate to various factors: wear comfort, functionality, sustainability, easiness – a basic item should be particularly uncomplicated or satisfy a specific customer demand.
If customers become aware of such a product that perfectly fits their needs and lifestyle, it will automatically become a ‘gateway drug’. And ideally, customers will switch entirely to the new essential product. We settle for nothing less.
Innovative materials with real added value for end customers
Innovations in the shirt segment currently focus especially on the development of new materials, intelligent functions, finishing and features.
Here are our current ‘hero’ products: PERFORMANCE SHIRT:
A business shirt that you can wear like a T-shirt.
UPCYCLING SHIRT:
This sustainable, bio-degradable casual shirt made from natural, recycled materials. COOL SHIRT:
The ‘deo-to-wear’ among business shirts for hot summer days. SOFT TAILORING SHIRT:
A relaxed premium shirt, which adds a luxury quality to one’s daily routine. LOTUS SHIRT:
A stain-repellent business shirt, from which liquids simply drip off. COVER SHIRT:
An opaque shirt for all tattoo fans. NEVER IRON SHIRT:
The most perfect premium shirt of all times, where even the seams are designed to be drip-dry.
Inspirations for the collections
We’d like to invite our customers on a virtual trip to Cuba. We are captivated by this country with its unique history and its controversial hero myths. In addition, the island’s travel restrictions and self-imposed isolation remind us of the shutdown we have recently experienced ourselves.
We are starting in Havana, the capital city – so unmistakable with its colourful building facades, vintage cars, bicycles, graffiti, bars and ubiquitous music. We wanted to capture the city’s irrepressible zest for life despite economic hardship and this impressive colour explosion in our first collection theme. The print language in this theme is highly figurative and descriptive.
After the city tour, we focus – just like the Cubans love to do – on nature: contrary to the worldwide trend, Cubans prefer to plant trees instead of felling them. Thus, they have managed to nearly double their forest cover over the past 50 years. We were so impressed by this achievement that we decided to devote a special theme to the island’s tropical rain forests in our collection. This gave rise to a mixture of tropical design motifs, millefleurs, leaf prints and an exciting combination of natural hues and intense colours that suddenly spring forth, as only nature can. The key focus is on a wide spectrum of different shades of green.
Love of nature and sustainability
These two themes have impacted our collections more than ever before, as is apparent from the increased use of alternative natural materials in addition to cotton. Linen, Tencel and recycled yarns increase in prominence. In addition to the plastic-free recycling packaging for our sustainable Casual line, we were able to develop a packaging that is free from compound materials and also saves approximately 13.8 tonnes of plastic per year for our business shirts.
WE CARE
For our sustainable Casual line, which is based on the concepts of upcycling and protecting nature, this season we have again launched an initiative to protect our biodiversity: under the motto ‘Let’s grow together’, with each shirt our customers will receive a free seed pack for wildflowers, which are particularly popular among insects such as bees and butterflies. Thus, every customer can make a small contribution, even if it is only on their inner-city balcony. We want to create opportunities and visibility for initiatives and to involve our customers. Endangered species, such as butterflies in this case, also put in an appearance in the collections as print designs.
Qualities, materials, new technologies
Fabric weight is an important issue for us: we want to add lightness to the summer. Linen and linen mixes as well as exciting new natural materials take centre stage. Of course, our shirts cannot do without cotton. But we are looking more intensively for more sustainable alternatives and compound materials, which can also add favourable wear properties. Here our focus is on recycled materials and Tencel.
Our ambitious goal is ‘circular manufacturing’. We currently focus primarily on reducing our consumption of water and arable land and increasingly aim to use fast-growing renewable raw materials and to reuse materials.
Moreover, we have developed innovative new materials, which are especially designed to meet a specific customer need. This may include intelligent functions, such as our stain-repellent LOTUS SHIRT, or special yarn combinations, which give shirts the feel of a T-shirt. We strongly believe in hybrids, which combine the look of a classic shirt with the wear comfort and functionality of sportswear. Hence, we have also expanded our range of jersey fabrics – both in the shirt and polo shirt segments.
Colours
The colour palette combines two trend themes: a broad spectrum of natural shades, such as camel, sand, stone, khaki and red tones inspired by natural dyes, together with lots of fun with fresh, clear colours. Simple juxtapositions of primary colours come into play here. Green remains a trend colour in all facets – because this is where our eyes can distinguish the most colour nuances. A new aspect is the combination of shades of green in colour depths that do not appear to match at first glance. White is broken up and complemented by new natural off-whites and natural materials in their original, unbleached colours.
Designs
The most important influence here is casualisation: shorter waist and torso lines and mandarin collars continue to gain significance; the look is more casual, with plenty of washed features and sporty details, such as press studs and zippers. We believe that the Overshirt theme continues to have great potential
and have therefore developed new, summer-style variants. Our highlight in the WE CARE Casual collection is a western shirt in denim look with recycled press studs. What are the key themes in the shirt segment?
Function remains the main driver of city-style themes. They focus especially on wear comfort and air conditioning effects. In short, everything that makes a summer day at the office more pleasant. In addition, we have taken the ‘Performance’ theme further and are increasingly using super-stretch materials.
Nature continues to be an inspiration for the print imagery through leaf-shaped prints, abstract petals and flowing effects like watercolours or light batik effects. The mood becomes more conversational, and the theme of ‘lettering print’ adds new graphic aspects.
If you like checks – go all the way! The pattern repeats must be expressive, while the colours remain crisp and fresh. This will be an important theme for us this
Press pictures and press releases available for download: https://presse.eterna.de
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