Starting off as the province of haute couture brands, the now commercial laser cut technology has presented before the world an unending plethora of interesting and intricate surface textures, giving birth to new innovative applications season after season. Laser cut technology is not only embracing our wardrobe with its beautiful surface ornamentation but has also become an integral part of designing, be it garments, bags, shoes or home accessories, laser cut commodities have flooded the high street and have become a major demand in the retail segment as well. With new machines and technologies supporting its growth, this creative “Cut-Art” has definitely made its way into being a huge surface trend…
“The market of laser cutting is expanding everyday; and this technology is being combined with several others to achieve a unique effect of its kind. It has become a major requirement with the buyers, not only on garments but also in home furnishings, gift items, labels and trims,” explains, Kunal Sawhney, Director, K. M. Tex, a 12 years old laser cut service providing company functioning with 10 Laser Cutting and Engraving Machines from UK, US and China and is looking forward to buy a Laser Cut Embroidery Bridge Machine owing to the rising demand in the industry.
The laser cut trend showed magnificent presence on S/S’14 runways and was illustrated in countless possibilities, interpreted in all designs and patterns. Starting with dresses, which were a key piece, Elie Tahari and Threeasfour presented an amalgamation of laser cut and layering. Fendi combined skins and flocking with sheer laser cut panelling, whereas on the other hand Catherine Maladrino and Marco De Vincenzo experimented with perforated leather, plastic-coated and laminated fabrics for their skirts and jackets. Other than the archetypical application of laser cut, the technique was a major hit in the form of 3-D flowers and textures. Dolce and Gabbana and Christian Siriano garnished their sheer gowns and dresses in a solid to scattered look with the eye-catching embroidered flowers. Mathew Williamson adorned his shift dresses and skirts with embroidered daisy-like flowers and Marni displayed a range of bustiers, bombers, and skirts featuring chaotic arrangements of flowers.
Growing demand with the Exporters…
Nowadays, laser cut is in huge demand. We did our last collection in laser cut and it was pretty successful. Even the forecast for 2014 claims 3-D surface to be in vogue. Laser cut is going to be in demand in future also. The orders you get actually depend a lot on how you use this technology. We make really beautiful borders out of laser cut and are careful about the medium we are using, and these applications and patterns will always be in demand. – Geeta Govil Sen, Business Head, Kavita Bhartia
The laser cut 3-D flower adornment has picked up as a major trend not only on the runways but also amongst the exporters and job-workers. “We get bulk orders for laser cut designs like 56,000 front back panels, 50,00,000 flowers for trims and surfacing. Recently we have got an order of 1,50,00,000 flowers,” says Jitendra Kumar, Director, Hari Om Laser, who provides laser cutting and engraving service for Textile, Garment Wood, Acrylic, Rexin and other Non-Metal Materials and cater to exporters like Gaurav International Gurgaon, Shri Bharat International Noida, Ambika Overseas Gurgaon, Verbs International Kolkata and Faye Bangalore. In future the company is planning to buy the Galvo Head Laser Machine, which will help them reduce the processing time during laser marking by up to 80%.
Corroborating with the runway trend, the industry is also showing inclination towards working with laser cut technology on a large extent. Because of the direct beam used and the speed involved in cutting, the chances of contamination of the cut is very less leading to subsequently producing high quality work. With consumers becoming appreciative of these techniques, companies are adopting new problem-solving and economical technologies to manufacture these garments and trims. Now the machine manufacturers are also keeping pace with the industry’s requirements and are launching new machines to lay a helping hand to the job-workers and exporters and assist them to cater to the customer’s demand.
Dheeraj Pajni, Sr. Merchandiser, Kimo Clothing Design Concept Pvt. Ltd.
We are getting laser cutting on fabrics, for trims especially flowers, cut work ribbons, all over fabrics design, etc. There are few buyers who always demand for frills, laser cut ribbons and laces to get a layering effect. Laser cut laces and ribbons are in demand a lot as they waste the least amount of fabric during the cutting process. You take the required fabric and get the ribbons made out of it. We have done many bulk orders for which we have got 40,000-50,000 flowers.
“Laser cutting machines are definitely the next big thing for this market and these machines being fully automatic involve less labour, which is an added benefit due to the day by day increasing labour costs. In the period of 10 months, in India we have sold about 90 machines for various laser cut applications in textile and garments. Since Laser Machines are relatively new for the Indian markets we have achieved good sales in our MARS series X/Y Plotter Type Cutting Machines which is basically for appliqué and complex cut work pattern designs generation,” informs,
B K Thakur, Sales Head, Golden Laser India Pvt. Ltd. Established in the year 2013, the company is a joint venture with Wuhan Golden Laser Co. in China, manufacturers and suppliers of Laser Cutting, Engraving, Marking and Punching Machines.
Golden Laser’s next goal is out and out promotion of Bridge Laser Embroidery Machine and High Speed Flying Engraving Machine for fabrics. These machines will feature high-speed, precision laser cutting & engraving technologies and cater to applications like punching, hollowing, kiss cutting, appliqué and connecting embroidery; all being done through one machine. Another laser cutting machine manufacturer Vidhi Creations, incepted in year 2002, offers Mixed Embroidery Machine, which gives the liberty to achieve 3-D laser cut embroidery, where flowers are embroidered and cut on the base fabric on the same machine giving a 3-D surface with high efficiency, high durability and dimensional accuracy.