Napapijri Ze-Knit: the clothing of the future
Ze-Knit is the new collection of technical digital clothing by Napapijri, a manifesto of the urban style of the future.
At the Milan Design Week 2018, the Italian clothing brand Napapijri launched Ze-Knit, a new line of urban-style but avant-garde garments. These are digital knitwear, ergonomic, functional, breathable, waterproof and flexible. The collection includes 19 monochrome items for men and women for work and leisure: jackets, trousers, sweatshirts, a suit. It is a contemporary line designed for everyday life in the city.
The Ze-Knit production reminds that of 3D printing. Each garment is made starting from the processing of a yarn, not of pieces of fabric. And the Ze-Knit technology weaves that yarn along a digital path. Napapijri's research has in fact focused on yarns and body mapping to improve the experience of wearing a piece of clothing.
Comfort and functionality are reflected in the aesthetics of the collection: elegant and modern, it responds to the principles of ergonomic design. The fabric is worked ad hoc according to different physical needs. The design is ergonomic at the joints of the limbs to ensure maximum comfort and freedom of movement. Because some parts of the body need more insulation than others, Ze-Knit garments have different levels of fabric thickness. Where the body needs more heat, the wool will be strategically thicker. In addition, the Ze-Knit yarn features a water-resistant coating that waterproofs the entire garment. In addition to being waterproof, the Ze-Knit clothes are also breathable and anti-moisture, optimizing the feeling of comfort throughout the day. The areas of the body most sensitive to perspiration are made of a fabric able to neutralize odors.
The identifying garments of the Ze-Knit women's collection by Napapijri are the Ze-K201 women's long jacket, the Ze-K206 maxi hooded sweatshirt and the Ze-K203 sleeveless jumpsuit.
The Ze-K201 jacket is 100% wool, thicker at strategic points, water repellent and breathable. The Ze-K206 sweatshirt is the women's version of the Ze-Knit Rainforest men's jacket. In wool mixed with polyester, this garment has more flexibility at the joints, diversified thermal insulation, anti-humidity, breathable, anti-odor and water-repellent function. The women's sleeveless jumpsuit is one of the most iconic items in the collection. Essential design and extreme versatility make it compatible with the most varied outfits: from elegant to casual to sporty.
In the Ze-Knit men's collection, the Ze-K100 bomber, in addition to guaranteeing maximum resistance to heat and water resistance, also features more elastic bands around the joints of the arms, anti-humidity functionality and neutral-odor fabric panels. Ze-Knit men's sweatshirts and jackets, like the Rainforest Ze-K103 jacket, are particularly performing in the rain and moisture-resistant characteristics. The Rainforest Ze-K103 in polyester and lyocell, which can be used as a shirt and as a jacket, is the sum of the Ze-Knit technology: water repellency, breathability, warmth, anti-humidity, freshness, comfort in movement. In the Ze-Knit collection for man by Napapijri there is no shortage of trousers, as the model Ze-K107. Soft, warm, ductile, they are performing like knitwear and Ze-Knit outerwear in terms of rainproof, anti-humidity, anti-odor and joint flexibility. Ze-Knit T-shirts and Ze-Knit shirts are the garments designed to remain especially cool and dry throughout the day.
Ze-Knit technology has the potential to shift mass production to a personalized and individual production model. Each garment can be digitally built, modulated in functionality and comfort, according to the needs of each individual customer. At the base of the Ze-Knit project lies the whole philosophy of Napapijri: "Make it Better". The Aosta Valley company has always been committed to designing and producing high-performance technical garments with a low environmental impact. The goal is to improve people's lives, both in terms of the quality of the garments to wear and the environment in which they live. The Ze-Knit design and production method simplifies, by digitizing it, industrial processing. Waste and waste are reduced by 30%. And Napapijri with Ze-Knit demonstrates the feasibility of a concretely sustainable, functional and design clothing industry.
At the Milan Design Week, Ze-Knit was presented in the frame of Futurehood, a series of conferences, workshops and shows around the theme of the city of the future. On this occasion, Napapijri also launched the Atlas of the Future, an online platform of interactive/collaborative maps projected live at the Milan event. The Atlas is generated by algorithms that represent a network of human connections, constantly updated thanks to user interactions spread not only in Milan but all over the world. The information is processed by software and displayed on branches and points that continue to grow and evolve on the online platform.
At Lazzari Store in Treviso, one of the few international Ze-Knit distributors for Napapijri, you can view the #Futurehood short film by Serbian director Ced Pakusevskij in collaboration with the Milan agency GoLab. Filmed in Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Milan, the video tells about the search for a better future on the streets of an indefinite metropolis. Pakusevskij, a multifaceted creative in the fields of fashion, music, TV and design, offers a visual interpretation of the founding philosophy Ze-Knit: to participate, in first person and as a community, in the life of the planet to improve it.
