Integrated fibres and polymers company Invista has unveiled its spring 2008 knitwear collection at Pitti Immagine Filati which is currently being held in Florence, Italy. The collection, designed by Carruthers Associates, is centred around the lifestyle choices of 'relaxing, luxury, work and sport'.

Yarns used in the ‘relaxing’ category are Lora Festa cotton treated with DuPont Teflon fabric protector plated with low power Lycra yarns from the Filix group and Addchance, and 100% cotton or cotton ramie blends plated with low power Lycra yarns from Sun Hing.

The ‘luxury’ collection uses fine delicate stitch structures, pleat effects and racked structures and includes Cashmere blends from Zegna Baruffa plated with Lycra yarns from the Filix Group; cotton with Merino wool yarns from Botto Poala, plated with Lycra yarn from Sun Hing; and fine counts of filament silk with low power Lycra yarn from Wykes and Bamboo from Schoeller.

Machine washable Tactel fabrics and yarns from Toung Loong with Lycra fibre from Shanghai Hywell and Cordura fabric for increased protection and abrasion resistance are featured in the ‘work’ category. Machine-washable wool from the Chee Fong Woollen Company plated with low power Lycra yarns from the Filix Group and discharge-printed Indigo denim cotton from Filartex plated with Lycra fibre from Sun Hing are also found in this segment.

The ‘sport’ collection features Thermolite fabric with Pima cotton and Coolmax fabric with Pima cotton from Sun Hing; Thermolite fabric with silk and wool from Grignasco plated with Lycra yarns from Wykes; and a blend of Coolmax fabric with cotton from Miyama, in a very fine count, plated with Lycra yarn from Wykes.