Inspiration, Innovation, and New Faces at Kingpins New York
Kingpins New York returns to Pier 36/Basketball City on January 21–22, bringing fresh ideas, new exhibitors and hands-on creative collaborations to the show floor. This season’s highlights include a sustainability-focused design project powered by Kering, along with weaving and dyeing collaborations.
Brands and retailers attending the January edition will experience a tightly curated lineup of exhibitors showcasing some of the most innovative players across the global denim supply chain. As the original denim trade show, Kingpins continues to balance serious business opportunities with creative inspiration, education and discovery — all in one place.
Alongside meetings with leading international denim mills and manufacturers, visitors can explore the latest trend forecast from Be Disobedient. The agency’s analysts will also share their “Trend Picks” within the Kingpins Gallery, a dedicated space spotlighting standout fabric, manufacturing, and finishing developments from exhibitors.
One of the show’s newest initiatives is S|STYLE – DENIM LAB powered by Kering. Led by Giorgia Cantarini, the project serves as an independent platform for emerging designers working with sustainable design principles. Cantarini worked with Kering, the luxury powerhouse, which owns brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen and Brioni, for the latest edition, which focuses on denim and responsible water management. Designers experimented with advanced dyeing and washing techniques, regenerative cotton, and innovative materials from Kering’s Material Innovation Lab, in collaboration with PureDenim and Tonello.
Creative collaboration continues in The Boxes, where AGI Denim teamed up with fiber artist and master weaver Mahmoud Kosyaem—originally from Aleppo, Syria—and his Brooklyn-based workshop, CreativeMindsBK. Together, they’ve transformed discarded denim scraps into richly textured tapestries, offering a powerful look at sustainability, craftsmanship and storytelling through textiles.
Italian technology company Tonello also tapped a US-based artist for an installation, titled Botanical Alchemy by Tonello x MN Natural Dye Studio.
Textile artist Maegan Neubeck, owner of Narrowsburgh, NY-based MN Natural Dye Studio, uses botanical dyes and responsibly sourced raw materials in her designs. Her studio also assists brands and artisans develop natural dye and sustainable wash programs.
For Botanical Alchemy, Neubeck used organic matter and plant-based waste to transform garments into a study of color and a dialogue about nature.
About the S|STYLE – DENIM LAB powered by Kering project
S|STYLE – DENIM LAB powered by Kering images above by photographer Georgios Motitis with styling by Giorgia Cantarini. Pictured: Designs pictured above by Gerrit Jacob, Jeanne Friot and Galib Gassinoff for Institution
S|STYLE – DENIM LAB founder and curator Giorgia Cantarini selected a team of international designers to work in collaboration with KERING MIL — Kering’s Material Innovation Lab. The project focused on denim and responsible water management, in line with Kering’s Water Strategy for achieving a net positive water impact by 2050. The designers used advanced dyeing, washing, and regenerative cotton solutions that substantially reduced the use of water use and harmful chemicals
The designers in the latest S|STYLE project have experience working for international brands such as Balenciaga, Gucci, Martine Rose and Otto Linger before launching their own collections.
They include Galib Gassinoff, who draws on his Georgian and Azerbaijani roots for his his Italy-based collection Institution; Germany-based designer Gerrit Jacob; Jeanne Friot, based in France; Macy Grimshaw from the United Kingdom; Ukrainian designer Nadya Dzyak; Berlin-based Danish designer Sia Arnika (Denmark); Milan-based Cameroonian designer Giseèle Claudia Ntsama; and Vietnamese designer Phan Dang Hoang.
