Changing the Face of Fashion & Fabric Care! P&G’s Ariel, Lenor & Downy discuss Sensorial Trends at Future Fabrics 2014 Berlin

Latest revolutions in cognitive science has enhanced P&G Fabric Care innovations. This was exclusively highlighted at the just concluded P&G Future Fabrics 2014 in Berlin, for its fabric care brands – Ariel, Lenor and Downy, where the company brought together the world’s leading fashion, fabric and cognitive science experts to discuss the changing face of fashion and fabric care.

P&G Fabric Care disclosed how it is evolving to meet multi-sensorial fashion trends and solve the challenge of maintaining clothing beauty and longevity for consumers. This authenticates that, increasing developments in technology has huge implications for the fabric industry, resulting in a new world of sensory fashion – the fashion that engages the senses.

Speaking at the event, the Vice President, P&G Fabric Care, Europe – Robert van Pappelendam, noted that, in a world of new and ever-developing fabrics, heightened by consumer expectations, the Company is “forging closer links with fashion and fabric partners, and entering the realm of cognitive psychology to really get to grips with what impacts our preferences and emotional relationship with clothes. You may be surprised that, the multi-sensory attributes of our clothes play a bigger part in what we choose to wear than people realise, often unconsciously”.

The keynote speaker, John Turner, P&G’s Research & Development Director, Europe, India, Middle East and Africa (IMEA) centered his presentation on why people’s preferences and perceptions toward their clothes change. He disclosed that, P&G Fibre Scientists are introducing new innovations in the 3-Step FibreSCIENCE approaches – Clean, Protect and Enhance, which focus on prolonging and improving the multi-sensorial fabric properties that influence people’s perception of their clothes (the look, the feel and the scent). The life cycle of our clothes is often cut short because these properties are not cared for properly.

The R&D Director further stated that, “Our closets are full of clothes, yet we only wear 20% of them 80% of the time, so why aren’t we wearing the rest? Why have we fallen out of love with a garment that we spent our hard earned money on? P&G is looking at Fabric Care from a new angle to find out the answer. We’re breaking new grounds by applying the latest research in the cognitive science of human perception to understand why we reject a garment and how our relationship with clothes changes over time. By applying this knowledge to our FibreSCIENCE expertise, we are redefining what Fabric Care means for consumers and their clothes“.

Also speaking at the event, the P&G Future Fabrics official partner and foremost fabric trends analyst, Première Vision, in a presentation by its Associate Fashion Director, Sabine Le Chatelier on fashion as a multi-sensorial experience; illustrated how fabrics are more than visual. She explained that, “Fabrics are an almost alchemical combination of look, feel and handle and behaviour,” and it is this magical element that fabrics lend to fashion.

The multi-sensorial trends in fashion was further explored by the leading cognitive psychologist, Dr. Lawrence Rosenblum, of the University of California. He revealed that, the latest research in perceptual psychology has resulted to a “multi-sensory revolution”, depicting that our senses are always influencing one another, and impacting our preferences and moods much more than we realize and often in ways in which we are not aware.

“Human multi-sensory perception plays a part in the clothes we buy and our relationship and preferences once they are in our wardrobe much more than we realize. However, you do not realize this because 95% of the decisions you make are unconscious. Fabric evokes a range of sensations that affect our memories, mood and confidence – fabrics are amazingly able to convey feelings,” Dr. Rosenblum stated.

P&G’s Global Fashion Consultant, Giles Deacon, exclusively unveiled his latest machine-washable collections at P&G Future Fabrics, which included the Dress for Yes collection for Lenor and designs for Ariel and Downy.

“After a year of working with P&G Fabric Care I have seen their advances in fabric care. I’ve spent time with the talented team at the innovation centre in Brussels and the progress in their work there. I’ve been inspired by what Ariel and Lenor/Downy can do to ensure that clothes remain beautiful long after they were designed“.

“For this new collection I was inspired by the macro-trend of multi-sensorial fashions and fabrics. Aware that both Ariel and Lenor have the capability to preserve and protect these fashions I set about creating designs that bring the best of each brand to life. For Ariel it was all about making first impressions last, colour, confidence and impact. For Lenor I focused on giving people the confidence to wear an item all day and feel as great in it in the evening as they did when they first put it on in the morning.”

Trends in sensorial fashion and the unconscious multi-sensory influences behind human perception, Ariel’s 3-step FibreSCIENCE approach; clean, protect and enhance, acts on the fibers, not just stains, to maintain the sensorial qualities (look, feel and scent) of fabrics that impact people’s relationship with their clothes. Ariel formulas help protect and improve the look of clothes via a process of fibre purification and preservation, removing and preventing impurities from re-depositing back on fibres that can cause clothes to appear dull and dingy and influence people’s emotions and preference. Ariel also helps protect the feel of clothes through FibreSCIENCE technologies specialized in optimizing the wash conditions to help protect fiber integrity and preserve that “like-new” feel. Ariel FibreSCIENCE experts also focus on improving the cognitive-emotional connection to clothes thanks to a combination of unique fresh scent technologies and impeccable cleaning against invisible stains that can cause malodour.

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