VET-e-MAGES, a web-based decorated textiles supplier based in Thoissey, France, offers print services for professionals in fashion, furniture, accessories, and events, including both B2B and B2C customers.
Their clientele includes luxury and ethical-minded brands, publishers, and trade partnerships with French fabric and knitwear manufacturers, and they develop turnkey projects delivering finished apparel for emerging brands.
While VET-e-MAGES has spent two decades using print systems such as traditional rotary and later digital sublimation and direct reactive, the business now uses Kornit’s Allegro system for roll-to-roll digital direct-to-fabric decoration exclusively.
“I don’t want to multiply the processes, and especially from an ecological point of view Kornit is at the forefront,” says Alexandre Fruchart, CEO at VET-e-MAGES. “Kornit is the best partner and visionary in its field corresponding to my values and my objectives.”
When COVID-19 restrictions came along, the business received requests for support from Thoissey City Hall, which sought help producing protective masks for nursing staff in the community. As VET-e-MAGES had the textiles and the sewing machines to handle the job, they got to work, soon getting the pieces to those who most needed them.
“We were more accustomed to making scarves and towels, not masks,” says Fruchart. “We started with the first model made available to the public by the Grenoble University Hospital—nothing too complicated, apart from the problems of sourcing the elastic and non-woven polypropylene for the barrier filter inside the mask.”
It took a bit of time to test various designs and ensure the masks would meet necessary quality standards for those working the pandemic’s front lines.
“We would in no case market masks that have not been tested,” he says. “We changed the version several times to follow the standards and advice of the DGA. Today we partner with certified French fabric manufacturers who have passed the IFTH and DGA standards on the basis of the AFNOR model.”
Today, VET-e-MAGES offers safe fabrics to mask manufacturers and weavers/knitters, so they can offer their own personalized pieces respecting the construction of the AFNOR model.
