Lycra brand owner Invistahas announced the 13 semi-finalists for the ‘Lycra Future Designers Award’a part of the WGSN Global Fashion Awards ceremony. The announcement was made at St Martins Lane, London (UK), at a reception co-hosted by singer and style innovator Kate Nash. This year, the winner will be announced at a star-studded, gala event at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on October 30.
India’s Himani Harish has been shortlisted. others in the list include:Alison Vincent, Eva Lai, Irina Lazova and Lucy Gardner from UK; Hanna Lucatelli from Brazil; Han Zhongshu, Chow Bohan and Shixuan Zhao, from China; Alejandra Perdomo and Daniela Larrea from Colombia; Silvia Silvia from Singapore; and Patty Clariza, from the United States.
The 5th edition of Lycra Future Designers will offer one outstanding student or graduate designer the chance to work with expert mentors at Invistaand overall consultancy. The winner will also receive fabrics with Lycrafibre, a package to help with the development of a collection to help kick-start their careers.
“The WGSN Global Fashion Awards offers the perfect international platform for Invista, owner of the Lycra brand, to celebrate young and upcoming design from across the globe with shortlisted candidates entering from countries such as UK, Colombia, Brazil, India, China, Singapore and the United States,” says Denise Sakuma, Invista Apparel Global Director of Brand and Communications. “We are so excited to be able to use this platform to launch new creative talents that will help lead and design the apparel industry.”
Japan’s import of cotton yarn has declined by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 140,784 bales during the first half of 2013. This was revealed from data by Japan Spinners’ Association. However, the data reveals Japan’s imports of combed yarn grew by a sharp 18.4 percent to 69,562 bales from January to June.
Its cotton yarn imports from India shot up by 19.8 percent year-on-year to 22,141 bales during the period under review, which included 18,973 bales of combed yarn, showing a rise of 17.6 percent year-on-year.
Japan’s cotton yarn imports from Indonesia also surged to55,093 bales during the six-month period, registering a growth of 19.2 percent year-on-year. However, Japan’s cotton yarn imports from Pakistan dropped by a significant 41.3 percent to 30,478 bales during the same period, according to the data.
Spanish company Jeanologia, a world leader in the development of sustainable technologies for finishing garments, and its partner in China, Prosperity Textile, have launched a sustainable technology Demo Centre in Guangzhou (China). The aim is to transform the Chinese textile industry into a sustainable and environmentally friendly one.It is being conceived as a referral centre in Asia for demonstration and training, specialized in sustainable technologies, such as laser and ozone that allows automation of the production process by reducing production costs while saving water, energy and chemicals and avoiding unhealthy processes of operators.
Jeanologia’s President, Enrique Silla, has expressed his commitment to ethical and responsible industry with the use of technologies that respect the environment and health of workers and has underlined that these technologies “are the future of the textile industry”.
On Demo Centre, Jeanologia’s President says that it will be an example of a factory of the future and will keep on training Chinese companies that want to apply these new technologies. “In this line highlighted that Jeanologia and Prosperity are aware that the industry is changing and we not only need to invest in machinery and technology, but it is necessary to train people in the new methods.”
He has forecasts that the production of jeans will not move from China to Bangladesh or Cambodia, but it will just change. "In just five years, China will remain the world's leading producer of jeans but this time thanks to the efficiency of sustainable technologies like laser treatments or the use of ozone instead of water" he said.
In his opinion "The times of shifting production from one country to another seeking lower labor costs are over. We are entering an era of technological efficiency. In a few years, no pants will be manufactured without the use of green technologies, China has the opportunity to transform their industry”.
Sri Lanka’s non-BOI apparel exporters have been integrated into the global network, Asycuda World (of UNCTAD). Apparel exports are now back on track having overcome global recession, a Ministry of Industry and Commerce spokesman said.He said that Sri Lanka’s apparel sector has entered a new phase. As a result of Sri Lanka’s non-BOI apparel manufacturers directly integrating into the online ‘Asycuda World’ system, the country has cleared a major bottleneck in apparel exports. “Our apparel exporters are joining the global network set up by UNCTAD in which 85 countries are members,” said minister of industry and commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen.
“With this integration, non-BOI apparel manufacturers can directly submit declarations to the customs and the process has become partially paperless,” he said. “The result is that travel time is reduced, less bureaucracy and less document processing by the non-BOI apparel exporters for every shipment. In fact, they can now submit customs declarations directly from their factories thereby paying more attention to their manufacturing process,” said Bathiudeen.
The Proposed Shipment Declaration (PSD) documents too will go online in due course. Overall garment exports which include apparel and other woven fabrics increased in the first half of 2013 by 1.5 per cent to $1,994 million compared to $1,964 million in the corresponding period of the past year. For the first half of this year ‘apparel only’ exports totaled $1,873 million compared to $1,874 million for the corresponding period of the past year.
A dangerous flammable fabric is being imported into the US that fails to meet basic fire standards. Put a lighter’s flame to the fabric and it ignites like a sparkler, dripping molten chemicals that burn into the surface of anything that its drips on. Normal polyester when held to a lighter will roll back on itself and when cooled the polyester becomes quite hard like a plastic.
The fabric is labeled as 100 per cent polyester, although silver-nano particles can be seen with the naked eye. Silver particles generally provide anti-microbial properties. Oddly, the test fabric has been marketed as stain-resistant instead of anti-microbial. The silver particles are not embedded and when ignited, the silver becomes airborne. The nano terminology that was used on the labeling to describe the finishing is totally misleading.
The label doesn’t say what abrasion material was used; cotton or wire, and how many pounds of pressure were used. In the early ’90s a synthetic georgette fabric was banned from import due to its high flammability. There are outdoor performance products which are labeled as containing CoolMax, a moisture wicking fabric developed by DuPont in 1986. However, what CoolMax actually is anyone’s guess.
The fifth edition of Spinexpo New York, held from July 16 to 18, 2013 saw knitwear designers, sourcing managers, retail buyers and brand directors explore an international offering comprising of fibers, yarns, knitwear manufacturing, trend direction and market intelligence.The three-day fair attracted 1,379 visitors, a 10 per cent increase over the 2012 edition. The majority of them represented major brands mostly from New York and surrounding states.
The exhibition showcased 82 exhibitors, who included fiber manufacturers, yarn spinners, knitwear and machine manufacturers, and design studios from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mauritius, Italy, Germany, Turkey, France, the UK and USA.
Knitwear manufacturers with a variety of specialties added their expertise to the show.Some offered a complete vertical service from yarn to finished garment. A collaboration between machine manufacturer Shima Seiki and yarn spinner Nikko Textile created excitement at the interactive stand of PT JabaGarmindo, Indonesia’s largest knitwear manufacturer. The stand attracted a large number of visitors who could check the manufacturing quality of the Indonesian company.
The new ThiesiMaster F series from German Thies GmbH is destined particularly for dyeing high pile fabrics, such as terry toweling.The new F series is the latest innovation for the highly successful iMaster range of dyeing machines. It features a large transport winch inside the dyeing kier to be processed with significantly reduced elongation. It results in improved stability, perfect fabric condition and appearance, and ensures economic and environment-friendly operation with advanced automation at low liquor levels, as low as 1:4 for cotton.
The new models are available with capacities of between 250 kg to 400 kg per chamber. The iMaster F series can be delivered with up to maximum eight tubes for the 250 kg/tube, and six tubes for the 400 kg version. They are also able to process a wide range of different articles.
The new machine is equipped with a 100 per cent stock tank, a dosing tank and delivery system for dry salt and is particularly optimized for the production of terry articles. The automatic self-cleaning filter system always helps to achieve every time the same dyeing and treatment conditions. Manual interventions for cleaning are reduced and productivity is increased. Rinse, wash and dye baths are measured online, continuously analyzed and displayed graphically.
The National Tariff Commission (NTC) of Pakistan has decided not to impose anti-dumping duty on import of Polyester Staple Fibre (PSF) from China. The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) had been lobbying for it for a long time. The APTMA feels not imposing duty will have a positive impact on textile imports and will provide a long-term advantage to the textile industry, as polyester use is bound to increase. PSF is an important industrial material. However, the provisional anti-dumping duty continued for four months.
After value-addition on imported fibers, textile products are exported. Pakistan needs to import PSF in view of the acute domestic production shortfall of PSF. APTMA says imposition of anti-dumping duty operates against international competitiveness of Pakistan textile products predominantly meant for export.
Imposition of anti-dumping duty on industrial raw material besides making imports costlier have the effect of raising domestic raw material prices to a level where they become unviable for the textile industry. However, the domestic PSF industry was vociferous in pleading for imposition of anti-dumping duty as it gives the industry an amount of protection by which it raises domestic prices.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association is the premier national trade association of textile spinning, weaving, and composite mills representing the organized sector in Pakistan. It represents 396 textile mills, out of which 315 are spinning, 44 weaving and 37 composite units.
Executives in the apparel sector and agents in RMG trade in the US believe that the cost of clothing will rise in the coming months as a sequel to the Rana Plaza collapse. After the Rana Plaza incident, operational costs of garment factories in most exporting countries mainly Bangladesh, has risen.The reasons include: spending extra money in improving safety standards and meeting worker’s demand for higher wages.
The overall rise in clothing cost will equally hurt manufacturers and consumers. It is likely to curtail profits margin of garment companies, as they may not be able to raise retail prices, fearing the shoppers' backlash.
Leading brands and retailers in Europe, the US and Canada, who buy garments from Bangladesh, have taken separate but identical multi-million dollar projects to improve safety standards and workers' rights in local garment factories over the next five years.
In the wake of tragedies in the RMG sector, global retailers including Wal-Mart, GAP and Abercrombie & Fitch have pledged various moves to improve workers' safety. Bangladesh is the second largest garment exporter of the world after China, controlling about 20 per cent of the total US apparel import with a dramatic share increase in the recent years.
Shanghai will host Planet Textiles Conference on October, 22, 2013. Jointly organized by Ecotextile News and Messe Frankfurt, Planet Textiles tackles the crucial issue of sustainability in the global textile sector.Now in its fifth year, Planet Textiles is Asia's premiere annual event dedicated to reducing the impact of textiles on the environment.
The head of sustainability at leading Chinese textile mill Jiangsu Lianfa will give a real-world example of environmental and cost savings for a Chinese textile mill through implementation of simple environmental-led steps. Previous attendees at Planet Textiles include: senior executives from Nike, H&M, Wal-Mart, Levi Strauss, Puma, VF Corp, Adidas, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Esprit, Pacific Textiles and Warnaco, to name a few.
Planet Textiles will take place within the same venue as Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics, Asia’s leading sourcing exhibition, which attracts more than 60,000 visitors. This year, the link between Planet Textiles and Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics will be strengthened through an innovative new “all about sustainability” zone. This new area of the show will feature three sections: exhibitors: sustainable fabrics producers, and dye and chemical companies; educational Zone: sustainability testing certifiers, trade associations, NGOs and eco publications; display area: recycled fabrics, products, solutions and initiatives.
