Bangladesh unions recently staged street protests to reject the $95 a month minimum wage fixed by the government for the country's four million garment workers. The new wage marked a 51 per cent rise and would be applied from December. The current minimum wage of 5,300 taka ($63) was set in 2013 after at least 1,130 people were killed when the Rana Plaza garment factory in Dhaka collapsed. The new wage was set at 8,000 taka.

Bangladesh unions have been staging protests for higher salaries for years. In December 2016, one of their largest protests was brutally ended by police, with hundreds of workers and union activists detained and charged with violence while more than 1,500 workers were sacked. The US-based Fair Labour Association monitoring group had said in a report in April that Bangladesh garment workers earned lower wages than any other major garment exporting country and rely on excessive overtime to survive.

Japan’s retail industry has struggled to capitalize on the increased demand from tourists, largely because of the labor shortage. Many clothing retailers are looking to hire staff who can speak Chinese, English and other languages as a way to capture the opportunity created by inbound tourists. For many, this involves not just training foreign staff to work on shop floor but also providing them thorough knowledge of their brands and operations.

Most of Japan's retailers typically hire foreigners to fill shortages on the shop floor, a symptom of the country’s shrinking working-age population. World Mode will spend several weeks training these workers on the finer points of Japanese-style customer service and the basics of the fashion industry, with the aim of sending them to stores operated by luxury brands and apparel companies.

The hope is that well-drilled, knowledgeable staff will be able to help raise the brand image of the stores that hire them. The company’s hope is that hires like these can encourage overseas tourists to become long-term online customers. This year, Fast Retailing hired about 20 foreign graduates with a view to placing them in managerial roles.

Foreign visitors to Japan in the first six months of this year increased 16 per cent from a year ago.

More than a third of all microplastics released into the oceans are from synthetic textiles used in the fashion industry, according to a new report. Each time an item of clothing is washed, up to 7,00,000 microscopic fibers make their way into oceans, where they are swallowed by sea life and become incorporated into the food chain, potentially ending up on dinner plates says a study by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Garment aftercare affects an item’s carbon footprint. A way out is for individuals to wash their clothes at a lower temperature, use mesh laundry bags to catch threads, rely on tumble dryers less often or install filters on washing machine waste pipes. Research by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), cited in the report, calculated that 34.8 per cent of releases of microplastics in the oceans are due to the laundry of synthetic textiles.

Fashion is a thirsty industry, one that contributes significantly to water pollution globally. It also is energy-intensive, producing 1.2 billion tons of Co2 equivalent– more emissions than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Annual growth in global demand for clothing is projected to increase from 1.5 per cent in 2016 to between 3.5 and 4.5 per cent by the end of 2018 and is likely to continue to grow, according to McKinsey & Company released earlier this year..

Urgent action needs to be taken to tackle the waste produced over the lifecycle of an item of clothing. This includes addressing water-intensive processes during manufacturing, such as removing excess dyes, and tackling the problem of disposing of a garment at the end of its life. Three-fifths of all clothing produced is sent to landfill or incinerated within a year of being made.

The garment industry is one of many industries that has a threefold impact with emissions to air, water, and large amounts of waste produced for landfill and incineration.

A new type of reactor made of a textile material has found its way into the market in different parts of the world.The reactor transforms different kinds of waste into new products, such as biofuel. The textile reactor has been tested in different markets in the world and the technology has evolved along the way. India is the latest market where it has been tested. Swedish company F.O.V. has established a subsidiary that supplies reactors with volumes from five cubic meters to 300 cubic meters.

Approximately 30 reactors have been established and technical trials are being carried out. Textile reactors have been developed and established in several locations around the world to produce biogas on both small and large scales, ranging from a few cubic meters to 300 cubic meter large reactors. They are used so far mainly in agriculture.

The first prototype of the reactor was made in 2014. Over last few years, it was tested in several research projects. First, attempts were made to produce biogas with kitchen waste in the lab environment, then later with manure. The results were excellent.

Research on the textile reactor has now entered a new phase – to find new applications for it. In new projects, it is now being tested for the production of things other than biogas and bioethanol.

Teijin Frontier, Teijin Group’s fibre and products converting company, has developed a new polyester material that achieves the look, texture, aesthetic appeal and comfort of hybrid silk wool for a wide range of medium-thickness apparel applications including jackets and bottoms.

The new Solotex material offers silk wool-like high-quality appearance, softness and smoothness, elegant gloss, and dense coloring. Silk wool, a hybrid of silk and wool that came into use during the 1950s, is a high-function material noted for swelling, smoothness, softness, melange and dense colorings, a combination of properties not possible with synthetic materials until now.

To achieve the luxurious look and feel of natural silk wool, Teijin Frontier uses a multi-thickness structure to process straight polyester filament yarn, employing a proprietary higher-order thread-processing technology. The yarn is then blended with Solotex and finally undergoes post-dyeing processing. The new Solotex material realises colourings with dense spots that are close to those of natural materials. It also eliminates the dry, rough touch of conventional wool-like materials and replicates the smoothness and high resiliency of wool.

The South India Spinners Association (SISPA) has urged the Tamil Nadu government to formulate a policy to protect micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) following the rise in cotton prices. The state should ensure a buffer stock of cotton and an affordable raw material pricing mechanism. The rise in cotton prices benefits multinational companies, traders and the Cotton Corporation of India. Companies and traders buy cotton at the minimum support price, hoard the stock and inflate the prices later affecting end-users and farmers, he said. The SME mills lack the financial capacity to buy cotton and store it. In April, the price of cotton hovered around Re 38,000 per candy-level and reached Rs 48,000 in June

For the second quarter of fiscal 2018, custom sales of Tailored Brands doubled compared to last year. The company reported positive comparable sales for all retail brands in the second quarter of fiscal 2018. Transactions increased through brand marketing campaigns and enhanced omni-channel initiatives.

As a per cent of sales, consolidated gross margin decreased 180 basis points to 44.8 per cent. On an adjusted basis, consolidated gross margin decreased 130 basis points, primarily due to a decrease in retail segment gross margin rate.

On a Gaap basis, consolidated gross margin of the US-based company was $368.9 million, a decrease of $27.8 million, primarily due to the decrease in net sales. The company is moving to a leaner, more efficient inventory model, which is particularly important as custom clothing becomes a larger percentage of its mix. With leaner inventories, Tailored Brands can improve the customer experience and free-up working capital.

The balance sheet is being strengthened. During the quarter, the brand completed a $175 million partial redemption of its senior notes and its total debt is down $325 million versus a year ago. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the second quarter of 2018 were $68.2 million, a decrease of $44.5 million compared to the end of the second quarter of 2017.

Students of the Polimoda Fashion School (Italy, Florence) and HSE Art and Design School (Russia, Moscow) participated in Traditional Russian Patterns Expedition. They attended the GzhelskijFarforovyjZavod (Gzhel Porcelain Factory) JSC, the KhokhlomskayaRospis (Khokhloma Painting) JSC awarded with the Badge of Honor Order, the TorzhokskieZolotoshvei (Gold Embroiderers of Torzhok) LLC, the OrenburgShal (Shawls of Orenburg) company, and the (ImperatorskyFarforovyjZavod Imperial Porcelain Factory) JSC.

Traditional Russian Patterns Expeditionis a joint project of the Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Russian Fashion Council and the Folk Arts and Crafts Development Foundation Rustrends. The project is intended to develop and support traditional folk arts and crafts. For student designers, getting familiar with traditional Russian craftwork technologies and immersing into the Russian history and culture, will become one of the sources of inspiration.

Inspired by the new experience and knowledge of the Russian history and culture, student designers will create a joint collection of clothes and interior design items. This collection will be presented at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia.

Moscow, Denis Manturov, Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade, arrived to meet the participants of Traditional Russian Patterns Expedition. He also took a look at the sketches of craftwork objects created by student designers from Italy, who had spent some time mastering the traditional techniques used by Russian craftsmen.

The European Commission wants a free trade deal with Africa. As Africa’s population is set to double by 2050, the EU is hoping to turn the demographics to its advantage. Some 60 per cent of the population is under 25. The EU will help finance vocational training for 7,50,000 people over the next two years. The EU is Africa’s biggest investor. Most of it has gone to Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa.

The aim is to create up to 10 million Africa-based jobs in the next five years. The EU wants to shift from a donor-recipient kind of relationship, a traditional one based on development aid and humanitarian aid, to a partnership based first and foremost on political partnership. The plan is a partnership of equals with African counterparts, which will be increasingly built on private enterprise. The EU is launching an Africa Union alliance for sustainable investments and jobs. This will be a major priority for its work in the years ahead.

Areas like agriculture, renewable energy and transport are priority sectors amid plans to provide electricity for some 30 million people and road access to another 24 million. An external investment platform will be created that will multiply available funds. The funds will be sourced from the EU budget, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, member state development banks and the private sector.

Burberry is the leading luxury brand in the 2018 Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The index is a trusted benchmark for investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their decision-making and investments. It is a significant global metric, evaluating economic, environmental and social factors.

Burberry will no longer use real fur, and will phase out existing real fur products. Burberry is passionate about finding ways to be socially and environmentally responsible in everything it does, from investing in the communities at the heart of the business to creating innovative ways to tackle the most pressing issues faced by the industry.

The brand has launched a five-year partnership with sustainable luxury company Elvis & Kresse to transform 120 tons of leather offcuts into new products. Burberry also has ongoing partnerships in the UK and Italy to recycle textiles. Burberry procured 48 per cent of its total energy (including 56 per cent of its electricity) from renewable sources in 2017-18, an increase of 24 per cent from the previous year. Burberry is also a member of RE100 to drive demand for low carbon power. Burberry has also decided to stop the practice of destroying unsaleable products. So far, Burberry has positively impacted 23,000 people through global community programs.