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The number of countries with arbitrary arrests and detention of workers increased from 44 in 2017 to 59 in 2018, and freedom of speech was constrained in 54 countries, as per IndustriaLL Organisation ( ILO)
The three global trends for workers’ rights are shrinking democratic space, unchecked corporate influence and the importance of legislation.
Democracy is under attack in countries that fail to guarantee people’s right to organize, speak out and take action. Brazil passed laws that denied freedom of association, China restricted free speech and the military was used to suppress labor disputes in Indonesia.
More countries are excluding workers from labor law – from migrant workers, public sector employees to workers in platform businesses-- with 65 per cent of countries excluding whole categories of workers from labor law.
Violations of workers’ and trade union rights are more a rule than an exception.
The number of countries in which workers are exposed to physical violence and threats increased by ten per cent and include Bahrain, Honduras, Italy and Pakistan.
Trade unionists were murdered in nine countries, including Brazil, China, Colombia, Guatemala, Guinea, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria and Tanzania.
Out of 142 countries, 54 deny or constrain free speech and freedom of assembly.
More than 80 per cent of countries deny some or all workers collective bargaining.
Turkey imported 658 circular knitting machines in the first four months of 2018 – almost three times as many as in the first four months of 2017.
In the January-April period of 2017, Turkey imported just 223 circular knitting machines.
The 658 circular knitting machines imported so far this year came from eight countries - three European countries and five countries in the Far East. A total of 145 machines were imported from Germany and 37 machines were imported from Italy. A total of 165 circular knitting machines were imported from the United Kingdom – these are assumed to be second hand machines.
During the period, most of the machinery imported from the Far East came from China, as would be expected - a total of 188 circular knitting machines were imported.
In addition, 24 knitting machines were imported from Japan, 65 machines from Taiwan. Nineteen machines were imported from Malaysia and 15 machines were imported from South Korea.
Turkey is one of the world's leading manufacturers of knitted fabrics.
As Turkey’s textile exports grow, the country’s textile manufacturing companies will have to upgrade their machinery, parts and components, as well as the manufacturing processes. Turkish textile companies are also being encouraged to consider technical collaboration with foreign partners.
Without guaranteeing rates of return Pakistan can’t attract foreign investors.
Pakistan’s economy needs foreign direct investment in the manufacturing sector where the country has a competitive advantage in global markets.
Instead of continuing with fiscal incentives that are a risky and generally costly means of attracting foreign investment, a level playing field should be ensured for foreign investors.
Pakistan’s yarn and fabric exports have declined in the past decade because of high prices.
The country has an advantage in coarse cotton yarn, but the world has moved beyond cotton to blended yarn made from cotton and manmade fiber. Fabrics made from various blended yarns are used to produce very high value apparel. Pakistan does not produce most of these yarns so it does not export high value apparel.
Instead of protecting the domestic basic textile industry, the aim should be to ensure the availability of high quality blended fabric and yarn for exporters so they manufacture high value apparel for exports.
Value-added exports are only going to pick up if apparel exporters have access to inputs at globally competitive rates. Fabric and yarn imports should be allowed duty free on bank guarantee that should be released automatically when apparel produced from these materials are exported and export proceeds realised.
The textile industry generates more harmful Co2 than the entire air and ship traffic as a whole.
Eighty billion pieces of clothes are bought every year, twice as much as 15 years ago and 23 billion pairs of shoes are produced annually.
Mountains of plastic waste, eroded landscapes, droughts or species extinction demonstrate massive environmental pollution, caused by humans and their predatory exploitation of nature.
More plastic than fish could swim in the sea by 2050.
Now consumers can choose environmentally-friendly, climate-neutral and recycled clothes and shoes – without having to accept any compromise on performance.
If we don’t close the textile loop soon with joined forces and thus don’t only prevent additional waste and chemicals, but also save precious resources, such as crude oil and water as well as balance CO2 emissions, such a nature will be a thing of the past.
With today’s customers becoming increasingly environmentally mindful, the timing has never been better to bring awareness to the ways that responsible sustainability can be incorporated into a fashion or lifestyle brand.
In the last ten years sustainable practices have merged into the overall circularity movement and have moved from vocabulary to real practice. Circularity in fashion can positively impact the bottom line when executed strategically.
Bangladesh’s Transition Accord has fallen short of its goal of retaining all of the signatories from the initial agreement.
This is a Bangladesh worker safety pact and is an extension of the earlier Accord.
Unlike the original Accord, which expired on May 31, the new one is open to non-garment companies that produce home fabrics and textiles.
Abercrombie, among the companies yet to join, is reviewing the 2018 accord. Ikea has chosen to focus on its own safety audit program Iway than sign up.
Campaigners have been critical of such brands’ decision to abstain. They say Accord is the only road toward safer factories in a country in which voluntary corporate social auditing systems have in the past failed to prevent disasters like the Rana Plaza and Tazreen factory catastrophes.
Established following the deadly Rana Plaza factory disaster in 2013, Accord was a five-year agreement between brands and labor unions designed to improve garment industry safety standards.
Following the factory collapse that killed more than a thousand workers, Accord was established to inspect and remediate factories in Bangladesh. Accord is a collective scheme, which is a legally binding agreement between a great number of brands and trade unions and contains extensive enforcement mechanisms.
Masayuki Ino and his fashion house Doublet nabbed the top award in the LVMH Prize.
Ino’s bravura reinterpretation of Japanese graphics and posh punk attitude made him one of the favorites for the prize.
A special award went to Rok Hwang, a South Korean who grew up in Austin, Texas, whose label is known as Rokh. A graduate of St Martin’s in London, his is a kicky signature in women’s street wear.
This is a global award. Beginning last year with over 4,000 applicants over 102 nationalities, with an average age of 29, these were whittled down to 20 young hopefuls.
Next, in late February, over two days, a team of 48 international experts – editors, retailers, writers, stylists and educators – made the initial cull from 20 designers to nine finalists.
All entrants must be under 40 and have produced at least two collections. The 2018 edition marks the fifth LVMH Prize, whose 300,000-euro award is the highest sum for a single award in fashion.
Though other awards in Europe have considerable prestige, the LVMH Prize has emerged as the most coveted by dint of its generous financial pay-out and the reputation of its double jury.
LVMH’s string of luxe marques includes Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior Couture and Céline.
For the first quarter of 2018 net revenue of Lululemon Athletica increased by 25 per cent compared to the same period the previous year. On a constant dollar basis, net revenue increased 23 per cent. Total comparable sales increased 20 per cent, 19 per cent on a constant dollar basis.
Lululemon Athletica is an athletic apparel company.
Inventories at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2018 increased 23 per cent compared to the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2017.
The company ended the quarter with 411 stores.
For the second quarter of fiscal 2018, the company expects net revenue to be in the range of 660 million dollars to 665 million dollars based on a total comparable sales increase in the high single digits on a constant dollar basis. Diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $0.46 to $0.48 for the quarter.
For the full fiscal 2018, net revenue is likely to be in the range of $3.040 billion to $3.075 billion based on a total comparable sales increase in the high single digits on a constant dollar basis. Diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $3.10 to $3.18 for the full year.
Gucci’s revenue expanded by 49 per cent from a year earlier at constant currencies in the first three months of the year.
The Italian fashion house wants to be the world’s biggest luxury label. Gucci also targets an operating margin of more than 40 per cent, compared to around 34 per cent in 2017.
The brand expects sales to grow at twice the market rate in the coming years. It has had a top-to-bottom makeover, from new product ranges to stores redesigned to make them more welcoming, in vivid hues and draped in velvet.
In a notoriously fickle industry, where tastes can change rapidly and ever more so with the influence of social media, brands are battling it out to capture buyers' attention with eye-catching designs or events like spectacular catwalk shows.
Gucci’s latest mid-season Cruise collection presented in France featured models in an intricate array of colorful prints making their way down a flamed-filled runway by night.
Thanks to further store facelifts, Gucci aims to further boost sales densities.
Gucci is part of the Kering conglomerate that includes other labels like Saint Laurent.
The luxury industry, fuelled by Chinese demand, is expected to pick up pace in 2018, with global revenues forecast to expand by six to eight per cent at constant currencies.
GOTS India Seminar 2018 was organised by Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), in Le Meridien Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India on 29th May 2018.
The theme of the seminar was ‘Sustainability as Key to Business Efficiency’. The seminar was attended by over 180 delegates from five countries.
Attendees at the seminar included international brands and retailers, Indian fashion brands, textile manufacturers, chemical suppliers, testing laboratories, accreditation bodies, academicians, industry organisations, certification bodies, standard bodies, media, service providers, consultants and other important stakeholders from the field of organic textiles and sustainability.
In his welcome address, Sumit Gupta, Seminar Coordinator and GOTS Representative in India & Bangladesh, introduced the theme and the sessions for the day.
Four sessions of the seminar addressed the various aspects of efficiency in sustainable fashion and textile manufacturing.
The sessions included buyers’ perspective, chemical compliance, social responsibility and futuristic certification systems.
Fespa was held in Germany, May 15 to 18. It reinforced its standing as the global landmark event for specialty printers, with visitors from a record 142 countries.
Two-thirds of all visitors dedicated more than a day to the event to cover the ten exhibition halls and take advantage of the expanded content program.
Germany delivered the largest percentage of visitors overall, with 26 per cent of the total audience coming from the host country. After Germany, the top ten countries in terms of visitor attendance were the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden.
The dominant area of visitor interest was digital printing, which was the key focus for 44 per cent of all visitors. Fespa’s sustained coverage of innovations in textile printing was reflected in the fact that one in three 2018 visitors indicated an interest in textile and fabric printing. Commercial print, finishing, design to print, sublimation printing and industrial printing also featured particularly strongly among visitors’ priorities for the event.
The optimism of the market as a whole was evident in the energetic mood throughout the exhibition halls. Exhibitors across the show reported excellent business and strong interest from print service providers in technology and consumables innovations to drive greater productivity and applications diversity.
