As revealed by Rick Helfenbein, CEO & President, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), many textile and apparel brands are planning to diversify their supply chains, to mitigate the impact of the ongoing trade tariffs by both China and US. In fact, many members of the association have set up 'war rooms' to review sourcing strategies and ensure that the trade war does not have a catastrophic impact.

AAFA, on its part will focus on supporting the growth and success of the apparel and footwear industry. This will include educating legislators in Washington on the needs of the industry and pain points the industry experiences through the course of the next year. At the same time, the association will provide opportunities for industry professionals to collaborate and learn by producing events around the world.

Founded in August 2000, AAFA represents more than 1,000 brands, retailers, and manufacturers. The association provides expertise in supply chain management, trade policy, and brand protection, to its members.

According to a report of the Foreign Agricultural Service of the USA for Mexico, the production of cotton in 2018/19 in Mexico is likely to increase by 2 percent than the previous marketing year, due to continued favorable prices for cotton than for other crops, such as sorghum and corn. Cotton is the only commercially grown GE crop in Mexico. Farmers have indicated that the use of GE cotton has resulted in better pest control and pest management.

The area under cotton plantation increased substantially in 2017/18 from the previous season 2016/17. This is attributed to favorable weather conditions, adequate irrigation, continued use of genetically engineered (GE) seeds, and a return to cotton planting as a result of favorable prices, after a year of crop rotations.

The country’s cotton imports for 2018/19 total are forecast at 925,000 bales due to the expected large crop production. The expansion in production is expected to encourage yarn and textile manufactures to source their needs from the local cotton industry. Production, however, in Mexico now consists of nearly 80 percent of total domestic use.

The European Union’s decision to ramp up trade pressure on Cambodia has alarmed unions in its garment industry. Cambodia's biggest export market, the EU, warned this month that the Southeast Asian nation would lose special access to the world's largest trading bloc, in a punitive response to its move away from democracy.

The repercussions could devastate garment exports that account for about 40 percent of Cambodia's gross domestic product and industries such as sugar.

Cambodia's factories supply global brands, such as Gap Inc., Swedish fashion brand Hennes & Mauritz AB, and sportswear brands Nike, Puma and Adidas, among others. According to the EU data, the country, under its "Everything but Arms" (EBA) scheme exported goods worth 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion or 649 billion yen) last year.

However, the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, which represents 600 factories, remains optimistic about the situation as the threat of tariffs is still months away and would be the subject of a six-month EU review,

Bangladeshi garment manufacturers plan to tie up with their Sri Lankan counterparts to add more value to the garment supply chain and reduce the lead time by at least 10 days. Under this agreement, the Bangladeshi garment manufacturers will send the basic items to different garment factories in Sri Lanka for finer washing, remaking and adding more value as Bangladesh has abundance of work orders now.

After remaking and finishing of the goods, Sri Lanka will ship them off with the 'Made in Bangladesh' label to different European markets from their deep sea port. This will cut the lead time by at least 10 days due to proximity of the Sri Lankan deep sea port to Europe.

Any kind of garment products can be sent from Bangladesh to Sri Lanka to be re-exported.However, Bangladeshi garment makers will primarily send the items that the local manufacturers are particularly not strong at. For instance, Sri Lanka has an edge in innerwear, so if Bangladesh gets a lot of work orders for them, they would be sent to Sri Lanka for further value addition.

Currently, Sri Lankan's market share in global apparel trade is 1.2 percent and Bangladesh's stake is 6.5 percent. The country exports nearly $5 billion worth of garment items in a year while Bangladesh's export last year hit $30.61 billion.

America’s leading casual wear brand Gap plans to innovate store formats and merchandise line development as per the preferences of Indian consumers. The brand currently has 15 standalone stores and 21 shop-in-shop stores across Tier II and Tier III cities.

Out of these, 13 are family format stores that offer adult, babyGap and GapKids products, while 2 are adults-only stores. The brand has GapKids/babyGap shop-in-shops in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, and few upcoming locations and will soon launch its first kids’ shop-in-shop in Kolkata.

The brand plans to expand into family formats, adult only formats and exclusive GapKids/babyGap formats in the next few months. Its objective is to provide a holistic, and globally consistent shopping experience. It has experimented with newer fixture designs to bring out the brand’s presence for shop in shops. These structural improvements include enhanced signages, dual tone walls with a balance of wood panels and white, contrasted by blue colored wall.

Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, inaugurated the 6th India International Silk Fair (IISF) at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Oct 17, 2018. The exhibition features 108 exhibitors from all over the country including 10 from North East and 9 from J&K. Around 147 buyers Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Australia, Kuwait and Egypt are attending the event.

The 3-days exhibition, organised by Indian Silk Export Promotion Council, is expected to generate business of over US$ 20 million for the SMEs engaged in producing silk and silk blended garments, fabrics, accessories and floor covering.

The Indian Silk Export Promotion Council is also organising B2B meeting of participants with buyers and a Fashion Show for the participants.

The 30thApparel Importers Trade & Transportation Conference will be held in New York on November 7, 2018. Hosted by the U.S. Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) and American Import Shippers Association (AISA) in conjunction with USFIA Premier Partner & Host Sponsor PwC, the event will bring together executives working in compliance, logistics, sourcing, supply chain management, government relations, and corporate social responsibility to discuss the impact of the elections on trade and business, as well as other hot topics.

The agenda will focus on the U.S.-China trade tensions and how companies can mitigate the impact of the Section 301 tariff increases. Confirmed speakers will include Bill Jackson, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles; David Spooner, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, former Chief Textile & Apparel Negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Import Administration; Erin Ennis, Senior Vice President of the U.S.-China Business Council; and Avedis Seferian, President & CEO of Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), who will discuss factory safety and compliance considerations for companies considering shifting sourcing to combat price increases.

In addition to trade policy, the conference will include discussions on retail, sustainability, and innovation, including experts from Levi Strauss & Co., Macy’s Merchandising Group, BSI, Canopy, Lenzing, and PwC.

Headquartered in Milan, C.L.A.S.S., the global resource for smart material innovation, education, marketing and communication, will support this year’s Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference.

The C.L.A.S.S. team will demonstrate the embedded values of a fantastic range of smart material innovations backed by sustainable credentials from C.L.A.S.S.’ Material Hub. Giusy Bettoni, C.L.A.S.S. CEO and Founder and her team will have a dedicated space to engage attendees in an open discussion regarding the importance of fashion business strategies as they highlight a wide-range of responsible materials.

The experience in the space will start with the vision of a film by Cristina Picchi that represents harmony between the various phases of the textile process and the cycles of natural elements.

Visitors will walk through a three-dimensional installation designed by Cécile Feilchenfeldt to inspire creativity and explore the limitless possibilities using innovative smart materials. Many of the materials, the C.L.A.S.S. team will showcase speak to circular economy such as Re.VerSo™, Bemberg™ and ROICA™ by Asahi Kasei, Iluna Group and Tintex Textiles and many others that use technological breakthroughs to offer fashion materials that provide significant reductions in water during the manufacturing process.

To be held in Milan from October 22-24, 2018, this year’s Textile Exchange’s Sustainability Conference will offer an opportunity to connect with industry pioneers and learn about cutting edge solutions and innovations in textile and apparel sustainability. The theme of the 2018 conference is United by Action: Accelerating Sustainability in Textiles and Fashion.

Titas in its 22nd year of its edition is underscoring the primacy of need for ‘Global Smart Value Chain’ besides maintaining the core products of functional, sustainable side of the business. Therefore in order to offer a more comprehensive one-stop service to both exhibitors & attendees, in collaboration with Taipei Sewing Machine Association (TSMA), this year TTF has also invited TSMA members to present the latest devolpment in smart manufacturing including automatic sewing machines and smart sewing systems & solutions.

All new pavilion for smart textiles

TITAS serves as a core platform to promote innovative textiles centres on functionality, sustainability & smart textiles. With the advent of technology and dynamic challenges posed to the manufacturing per say advance technologies such IOT & AI is also influencing the conventional industry like Textiles/ Apparel also. In response to this evolving macro trends for the 1st time over here also a smart Smart Textile Pavilion is organized within TITAS 2018 edition under three mega trends

Smart Textiles Smart manufacturing

Smart Solutions to basically introduce the upcoming automation and intelligentization of manufacturing.Up on the display is products and solutions like Smart thermal clothes integrating temperature control and positioning functions. Textiles with temperature control & warning feature. The colour measurement technology breaking through traditional thinking to detect miniscule colour diffrences Software based solutions adopting IT, AI and RFID technologies.Textile technologies combining isolated microcontrollers with yarns & fibres to enhance the applications of multi-functional textiles.LED arrays display clothes using using ESTM (Embedded smart textile module) to present a new garment image marrying art and tech to the best of it.

The entire exercise is aimed at bringing to the spotlight the need to highlight that ‘It is both sets of drivers and their potential implications for supply chains which creates a powerful lens through which to reimagine/ rediscover the ways that multi stakeholders to global supply chains create desired value and start to contribute unequivocally a sustainable & more livable world.

As a part of TITAS 2018 Seminar series under the knowledge forum titled as- “ISKO ARQUAS and ISKO responsible innovation approach” presented, By Rosey Cortazzi, Marketing Director & Ms. Ebru Ozkucuk Guler -Senior Corporate Social Responsibility Executive. Rosey avers ‘Respect for the planet’. She further adds ISKO stays true to Responsible Innovation goals as this is a company clearly with missionary goal; 

Fatih Konukoglu, CEO 

“To produce value through an effective combination of production, performance, responsibility, and sustainability. This goal is surely challenging, but I see that our daily hard work and positive results testify to our efforts.” THE APPROACH | RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION

ISKO is also the only denim mill in the world to have achieved both the Nordic Swan Ecolabel and EU Ecolabel for the ISKO Earth Fit collection, which is made with raw materials like organic cotton, recycled cotton and recycled polyester from PET bottles.

Moreover, ISKO is a signatory member of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Program, which tackles the issue of hazardous chemicals in the textiles industry, and manages the environmental impacts of their operations through the Environmental Management System certified to the international standard ISO 14001 ISKO stays true to Responsible Innovation™ goals

ISKO is the first denim manufacturer in the world to obtain pre-certified Environmental Product Declarations (EPD®s) for the Life Cycle Assessment (LCAs) of all its 25,000+ denim fabrics. These EPD®s are being used to create independently developed Product Category Rules (PCRs), which will help form a way, for the first time ever, to have standardised assessments for denim across the industry.