Swedish retailer H&M plans to phase out the use of conventional cashmere in its collections due to environmental and animal welfare concerns. The business will stop placing orders on conventional cashmere at the end of next year. 

The brand will continue to work for a more transparent supply chain, where cashmere is sourced from sustainable sources that are independently certified by standards that cover both animal welfare and environmental aspects. If the cashmere industry in the future meets its sustainability criteria, the brand would consider turning to virgin cashmere again.

Techtextil will be held in Germany from May 14 to 17, 2019. This is a trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens.

The event will attract top stakeholders from across the globe. Specialist weaver of technical textiles Arville will headline its integrated manufacturing capabilities, covering the design, weaving, coating and fabrication of bespoke textiles – suitable for demanding end applications in a wide range of industries including defense, aerospace, pharmaceutical, and automotive sectors. German machine builder Monforts will demonstrate a number of enhancements that have recently been made to its texCoat and Allround coating units. In a major development for the coating of technical textiles and nonwovens, Monforts is now offering the coating roller for its texCoat and Allround coating units as an optional carbon fiber version, in order to meet even the highest level of coating accuracy that is being demanded by the most exacting customers today.

BMSvision, a leading supplier of turnkey Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), will be exhibiting with a focus on its camera-driven on-loom inspection systems, Industry 4.0 and mobile MES solutions. Through intelligent wireless networking of all production equipment in the mill, the BMSvision MES solution transfers quality data originating from the various production machines and processes into meaningful information for managers. The BMSvision MES suite for the textile industry includes software modules for real time monitoring, reporting, scheduling, preventive maintenance, fabric inspection and traceability.

Ten new innovators have been selected to join the Fashion for Good-Plug and Play Accelerator. These entrepreneurs compose the 5th accelerator batch and have been selected from hundreds of applicants. The latest set of innovations have a focus on innovative data management, new materials, dyeing technology, and end of use solutions.

The accelerator programme aims to help innovative technologies and business models with the “greatest potential to reshape the fashion industry for good.” This involves a 12-week curriculum, including mentorship from corporate partners adidas, C&A, Galeries Lafayette, Kering, PVH Corp., Target and Zalando. Among the 10 innovations being backed are FastFeetGrinded, which seeks to make footwear circular by collecting and recycling used shoes into new shoes. Together with retailers, they collect used shoes that are then sorted and deconstructed into their component parts.

Indidye, meanwhile, has developed a new, low environmental footprint, dyeing method for its natural plant-based dyes. This new process uses sound waves to bind natural dyes to cellulosic fibres. Indidye’s technology is claimed to use less water, create no wastewater, be biodegradable, and require less energy than a conventional dyeing process.

Indigo Mills Designs aims to revolutionise the Indigo dyeing process by making it more sustainable, more economical and faster. This patented state-of-the-art foam dyeing process produces zero water discharge and minimal dye waste all while producing deep indigo colors that the fashion industry loves.

Asia’s export slump is expected to deepen. China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand are expected to have a rocky road ahead. Major Asian economies have seen a downward trend in exports after a peak in 2017, the decline became more rapid towards the end of last year. Exports from Indonesia tumbled 11.33 per cent from a year ago in February. It was the fourth straight monthly decline and the steepest slump since June 2017. South Korea, home to a host of leading car and electronics manufacturers, exports crashed 11.1 per cent in February. Philippines, exports declined for the third successive month by 1.7 per cent.

China’s import growth crashed 4.9 per cent, which is bad news for other economies in the region, which are heavily reliant on Chinese demand. Global semiconductor sales growth declined 5.7 per cent year on year – an indicator of a sluggish electronics sector, a dominant industry in the region.

While a trade war deal between China and the United States may ease extreme business pessimism, the health of many Asian economies is more closely related to the wider global growth picture, which is negative. Asia’s exporting powerhouses include South Korea and Taiwan, and Indonesia – the largest economy in Southeast Asia.

The alpaca fiber market is witnessing high growth mainly due to the upsurge in demand for alpaca fiber fleeces and other types of fashion accessories made with alpaca fiber. Alpaca is a natural fiber that provides more warmth minus the scratchy texture of wool. This makes alpaca clothing warm, soft, and extremely comfortable. As the trend of offering highly sustainable and eco-friendly garments and accessories is gaining popularity in the fashion apparel industry, the alpaca fiber market is growing at a rapid pace.

Manufacturers in the alpaca fiber market are putting efforts into providing nutritious feed to alpacas. Nutrition makes a significant impact on the health and reproduction capabilities of alpacas, and ultimately helps to obtain softer and high-quality alpaca fiber.

Peru is the world’s largest alpaca fiber producer. The main destination for Peruvian alpaca fiber exports are China and Italy. After Peru, alpaca breeders in Australia are adopting innovative strategies to establish a stronger position in the alpaca fiber market. Australian alpaca fleeces are witnessing high demand across the fashion industry, especially in China. Owing to the quality of Australian alpaca fiber and the strict health standards established by the Australian government, demand for Australian alpaca fiber is likely to improve in the coming years.

"Attracting Latin American consumers is both easy and difficult at the same time. Central and Southern Americas have different cultures, taste, climate. For instance, Brazil has an incredible passion for bright colors, and has special requests in terms of fits as their body types are very particular."

Pepe Jeans London was among the first brands to enter the Latin American market. The brand forayed into this market in the early 1990s starting from Mexico and Panama. Today, Latin America accounts for 15 per cent of the company’s overall sales and reaches much higher values in terms of brand equity and penetration.

Pepe Jeans’ most important market is Mexico, where it opened its own direct subsidiary in 2007. It operates through 20 monobrand stores (including full-price and outlet stores), together with other stores opened in partnership with the prestigious department store Palacio de Hierro, and through more than 150 multibrand stores located all over the country. Its second most important markets are Chile and Peru where it manages about 200 shop-in-shops since 2008, while the third most important are Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador.

 New stores set up in Brazil

Fashion Box, a leading company in the premium denim segment and owner of the Replay brand, has opened five monobrand stores and two outlets between April 2017 and December 2018 in Brazil. Replay Jeans do Brasil, the company through which Fashion Box operates, acts through the wholesale channel and distributes Replay to 200 multibrand stores. 

Replay wants to further expand in this area by growing in Paraguay, a market where the brand is already sold through a store in Asuncion and a shop-in-shop in the Ciudad del Este department store.

Sharing a culture for denims

Attracting Latin American consumers is both easy and difficult at the same time. Central and Southern Americas have different cultures, taste, climate. For instance, Brazil has an incredible passion for bright colors, and has special requests in terms of fits as their body types are very particular.

However, all Latin American countries share a great culture for jeans and denim and know much about fabrics and treatments as the local industry is active and a myriad of brands exists. Each country has locally made brands offered at a profitable price-quality ratio and are very keen on products’ quality and care. 

Impulsive shoppers with varied body types 

The Latin American consumers do not fit into one box. They have all body types; short, tall, slim, curvy and similar ones. Their taste in clothes also change according to regions as  climate also plays a role in the way these consumers shop. 

Latin American consumers are mostly impulsive shoppers. They shop for unique items or love to buy if there is a promotion or in-store event that creates more of a customer experience. Although brand-oriented consumers in these countries are slowly getting more product-educated as they are starting to analyze quality versus price. 

Trends at affordable rates

As the Latin American market is rich with good quality products, brands need to offer the trendiest clothes at affordable rates maintaining the price-quality ratio. For this they have to offer both product types keeping in mind the emotional relation between a local consumer and an appealing global brand’s offer. Replay produces part of its collections in Colombia and Brazil, but only for some very basic products and only after approval from the mother company. The rest of its collections are produced in Italy. 

Marketing and communication also needs to be handled accurately. To achieve success in both Latin and Southern American markets, Guess has chosen Latin Grammy Award winner music star J Balvin. Also Replay’s long-time partnership with Paris Saint-Germain’s champion and captain of the Brazilian national team, Neymar Jr., continues to be fruitful. 

The global accessories market is rising at a compound annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent. Among different types of products offered in the market, handkerchiefs currently secure a nearly 14 per cent share in terms of revenue sales. Other segments are hats, gloves, neckties, jewelry, eyewear, scarves, handbags and belts. By demographics, the accessories market is segregated into men’s, women’s, and children’s. Among these, women’s segment could become highly attractive in the global accessories market.

In sales channel, the global accessories market is bifurcated into online, specialty stores, franchise outlets, and modern trade. Among these, modern trade is envisaged to account for a larger share of the global accessories market in the near future. It is responsible for selling a colossal volume of apparel accessories each year. By price, the accessories market is divided into super-premium, premium, mid, and economy. Economically priced products account for a 39 per cent share of the global accessories market.

The market may witness a decline in sales in terms of both value and volume. Influx of counterfeit products and the ongoing economic concerns in some countries could hamper demand significantly. Moreover fast fashion companies are expected to pose some threat to established players in the accessories market.

Morocco could serve as a gateway for India’s exports to Europe, West Africa and the US. The country has trade treaties with several countries. Morocco has free trade agreements (FTA) with 55 countries. It is the only African country to have an FTA with the US. Morocco is now the largest foreign investor in India’s fertiliser sector. India sources a large chunk of its rock phosphates and phosphoric acid requirements for its fertiliser industry from Morocco, the world’s biggest phosphate exporter.

Although bilateral trade volumes hover around the $1.5 billion mark, the two countries decided to elevate bilateral ties to a strategic partnership in 2015. Morocco has old links with India dating back to the Delhi Sultanate. Morocco is a member of the Arab League, the Union for the Mediterranean and the African Union and has the fifth largest economy of Africa.

In its drive to integrate Morocco further in the global value chain, the country has also joined the G20 partnership with Africa initiative that aims at promoting private investment, particularly in infrastructure, for Africa’s sustainable economic development. Morocco is the seventh biggest exporter of apparel to the EU. Trousers and denim account for the largest share of exports followed by shirts and dresses.

The 15th edition of Milano Unica Shanghai showcased Italian excellence in textile production to the Asian market. Around 46 exhibitors showcased their S/S 2020 collections at the event with agreat interest shown by the Asian public. The number of buyers increased by 20 per cent over previous year. They included buyers from other Asian countries, particularly South Korea and Japan, but also India, the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia

The event was held in collaboration with the ICE Agency with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development and longtime sponsors, Sistema Moda Italia and Banca Sella.

Bangladesh’s apparel exports to India are up by 115 per cent. Readymade garments constitute around 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s exports. The hiking of the import duty on 328 textile products, which is not applicable to Bangladesh, and the withdrawal of the 12 per cent countervailing duty on textiles after the introduction of GST helped increase the exports of readymade garments from Bangladesh to India.

Retailers like Reliance, Future Group, Aditya Birla Retail, Arvind Retail, Woodland are aggressively increasing their sourcing from Bangladesh. Reliance Retail sourced 60 lakh pieces of garments from Bangladesh last year. The target for Reliance Retail is to increase the same to one crore pieces this year. The company is looking for manufacturers that can offer 20 per cent of their capacity with over 600 machines. Only 15 per cent of Reliance Retail’s current sourcing — mainly in shirts, bottoms and fashion knits--comes from Bangladesh.

The wide opportunities Bangladesh presents to Indian retailers are largely underutilised. For some retailers, the key product is bottom wear. However, shirts, jackets, knits, suits and lingerie are potential products which too can be sourced very competitively from Bangladesh. Today Bangladesh is second only to China in the global apparel sourcing business matrix. After capturing the markets of the west, the country is looking at developing new markets, among which India is the most important.