For professional garment designers from Pakistan who ply their trade in Bihar, it’s business as usual.
They come with a good stock of designer garments every year, which they comfortably sell, and return home with good earnings. They attend to customers, mostly women, who like their fabrics, designs, embroideries and saris. There are changes in costume design or fashion trends. The cut lines of women’s suits are bit lengthier in Pakistan and such designs are in vogue in India now.

Pakistani products and handicraft items are one of the great attractions at the pre-holi mela and pre-Dussehra melas organized every year. These have been organised by the Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh for over a decade.

Bihar remains a huge market of Pakistani dress materials, brands and garments. Pakistan’s traders come with a rich collection of apparels, fabrics, zardozi art works and Pakistani saris.

A Delhi based designer, who specializes in Pakistani apparels, fabrics and embroidery, has been working with Pakistani designers for long. Such is the craze for Pakistani suits and typical Muslim costumes like sharara and garara that her entire stock gets sold out within three days.

This year’s five-day pre-holi exhibition-cum-trade fair is on at Patna’s famous planetarium campus.

The board of the Fair Labor Association, a US non-profit which promotes adherence to international and national labor laws, has voted in favor of associate businesses requiring full factory list transparency. The move, the first of its kind for such an organisation, has been welcomed by stakeholders in the global apparel industry.

FLA is a collaboration of universities, civil society organisations and businesses dedicated to protecting workers’ rights around the world. It places the onus on affiliate companies – which include Adidas, Hugo Boss, Patagonia and Fruit of the Loom – to voluntarily meet internationally recognised labor standards wherever their products are made. As affiliates of FLA, companies agree to subject their supply chains to independent assessments and monitoring, the results of which are published online.

The criteria of the FLA are certainly among the more robust of those operating in the space. However, now that it has made this move, there will be undoubted call for other standards and auditing organisations to take a similar stance.

Recently Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi and Bangladesh High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Saida Muna Tasneem demanded fair prices for garment exported to the USA and EU as the local apparel exporters spend billions of dollars to strengthen workplace safety leading to an increase in the cost of production.

Of the top 11 LEED-certified factories in the world, 8 are from Bangladesh. These eight are “Platinum” rated, which is the highest category that can be reached under this globally recognized certification. 20 factories are in the LEED Platinum category and 40 are in LEED Gold. Indeed, there are 73 Bangladeshi LEED Green garment factories certified by the USGBC. There are some 320 factories in the pipeline waiting for LEED certification.

Recently Bangladesh government increased its workers’ minimum wage to 51 per cent. All of these have increased the production cost by almost 20 per cent in the last few years.

Bangladesh continues to offer products at reasonable prices. For the last few years, the country has been offering value-added products. However, continuous pressure from buyers is slowing down manufacturers’ growth.

According to a new survey from the Fashion Retail Academy in London, fast-fashion could be slowly falling out of fashion in favor of more sustainable apparel.

Around 39 percent of shoppers preferred to expensive clothes that lasts longer, and one in eight even said they would choose expensive, longer-lasting clothing over cheaper options that are more fashionable. The survey, reported on by Just Style, polled shoppers between the ages of 18 and 35, encompassing Z and some Millennial shoppers.

Younger shoppers seem to be slightly less interested in fast-fashion with those in the 23 to 26 cohort, being five percent more likely to buy expensive, long-lasting clothing than 31- to 35-year-olds.

As evidence of a trend away from throwaway apparel, Lee Lucas, principal of the Fashion Retail Academy noted that Patagonia, a brand with a lifetime guarantee on its products, has been growing steadily in popularity.

China wants 85 per cent of its products to enter India duty-free.In turn China is willing to give duty-free access to 92 per cent of Indian exports.

India has offered to open up 74 per cent of its market to Chinese goods in phases, but China is not satisfied with the proposal.

India offers lower concessions to China compared to other countries where over 90 per cent of imports can come duty-free. However, even the current arrangement faces the risk of domination by Chinese goods in the Indian markets, which would further impact the trade deficit estimated at 63 billion dollars in the last financial year.

In fact India has little option than opening up the market gradually with a long tariff phase-out period so that Indian players have time to adjust to the competition.

India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the ten Asean nations are part of the world’s largest free-trade agreement under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Despite India’s concerns about its trade deficits with Asean countries and China, it would be missing out on a key economic opportunity to establish a presence in the fast-growing Asean region if it did not join the RCEP.

Denim brand Boyish makes men’s style jeans for women. The aim is to make women have their bodies feel amazing in its jeans and make them feel good for supporting social and environmental efforts.

Design is at the forefront of the brand’s ethos. Boyish, based in the US, will never make a product that isn’t sustainable and eco-conscious but also won’t make a product that is sustainable and eco-conscious without it looking and performing well. Its mission is to make great jeans and be as transparent as possible about everything it does so other brands can learn to make their jeans better.

Currently, Boyish Jeans is taking its technology of blending recycled cotton and spinning it with Tencel Lyocell with Refibra technology to create the world’s most sustainable and circular yarn. The brand recycles all its cutting scraps back into its fabrics when remaking them. Sixty per cent of the collection is 100 per cent natural and cellulosic fibers. Boyish looks to make seasonless, well made, long lasting denim that can one day be recycled back into new jeans. Fits are inspired by vintage jeans found at flea markets. The aim is to make authentic jeans since the last 15 years have been about stretch.

Garment manufacturers in Bangladesh are working on fixing a price for their exports.
This price will be made viable in line with rising production costs caused by higher wages and factory remediation. There has been a rise in minimum wages by 50 per cent for apparel workers. Businesses have faced an increase in production costs of around 20 per cent in recent years. But buyers are unwilling to pay higher prices and this, say exporters, has eroded their profit margins. Exporters say a higher price will also benefit workers.

Bangladesh’s apparel industry is going through massive factory remediation, value addition, innovation and technological upgradation in order to cope with buyers’ demands.

Bangladesh’s apparel industry has already made remarkable progress in factory remediation, building green factories and meeting stringent safety standards. Annual export earnings from the industry have grown from 9.3 billion dollars in 2007 to 30 billion dollars in 2018. At the same time, Bangladesh’s reputation has also improved globally due to remediation of the garment factories by Accord and Alliance.

Bangladesh is still a lucrative destination for sourcing low-cost garments after China. Outside of China, Bangladesh is increasingly given preferences for apparel sourcing due to the competitive price and quality.

Bangladesh and Russia have reportedly decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to remove all trade barriers between the two countries.

There are currently no banking transactions between Bangladesh and Russia, and trade is done through Telegraphic Transfer (TT), which as per many garment makers, is a major hindrance towards facilitating garment business with Russia.

There is huge demand for Bangladeshi apparel items alongside sea foods, potato and medicine in the Russian markets. The MoU will allow banking transactions between the two countries to reduce difficulties related to trade and commerce thereby giving a fillip to trade with Russia.

Bestseller has placed sustainability at the core of its business.

The new strategy called Fashion FWD emphasizes the immediate need for inclusive and holistic action on sustainability across the value chain. It is based on becoming as sustainable as possible, as soon as possible, across four focus areas covering Bestseller’s value chain. These areas are using sustainable materials and working with innovative new fibers, improving its environmental footprint to have a positive impact on the environment, embedding human rights in the industry and focusing on a circular business model.

Bestseller has also committed to a new investment platform as a part of Fashion FWD. Dubbed Invest FWD, this new initiative will see Bestseller strategically invest in sustainable innovation and solutions throughout the whole life cycle of fashion.

Each of these focus areas includes specific, measurable goals for the period 2019 to 2025. Bestseller commits to being fashion forward until the company is climate positive, fair for all and circular by design. Climate positive means that it will remove more emissions than it emits. Fair for all means it will promote equality, dignity and safe working conditions for all, and circular by design means that the company will turn waste into a valuable resource throughout its value chain.

Australian sustainable fashion designer, Tess Whitfort launched her first commercial collection, entitled Avoidance. The collection is created using rescued textile waste and innovative zero-waste design techniques to catalyse a circular fashion system.

The six-piece Avoidance collection features an aviation inspired jumpsuit alongside the experimental ‘Preston Dress’ with adjustable belted detailing and a classic retro varsity style jacket, which all feature unique twists on classic designs.

Designed in partnership with award-winning sustainable manufacturer, TAL Apparel, Tess’ zero-waste pattern techniques brought about groundbreaking fabric utilisation during manufacturing, with several of her styles achieving less than one percent fabric wastage, compared with an industry norm of approximately 15 per cent. Her collection is formed of upcycled denim, crepe, wool, and cotton, which were rescued from world-leading luxury brands, mills, and manufacturers, thereby avoiding the need to create virgin materials and minimising fashion’s negative environmental impacts.