FW
Brands presented spring immediates, summer lines and sneak peaks of their fall denim collections at Project Womens and Fame in New York this week. New sustainable denim brand Ética held the first show. The Los Angeles-based brand, owned by premium denim maker Hera Apparel, showcased its first collection of “trendy yet wearable” denim made with processes that reduce the brand’s water, chemical and energy consumption.
McGuire Denim turned down the waist bands of jeans and lightweight non-denim wovens like a pair of button-fly cargo pants in blush. The brand also turned up the hem of jean jackets, revealing a pop of soft vintage-looking lining.
Tonal blue stripes updated Bella Dahl’s signature drapey denim made with Tencel. The collection offered matching leisure separates like a pajama-style button-down shirt and drawstring shorts. Metallic silver polka dots, beachy florals and pastel denim added a summery feel to 7 For All Mankind’s collection.
Brands like Signature 8 baited retailers catering to a millennial and Gen Z audience with colorful denim sets. The brand, which is sold by retailers like Asos and Dolls Kill, offered a deep range of cropped jean jackets and button front minis in snake and leopard print denim. The brand tapped into the psychedelic aesthetic of ’80s and ’90s staple Lisa Frank with a multi-color zebra print set.
Aroud 15 Italian textile companies will participate in the upcoming edition of Colombiatex 2019 to be held in Medellin from the January 22-24, 2019. The exhibition will be jointly set up by the Italian Trade Agency and ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers. The 15 Italian textile companies exhibiting in this common space will all be ACIMIT associated members including Arioli, Beschi, Biancalani, Btsr, Caipo, Corino, Crosta, Fadis, Ferraro, Itema, Mcs, Ratti, Sicam, Tecnorama and Ugolini.
Colombia’s textile and garments industry has seen a strong period of growth over the past few years, thanks to the signing of a number of international trade agreements and its developing fashion sector. Colombian textile manufacturers have thus been long time partners of Italian textile technology suppliers. The development of the local textile and garments industry needs a technological upgrading, entailing an increase in demand for foreign machinery. Italy has benefitted from this growing demand, in its dominant position as one of the world’s major producers of textile machinery. Indeed, Italian exports to Colombia in 2017 amounted to €10 million, and over the first seven months of 2018, sales of Italian textile machinery to Colombia exceeded €4 million.
Bangladesh’s readymade garment supply chain continues to suffer from lack of shared responsibility on the part of global buyers. The fundamental business model in the garment supply chain has not changed. Production remains an industry with high levels of opportunity for countries to connect to global value chains, but that comes at a price for workers.
Factories in shared or non-purpose built premises need to relocate. Firms in such premises which were not able to meet the new standards had to move and often ended up in more remote regions. Such factories have to bear the relocation costs and do not receive financial support from buyers, the government or their industry associations.
Bangladesh’s exporters do not get fair and reasonable prices for their products. Reasons include lack of negotiation skills. Exporters get lower prices for readymade garment products compared to Cambodian and Vietnamese exporters. Buyers do not want to pay higher prices, although the cost of production will go up further with wage hike, port congestion and higher transportation cost. Another issue is that of lead time. This would be a matter in readymade garment exports in future as the country might lose its cost advantage in coming years.
Multinational apparel and luxury brands are buffeted by what appears to a significant slowdown in China. There is a contraction in China’s manufacturing sector amid a broader growth slowdown in many of the world’s biggest economies.
The crackdown on the practice of surrogate Chinese shoppers purchasing abroad for people back home is a significant factor in what jewelry leader Tiffany described as a meaningful decline in revenue from its Chinese customers. Though just eight per cent of Tiffany’s business stems from Chinese mainland, Chinese customers contribute 30 per cent of its turnover.
Share prices for multinationals have meaningfully underperformed their domestic peers in recent months though athletic companies like Nike and Lululemon Athletica seem to be bucking the trend. At one time China was seen as a big opportunity as major players like PVH and VF started to go after China in a big way by bringing their licenses in house and investing in full-throttle strategies.
Now it’s not just a sales slowdown that the industry is concerned about. Profits are tough there to begin with. China’s central bank took the serious measure of slashing the reserves that banks are required to keep on hand, making 116 billion dollars available for additional lending in an effort to ameliorate a sputtering economy.
The resumption of trade talks with China in an attempt to end the trade war has boosted US retail and apparel stocks. Retail industry employment in December increased 15,200 jobs seasonally adjusted from November and 37,600 jobs unadjusted year-over-year. The retail gains came as the US added 3,12,000 jobs overall.
Among major retailers, Target’s stock jumped 4.89 per cent, Walmart’s shares were up 1.18 per cent, Macy’s stock rose 1.8 per cent and Amazon shares climbed 3.44 per cent. Other notable retail gainers were Ascena Retail, up 13.5 per cent; Stein Mart, gaining 4.8 per cent; Abercrombie & Fitch, ahead 4.76 per cent; Gap, climbing 4.61 per cent.
Apparel stocks, which had also gone through a downward tilt, also enjoyed the upswing. VF Corp shares were up 1.88 per cent. PVH Corp. stock jumped five per cent and Ralph Lauren saw shares gain 1.82 per cent. In addition, Michael Kors Holdings stock was up 1.99 per cent, G-III Apparel Group shares climbed 4.7 per cent and Hanesbrands stock rose 3.18 per cent.
The US and China have embarked on a trade war that has seen them impose tariffs on a combined 360 billion dollars worth of tariffs on imports, causing turmoil for financial markets and concern in sourcing circles.
Bangladesh is investing heavily in the primary textile sector. The primary textile sector of Bangladesh has turned into a strong backward linkage industry for the readymade garment sector. Currently, local manufactures are capable of supplying 85 per cent of yarn and fabric, along with 40 per cent of the woven fabric required by the knitwear sector. This means the primary textile sector has been unable to fulfill 60 per cent of the demand for woven fabrics.
Additionally, banks are enthusiastic in financing the primary textile sector, which has resulted in more investment. These new investments are expected to strengthen Bangladesh’s position in the global value chain and help reduce import dependency and raise Bangladesh’s competitiveness in the global market. Bangladesh can also attain a better position in the global readymade garment value chain.
However, investments have not been coming into the sector as expected due to a lack of infrastructural support and unavailability of utility services. A good number of investors have not been able to invest in the sector due to a lack of infrastructure and limited supply of gas and electricity.
There are 430 yarn manufacturing mills, 802 fabric manufacturing mills, and 244 dyeing-printing finishing mills in Bangladesh along with 32 denim fabric manufacturing mills and 22 home textile manufacturing mills.
Bangladesh’s apparel exports to India grew 300 per cent during July to November 2018. Woven items were more in demand from India. Bangladesh’s apparel exports to China during the same period showed a growth of 230 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
India has been growing into a big potential market for Bangladesh’s apparel exporters. Last fiscal, Bangladesh’s apparel exports witnessed a 100 per cent gain in India – a trend which is continuing through to this year and expected to rise.
As China is slowly moving away from the apparel business, it is the opportunity for Bangladesh to enter their space. Many factories in China are switching operations due to a rise in production cost. Buyers may opt for sourcing away from China due to this reason–a void which can benefit emerging apparel exporters like Bangladesh.
Also recent escalations in the trade war between China and the United States are fueling the shift in manufacturing away from China. These two factors can help Bangladesh draw business. And the impact is already visible. During November 2018, Bangladesh’s apparel exports grew 18 per cent. India and China are showing signs of blossoming into major destinations of Bangladesh’s apparel industry.
"A growing phenomenon-- RPTN -- refers to geographically proximate countries forming a regional supply chain. Deepening of this RPTN increases the concentration of world textile and apparel exports. In general, three primary textile and apparel regional supply chains operate in the world today. Asian supply chain. Here, economically advanced Asian countries such asJapan, South Korea, China and Indiasupply textile raw material to the less economically developed countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam."
A growing phenomenon-- RPTN -- refers to geographically proximate countries forming a regional supply chain. Deepening of this RPTN increases the concentration of world textile and apparel exports. In general, three primary textile and apparel regional supply chains operate in the world today:
Asian supply chain: Here, economically advanced Asian countries such asJapan, South Korea, China and Indiasupply textile raw material to the less economically developed countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Based on relatively lower wages, the less developed countries typically undertake the most labor-intensive processes of apparel manufacturing and then export finished apparel to major consumption markets around the world.
European supply chain: Developed countries in Southern and Western Europe such as Italy, France, and Germany, serve as the primary textile suppliers. Regarding apparel manufacturing in EU, products for the mass markets is typicallyproduced by developing countries in Southern and Eastern Europe such as Poland and Romania, whereas high-end luxury products are mostly produced by Southern and Western European countries such as Italy and France. Furthermore, a high portion of finished apparel is shipped to developed EU members such as UK, Germany, France, and Italy for consumption.
US supply chain: In this regional supply chain, the United States serves as the leading textile supplier, whereas developing countries in North, Central
andSouth America (such as Mexico and countries in the Caribbean region) assemble imported textiles from the United States or elsewhere into apparel. The majority of clothing produced in the area is eventually exported to the UnitedStates or Canada for consumption.
Associated with these regional production and trade networks, three trade flows are important to watch:
Asian countries emerge major sourcing hub for Asia: In 2017, close to 80 per cent of Asian countries’ textile imports came from other Asian countries, up from around 70 per cent in the 2000s.
EU intra-region trade in textile, apparel stable:In 2017, 55 percent of EU countries’ textile imports and 47 percent of EU countries’ apparel imports came from within the EU region. Over the same period, 68 percent of EU countries’ textile exports and 75 percent of their apparel exports also went to other EU countries.
Western hemisphere supply chain becomes unbalanced
In 2017, as much as 80 percent of textiles and 89 percent of apparel exports from the Western hemisphere went to the same region. However, the operation of Western hemisphere supply chain is facing competition from Asian suppliers. For example, in 2017, only 24.8 percent of North, South and Central American countries’ textile imports and 15.7 percent of their apparel imports came from within the region, a record low in the past 10 years.
Implementation of several new free trade agreements, such as CPTPP, RCEP, EU-Vietnam FTA, and the potential US-EU and US-Japan FTAs is on the cards. How they affect regional pattern of world textile and apparel trade remains to be seen.
Domestic production in the German textile and clothing sectors in October decreased. Textiles fell 3.4 per cent and clothing by 2.7 per cent. Total imports increased over the last 10 months by one per cent against the same period of 2017. Total exports in October increased by 5.6 per cent mainly as a result of the increasing seasonal clothing exports. Import surplus is 8.8 per cent lower than in 2017.
The two sectors on an average employ 0.5 per cent less people than in 2017. Clothing has seen a fall of four per cent while textile enterprises employ 1.2 per cent more people. Working hours fell by one per cent against the same period of 2017. Textiles have increased working hours by 0.8 per cent whereas clothing working hours have dropped by 4.7 per cent.
Production prices increased slightly, for textiles by 0.9 per cent and clothing by 0.7 per cent. October proceeds of clothing retail contracted 1.3 per cent below the 2017 level. Total German retail volume increased by 3.1 per cent.
Raw material imports sank in October by seven per cent despite increasing raw material prices. The forecast for the German economy as a whole is negative with the trade crisis and increasing raw material prices.
Around 222 Pakistani companies will participate in the textile industry’s biggest exhibition, Heimtextil, which will be held on January 8, 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany. The fair, which will continue till January 11, will play host to 2,908 exporters from different countries. Last year, about 2,975 exporters and 70,000 traders had participated in the fair from across Europe, Turkey, Germany, Britain, France, Spain and Italy.
This year, over 800 traders and visitors from Pakistan participate in the exhibition while a large number of students from Pakistani arts and textile institutes will also be present there. The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan has also set up a pavilion at the fair to showcase Pakistan’s products. Pakistan is the fourth biggest participating country in the event.
Pakistani companies will be present at all four levels of the Hall 10. Big exporters of Pakistan such as Gul Ahmed, Kamal Textile and Sapphire will be present at the fair as they have set up large and elegantly designed stalls.
