FW
The second edition of the Partnership for Clean Textile (PaCT II) campaign has concluded its first year with seven organisations joining it along with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). PaCT II, International Finance Corporation's multi-stakeholder partnership to drive sustainability in Bangladesh's textile sector, aims to work with more than 200 factories to adopt state-of-the-art efficiency and cleaner production practices to reduce water, energy, and chemical use across the textile value chain.
Five apparel companies, VF Corp, PUMA, Levi Strauss & Co, TESCO and GAP and two technology providers Jeanologia and Omera Solar have joined the campaign. Started in January 2018, with support from the governments of Denmark, Australia and the Netherlands, the PaCT II seeks to save 10.9 billion litres of water and 1.3 million megawatt hours of energy every year. In the process, there will be 241,160 tonnes of green-house gases and 10,000 tonne of chemical use avoided every year.
The successful first edition of the PaCT, which ran from 2013 to 2017, helped save 21.6 billion litres of water every year, which is the average annual water use for 840,000 people in Bangladesh.
India’s total exports of textiles and apparel are expected to touch $82 billion by 2021 with CAGR of 12.06 per cent. The total textile and clothing exports, during April-September 2018, stood at Rs 1.30 trillion ($18.56 billion). Ready-made garments exports was Rs 52,810.51 crore ($7.53 billion) during the same time. Fiber exports from the country in 2017-18 was valued at $2,481.90 million. During April-September 2018, fiber exports stood at Rs 8,429.05 crore ($1,201.06 million).
Total value of yarn, fabrics and made-ups exports of the country was $14.33 billion. During April-September 2018, the exports stood at Rs 54,422.11 crore ($7.75 billion).
Absolute Denim will be the first denim manufacturer to switch 100 per cent of its production to aniline-free indigo dyeing. Based in Thailand, Absolute Denim focuses on eco-friendly materials and processes. The company can produce up to two million meters of denim a month.
During production, some of the aniline stays locked into the indigo pigment and is difficult to wash off the fabric. The remainder of the aniline impurity, approximately 300 metric tons annually, is discharged during dyeing. This can be an issue as aniline is toxic to aquatic life. In addition, exposure levels to factory workers can be high. Denisol Pure Indigo, developed by Archroma, is an aniline-free indigo solution for designers, manufacturers and brand owners who long for authentic indigo inspiration. The new indigo dye performs exactly the same as conventional indigo.
Archroma is a leader in color and specialty chemicals. Absolute Denim consciously adopts eco-advanced innovations in its daily production. Denisol Pure Indigo is one such. Similarly Archroma and Kathmandu, an outdoor brand from New Zealand, have teamed up to create an exclusive vintage casual look. The colors available in the capsule collection are slate blue, burnt olive and burlwood rose made from the non-edible parts of nutshells, almond shells, rosemary, saw palmetto, bitter orange and beetroot, left over from agriculture industry or herbal extraction.
"The change of climate in Vietnam is causing its inhabitants to shift from agriculturally-rich Mekong Delta to urban areas. As recent government statistics reveals, over 1.7 million residents have relocated out of the vast expanse of fields, rivers and canals over the last 10 years. Adverse climate conditions such as extreme floods, cyclones, erosion, and land degradation are making natural resource-based livelihoods more difficult, further encouraging inhabitants to migrate."
The change of climate in Vietnam is causing its inhabitants to shift from agriculturally-rich Mekong Delta to urban areas. As recent government statistics reveals, over 1.7 million residents have relocated out of the vast expanse of fields, rivers and canals over the last 10 years. Adverse climate conditions such as extreme floods, cyclones, erosion, and land degradation are making natural resource-based livelihoods more difficult, further encouraging inhabitants to migrate.
The labor situation in the country’s manufacturing sector is adding to its woes. Forced and child labor, gender discrimination, health and safety issues, wage theft, excessive working hours, and more egregious behavior is commonplace in a setting where demand increases pressure to make and ship goods quickly at the lowest prices.
EVFTA to eliminate custom duties on 99 per cent goods
The Vietnamese government, to tackle these, is setting up an equitable and sustainable response to climate
change, by including environmental and worker rights stipulations in the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). The EVFTA will bring considerable benefits to all trading parties as it will eliminate customs duties on over 99 per cent goods, increase investments from EU and pave the way for a wider EU-Southeast Asia trade deal.
The FTA emphasises on sustainable development, environmental protection and labor rights, requiring supply chains to establish and expose their practices in each of these areas. A primary chapter is dedicated to the labor and environmental matters relevant to trade relations between Vietnam and EU countries. It outlines specific provisions to promote “mutual supportiveness between trade and investment, labor and environmental policies,” according to the “Guide to the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement,” while also dictating that the anticipated boom in trade doesn’t come at the expense of workers and the environment.
Agreement ensures compliance to labor regulations
Specific to climate change and environmental impacts, the FTA includes commitments for each party to implement additional multi-lateral environmental agreements. Companies participating in the EVFTA can mitigate risk and ensure their downstream suppliers are following all applicable safety and labor regulations by leveraging technology for traceability.
In the past, duplicative audits with multiple companies conducting the same audits on overlapping factories were a serious issue. It led to audit fatigue at the factory level, with often contradictory requirements leading to confusion during the audit. The advent of third-party and shared auditing has resolved many of these issues, with companies working together to resolve setbacks and mitigate risk without stepping on each other’s toes or exposing sensitive information.
Building stronger relations through collaboration tools
Technology-based solutions help companies increase supplier collaboration and visibility, support greater supplier accountability, and provide a conduit for broader, proactive supplier management activities. The best technology solutions offer the functionality to fulfill the end-to-end, develop-to-shelf needs of both retailers and suppliers. Integration to external and third-party systems can push and pull information into a central repository to increase its value and preserve existing investments.
To ensure complete visibility and collaboration, technology should facilitate internal sourcing and compliance teams to work with factories, vendors and outside inspection teams to maintain strict adherence to the numerous performance standards, and subsequently build stronger relationships with each link in the supply chain through the collaboration tools on the platform.
After many years running side by side with Première Classe at the Porte de Versailles, the Who’s Next trade show will go solo for its upcoming edition. This January, the WSN Dévelopement event will be presented under a single banner, “Who’s Next”. It will be held from January 18 to 21, 2019, with a format that will reflect its new focus. Accessories will no longer be gathered in just one area; they will be mixed together with clothing in the event’s halls 3 and 4.
The universe will be a theme of the upcoming edition of Who’s Next. The “Fame” section will be made to resemble a lunar landscape inspired by the upcoming season’s overarching theme -- Club Apollo -- where the energy of disco meets the cosmos. The new “What’s Up” section will see a host of fashion and accessories brands brought together for their urban, eclectic, streetwear, and vintage aesthetics.
The trade show will launch another new category in January called “Inside” that will constitute a selection of lifestyle products that focus on “interiors”. This covers interior décor, scents, athleisure and even a bit of lingerie.
IAF will organise two conferences on May 13-14, 2019 concurrently with Messe Frankfurt’s Texprocess and Techtextile Fairs in Frankfurt. The first conference will involve young executives. Given IAF’s membership spanning the globe and straddling the supply chain from manufacturers to brands and retailers, it will be based on a theme involving the collaboration of the supply chain for the implementation of technology.
On May 14, 2019 the IAF will organise a meeting specifically aimed at manufacturers’ issues, involving garment manufacturers from all over the world, also to be organised in Frankfurt.
Later in the year, the IAF will organise its 35th IAF World Fashion Convention in Lahore, Pakistan together with IAF member PRGMEA from November 11-13, 2019. The event will be attended by world class speakers and offer global network opportunities during the conference, the IAF Golf Tournament, gala dinner and study tour.
North American textile maker Vidalia Denim has entered into a strategic relationship with Lubrizol a supplier of stretch fibers. Both companies will work closely to maximize the performance and eco-friendly attributes of Lubrizol’s X4zol-J elastomeric fiber in Vidalia’s production of denim fabrics.
Vidalia Denim It uses e3 sustainable cotton exclusively in its operations, the first such operation in the world. Its cotton will be sourced from across the US farm belt from farmers enrolled in the e3 sustainable cotton program. Vidalia will offer its customers complete transparency of leading grower sustainability practices.
Lubrizol, represents a key element in the evolution of denim products. With this partnership Vidalia will incorporate Lubrizol’s X4zol-J’s technology into its denim fabrics. In fact, X4zol-J has already been adopted by many strategic global denim brands.
Lubrizol’s collaboration with Vidalia will enable brands to work locally in North America to deliver high performance fabrics that consumers love, with even greater sustainability benefits. This alone takes miles and months out of the supply chain. Plus, the powerful combination of X4zol-J’s favorable material and recyclability profile along with Vidalia’s sustainable manufacturing processes will help brands achieve lower scores using Higg Index tools available through the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.
Brooks Brothers has collaborated with ORS to introduce an end-to-end AI-based retail program. The US apparel brand aims at staying fresh and relevant in a constantly changing industry. The ORS Group is an enterprise software supplier. This makes Brooks Brothers the first fashion merchandiser across the world to fully integrate AI across its business chain.
The brand will use the platform’s algorithm and AI to get insights throughout its value chain which will help the label to enhance and modify decision making for the betterment of the business. The partnership will boost the retailer’s Buy Anything, Get it Anywhere (BAGA) platform that performs the fulfilment across its outlets in the US.
With the help of ORS, Brooks Brothers will be able to form an extremely sensitive and responsive digital supply chain to control stock in real-time and to modify work end-to-end. It is a disruptive solution for automated omnichannel fulfilment to help the label build a better customer experience and maximize sales opportunities.
The apparel retailer has also launched a cloud-based platform that offers a hassle-free omni channel shopping experience. Brooks Brothers currently operates 280 stores in the US and over 700 worldwide, featuring high-end, classic family fashion, well-suited to both men and women.
The Union Textile Ministry is working on a way to harmonise export incentives with the World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines. The ministry currently offers incentives of 2 to 4 per cent under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). In addition, it also offers production incentives such as interest subvention and the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme. These incentives have been challenged at the WTO by the American government. One contention of critics is that India’s $3 trillion economy is quite unlike those of smaller countries in this region, such as Bangladesh, Vietnam or Pakistan, that require external incentives to compete in global markets. A WTO committee is reportedly examining the issue.
The Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council (Texprocil) under the ministry of commerce has engaged consultancy firm, Ikdhvaj Advisers, to study alternative schemes which could be recommended. A committee has been formed for this whose study will cover the entire value chain in the sector.
A survey in the UK has found most consumers aged 18 to 35 purchase garments they never wear. This highlights the growing issue of mass waste in the fashion industry due to the new generation’s insatiable appetite for the latest trends.
More alarming, consumers also say they have no interest in quality, long lasting clothing and instead prefer to buy cheaper clothes that only last one season. Twelve per cent consumers confirm they choose to throw clothes away rather than recycling them, with only 60 per cent of those who do recycle saying they buy second clothes – highlighting a peculiar gap in the buying and disposal habits of fashion customers.
In general consumers like the idea of wearing sustainable clothing but would not pay more than a certain amount for a sustainable garment. Recycling is not only good for the consumer who can purchase clothes more affordably but also massively reduces the environmental impact of clothes and lessens the personal fashion footprint.
Fashion waste is on a whole new level and it’s down to the consumer to do something about this. With the new tech generation there are so many more ways to recycle clothes, not just through charity shops but also through second hand selling apps.
