FW
As China continues to show signs of recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak, luxury brands are starting to act quickly, hoping to move forward their promotional calendars and entice shopping-deprived, freshly-out-of-quarantine customers before the mark-down season hits. As reported by STYLE , after a dormant period during lockdown, these brand are releasing celebrity-driven campaigns with taglines and messages conscious of the current situation.
Lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret named Zhou Dongyu its latest China ambassador. Zhou, best known for her girl-next-door demure, who made her breakthrough starring famous Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s Under the Hawthorn Tree (2010) and won Best Actress at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards for her role in Soul Mate (2016) has been tapped by luxury brands including Burberry and Boucheron as ambassadors.
BMW is another brand hoping to harness the fan economy of Chinese new-generation celebrities. The brand appointed Jackson Yee, the 19-year-old singer-actor, as the first official ambassador for BMW in China.
Unlike BMW and Victoria’s Secret, luxury e-tailer Wan Li Mu has appointed ive celebrity ambassadors including actors Huang Xiaoming, Zhao Wei, Zheng Kai, Lei Jiayin, and Jia Nailiang. The five ambassadors will be live streaming on Wan Li Mu’s TikTok account from May 1 to May 5, the annual Labour Day “Golden Week”. The five celebrity ambassadors enjoy a strong fan base: a total of 270 million followers on their combined Weibo accounts alone.
For the first time in nearly 40 years, London Fashion Week (LFW) will be digital and will include womenswear, menswear, and gender-neutral fashion labels. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has caused the Olympics to be postponed and countless cultural events to be put on hold, LFW will be a virtual event held from June 12 through June 14.
London Fashion Week has been held since 1984 and is historically held for menswear and womenswear designers separately The fashion week is hosted by the British Fashion Council BFC) since 1984 and is held on a quarterly basis, with events for each season and divided by menswear and womenswear. However, this year the fashion week will be gender neutral. A statement published by ELLE, the BFC defines this as allowing womenswear, menswear, and gender free design labels to participate in the same week of fashion events together for the first time.
The Korea Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI) has hit back at retailer Kohl’s decision to cancel orders across the board. KOFOTI has demanded the store chain reconsider its commitments to manufacturers across the globe. While the group appreciates the devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the textile industry, KOFOTI’s states that Kohl’s has a responsibility to its suppliers, and shouldn’t leave them high and dry even as consumer demand plummets. Fabric mills in Korea are facing a tough time with demand thinning. So far, the sector has incurred more than $100 million in damages due to canceled orders or payment term extensions. About 150 Korean fabric mills, accessory mills, vendors and sample rooms have been affected.
The federation suggested Kohl to look at recent incidents where H&M, Primark and Zara, agreeing to pay textile workers after intense media scrutiny. The federation believes the matter with Kohl’s could be resolved amicably and it urged the company not to leverage force majeure clauses in its agreements to get out of making payments.
To strengthen the endeavor of European Commission’s new ‘comprehensive’ circular strategy development for textiles in coming months, a group of 65 diverse civil society organizations has published a shadow proposal to be implemented for the global Textile, Garments, Leather and Footwear (TGLF) sector, which will ensure its fairness and sustainability.
The coalition stressed on reducing unfair purchasing practices that leads to canceled orders, unpaid workers and unsellable products. The collation wants to fight against these problems by proposing a strategy to the EU that can be strictly followed. It recommends companies should be legally obligated to take responsibility not only for their activities but also for their entire supply chain. It also recommends stricter environmental rules to supervise how textile products sold in the EU are designed and produced and producers should work with transparency.
The coalition that includes organisations like Clean Clothes Campaign, the European Environmental Bureau, Fairtrade International, Fashion Revolution, Traidcraft Exchange, World Fair Trade Organization, etc, has grabbed the attention of the European Commission, Members of Parliament the EU governments.
Italy, the first European country to be hard-hit by the coronavirus, will allow some businesses to reopen as soon as this week while aiming to reopen manufacturing and construction from May 4. The government would follow a phased process to restart most of the manufacturing in early May, although businesses frequented by the general public such as bars and restaurants would have to wait a bit longer. Schools would remain shut until September.
Some businesses deemed "strategic", including activity that was mainly export-oriented, could reopen this week providing they get the go ahead from local prefects. Restart would have to be gradual, and companies would have to introduce strict health safety measures before opening their doors.
Rome has introduced a series of measures including state-backed loans to help businesses stay afloat. But some businessmen have complained about delays in implementing them. The government is also monitoring banks to make sure state-guaranteed liquidity arrived to companies in need. Besides, the government is working on a series of measures to help industry by cutting bureaucratic red tape.
To ease the pressure a leading medical exporter China has decided to ensure supervisions and standardizations on immediately needed medical masks to ensure quality. On March 31, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) and the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) jointly published the announcement on the orderly export of medical supplies.
As per the announcement, the Ministry of Commerce all non-medical masks must be up to its own or foreign quality standards before being exported. And all exporters should file for a written declaration that their medical products meet import countries’ or regions’ quality standards and safety requirements.
It also said foreign buyers are encouraged to choose the suppliers that are registered at medical products administration departments. The Textile Industry Association in East China’s Jiangsu Province had issued the standard for polypropylene melt-blown nonwovens, a critical material for making face masks, for its members – the first adoption of a standard in China.
On the other side, some investors in Hunan Province said they are worried about the severe shortage of melt-blown nonwovens, which is limiting production capacity. With the shortage of material supply, rising prices, and some substandard products, China has implemented measures, including customs inspection, export qualification check, and facilitating factories’ production.
Esprit Holdings is integrating booked materials in later orders, wherever possible. The company has held certain payments for orders with handover to a forwarder before the end of March as since March end, the company’s legal entities are under a special legal status called “proactive shield proceedings”, similar to Chapter 11 in the US.
The company had to make some adjustments and cancel orders due to the decline in demand caused by the COVID-19 crisis. However, it is integrating booked materials in later orders wherever possible. The company is in close contact with all suppliers to ensure transparency in this process.
In view of COVID-19, many apparel factories primarily in developing countries in Asia have reported cancellation of orders from global brands / retailers. Apparel sector being the finest value adding segment in the entire value chain and one of the largest employment providing sector is under despair because of cancelled production orders.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) reveals hundreds of Bangladesh garment factories have defied a nationwide coronavirus lockdown to reopen, raising fears the industry's vulnerable and largely female workforce could be exposed to the contagion.
MB Knit reopened part of a factory that makes clothing for Primark and several other retailers. These factories had shut their doors in late March but some suppliers are now being pushed by retailers to fulfill outstanding export orders.
More than four million people work in thousands of garment factories across Bangladesh, which last year shipped out $35bn of apparel to retailers such as H&M, Inditex and Walmart last year - second only to China.
Bemberg has developed a new sustainable fiber. The lifespan of Bemberg’s regenerated cellulose fibers, Cupro, derived from cotton is fully circular, from source to manufacturing. Bemberg yarns are entirely biodegradable and ecotoxicity-free. Fabrics made from the yarn are used for presentation flags and for lining high quality suits and coats.
In Bemberg’s production the whole sustainable closed-loop process is supported by the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) study, signed by ICEA (Istituto per la Certificazione Etica e Ambientale) and validated by president of Ecoinnovazione Paolo Masoni ex research director of ENEA (Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente). While recyclability is granted by the Global Recycle Standard - GRS certification by the renowned Textile Exchange, at the end of their life circle the yarns break down into the environment leaving no trace in terms of toxic substances as attested by the Innovhub-SSI report, according to Asahi Kasei.
A special focus deserves Velutine Evo, the new fibrillation finishing technology for Bemberg fabrics only that guarantees another level of sustainable benefits without sacrificing the Bemberg amazing and unique touch. As part of the company’s continuous innovation, Velutine Evo brings better environmental, energy, and water profiles for the benefit of Bemberg partners in the manufacture of their ranges.
The sustainable achievements of the new finishing technology have been measured by LCA study by ICEA and proved to guarantee environmental benefits such as -16.5 per cent of greenhouses gas emissions and -21 per cent of overall consumption of energy resources. On top of that Velutine Evo means also -20.5 per cent of electricity savings, -15.9 per cent of steam production and -19.5 per cent of water consumption.
Burberry has vowed to maintain base pay for all its employees unable to work remotely, and slashed top bosses’ salaries by 20 percent for the April-to-June period.
The company is also pushing back its 2019-20 results announcement to May 22 from May 14 in order to accommodate auditors who are currently overwhelmed by work during the crisis.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the company’s priority has been the safety and wellbeing of its employees, customers and communities.
The company has temporarily closed its retail stores, and turned over its Yorkshire trench coat factory to the production of personal protection equipment, or PPE, for medical and care workers.
Burberry will maintain base pay for all employees who are unable to fulfill their roles because of store or site closures, and it will not rely on government support for jobs in the U.K., where more than a third of its employees are based.
