FW
Islamic Fashion & Design Council’s (IFDC) will host Milan Fashion Week Modest Soiree, in conjunction with Milan Fashion Week on September 24, 2018. This exclusive event will showcase Modest Fashion in the city with the greatest fashion appetite. The IFDC Award winners from Torino Fashion Week 2018 will be the main attraction of this event. These winning designers are Bow Boutique (Saudi Arabia), Al Nisa Designs (USA), Chantique (Brunei) and another made-in-Italy modest brand, Luya Moda. This event is produced by IFDC and its strategic partner, Milano Fashion Library (MFL ).
IFDC formed strategic partnership with MFL, a consulting, publishing and advertising company that operates within the largest fashion library in Europe. MFL served on the jury for the IFDC Awards at Torino Fashion Week 2018. This prestigious fashion organisation is situated in the Tortona area in Milan, which is known for hosting a number of prestigious fashion and design events throughout the year. This iconic venue is key to catapulting any designer’s career to the next level.
Some 115 tehsils have been declared as cotton growing areas in Maharashtra. Out of these, around 55 are in Vidarbha region alone. A tehsil is defined as one with cotton production of 9,600 tons per annum. This is the amount of cotton production needed to sustain a co-operative spinning mill.
The objective is to identify tehsils where co-operative spinning mills can be set up under the new textile policy. The decision of declaring 115 tehsils as cotton growing will have a long-term impact on the growth of the textile sector in a planned manner.
In the past, spinning mills were set up in parts of Maharashtra that were not cotton producing. The new policy ensures this mismatch is done away with and the foundation of a properly planned cotton-to-cloth chain development is laid.
The number of cotton growing tehsils in various districts is as follows: Jalgaon 15, Ahmednagar one, Aurangabad and Amravati nine each, Jalna, Nanded, and Akola seven each, Beed five, Parbhani and Nagpur six each, Hingoli two, Buldhana and Wardha eight each, Yavatmal 13 and Chandrapur four.
Jalgaon and Yavatmal are the districts with the highest number of cotton growing tehsils.
US multinationals are bracing up for what is shaping up to be an all-out trade war between their country and China. Within weeks, the US may impose tariffs on more than half of all Chinese exports to the US. In response China is contemplating hitting back at more than 80 per cent of US exports to China.
Tariff increases are not just a tax on consumers but also bring uncertainty to the supply chain for brands. Top brands depend a lot on a stable global supply chain. Around 1,000 types of Chinese products in the textile and apparel category are subject to tariffs imposed by the US.
But as much as US companies operating in China hate the idea of tariffs, many of them feel the threat of tariffs can be useful. The US and Chinese trade negotiators have finally begun to talk about critical issues that had been ignored for years, such as China’s industrial policies and mandatory joint venture structures that facilitate technology transfer to Chinese companies.
Multinational corporations have been growing ever more frustrated with the many hurdles they face in China, from market access restrictions to an opaque regulatory environment. Some of these issues have been repeated year after year — some of them have been issues for 30 years.
India’s cotton exports in 2018-19 are likely to be down 30 per cent. Scanty rainfall and an attack of pink bollworms are likely to squeeze crop yields. The Western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra account for more than half of the country’s total cotton production. Some regions of these two states received as much as 22 per cent less rainfall than normal.
Farmers have adopted genetically-modified seeds known as Bt cotton that are resistant to bollworms, but it hasn't stopped the infestations. Pink bollworms consume the fiber and seeds inside a cotton plant's boll, or fruit, and yields fall. Lower shipments from the world's biggest producer of the fiber amid rising demand from top consumer China could support global prices.
India is the largest cotton producer in the world, followed by China, the US, Pakistan and Brazil. The five largest exporters of cotton are the US, Australia, Brazil, India and Uzbekistan. Five major consumers of cotton are China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey. Buyers are interested in sourcing cotton from India as they find it cost effective and less expensive in comparison to other countries.
Apart from neighboring countries, India has been receiving demands for cotton from several other countries, including Vietnam and Indonesia.
Bread & Butter will be held in Germany from August 31 to September 2. This time the trade fair has gained an extra ampersand. The three days will be dedicated to fashion and culture. Some 40 fashion brands will vie to stand out from the crowd with runway shows, exclusive capsules, discussions, customisation workshops, DJ sets and other concerts.
The program features 43 labels – mostly fashion brands but some cosmetics manufacturers are also present – who will be trying their best to grab consumers' attention, presenting limited-edition products and capsule collections that are either exclusives or pre-launches.
Everything on display at the fair will be available for purchase on site through a cashless system created in partnership with Visa, featuring bracelets which shoppers can charge up. A number of brands have already taken to social media to try and attract visitors and potential consumers to their pop-ups.
Among the brands confirmed at the fair are: Adidas Original, Nike, The North Face, Timberland, Puma, Reebok, Columbia, Asics Tiger, Cheap Monday, Converse, Diesel, G-Star Raw, Hugo, Levi's, Obey, Pepe Jeans, Vans and Wrangler. The last edition attracted 30,000 visitors and reached 26.5 million people across Europe through social media.
Spanish apparel retailer, Inditex has supported stronger dialogue and collective bargaining between unions, garment factories and brands for living wages of garment workers. The retailer expects the collective demands of workers, expressed through their legitimate unions including Industriall Bangladesh Council, to be taken into account, and the current negotiations to reach an agreement.
Inditex is also supporting the ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation) – an agreement launched in 2014 between global brands and trade unions to improve garment industry wages through collective bargaining, supported by world class manufacturing standards and responsible purchasing practices. Through ACT, Inditex, IndustriAll and other global brands and retailers have earmarked Bangladesh as a priority country to promote collective bargaining as the most effective tool to reach wage agreements between employers, employees and their respective representatives. The retailer, in the next edition of its magazine has included an in-depth update on ACT, an initiative that offers the best chance f securing fairer wages in garment production hubs.
India will have a strong participation at Footwear and Leather Show, Australia, to be held from November 20 to 22. The participation organised by the Council for Leather Exports (CLE), India’s peak export trade promotion organisation for leather industry, will see 30 footwear suppliers and leather goods/accessories and garments exhibit at the show. India is the world’s second largest producer of footwear and leather garments.
Australia is a growing and significant market for leather and leather products. For the third year running, CLE is bringing its member companies to Australia to showcase the quality of their products and expand their footprint in the Australian market.
Footwear and Leather Show will feature a comprehensive range of footwear, leather and leather accessories from manufacturers and exporters looking at securing volume OEM & ODM partnerships with a trade and buying audience from across Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
Besides the intense direct business exchange on the show floor, the expo also offers a comprehensive program of
learning and networking opportunities including seminars and workshops, networking events and industry presentations, providing multiple ways of engaging and establishing long-term business relationships.
India is a reliable and attractive destination for the manufacture of high end goods and CLE’s continuing participation at the Footwear and Leather Show proves this.
India plans to double exports by 2025. In view of the challenges like uncertainty of global trade, rigid approach of banks which affects availability of credit, high logistics cost and productivity standards and qualities, exports can create jobs, bring in foreign exchange and validate India's international competitiveness.
The focus will be on 12 identified sectors for promoting their development, and realizing their potential. A special strategy is being prepared for the services sector to achieve broad-based growth instead of the existing pre-dominance of IT. New structures, policies and action plans will be formulated for the services sector. India will be promoted as a services hub.
Attention will be given to gems and jewelry, leather, textile and apparel, engineering sector, electronics, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharma, agri and allied products and marine products. Apart from traditional markets the country will look at boosting trade with smaller countries and explore new territories like Africa, which has 54 countries but accounts for only eight per cent of exports from India. Needless to say, a massive opportunity is presented by China's consumer market.
India has acceded to the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement. An action plan containing specific activities to further ease bottlenecks to trade has been prepared.
Global Fashion Agency and French fashion school Insitute Francais de la Model will sign an MoU during the Economic Forum to strengthen ties and establish more partnership agreements to accelerate sustainability in the fashion industry. The MoU will focus on engaging decision makers from the c-suite, mainly CEOs and creative directors, via leadership roundtables or issuing joint communications on the challenges, advancements, actions taken and policies implemented regarding sustainability.
Global Fashion Agenda is a leadership forum on fashion sustainability, advancing a year-round mission to mobilise the global fashion system to change the way we produce, market and consume fashion. The forum is known for organising the world's leading business event on sustainability in fashion, Copenhagen Fashion Summit, and the yearly industry report Pulse of the Fashion Industry.
Institut Français de la Mode was founded in 1986 with the support of the French Ministry for Industry through several founding members, among them the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, to enhance the competitiveness of the French fashion and textiles industry.
Cinte Techtextil will be held in China from September 4 to 6. The fair will showcase world’s leading textile innovations. Cinte Techtextil is the ideal place to make connections and gain insight into Chinese and Asian market trends. This year’s European Zone will feature around 30 exhibitors from countries including Austria, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, while further exhibitors can be found in national pavilions from Belgium, Germany and Italy. The Czech Republic will present its debut pavilion, showcasing exhibitors with solutions for technical yarn, fabric processing and nonwoven fabrics.
Exhibitors from 12 more countries and regions will present their latest innovations to the market. These include exhibitors from China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the US.
The fair will showcase exhibitors across 12 application areas. Two areas to watch out for include Buildtech and Mobiltech, which are both performing well in Asia and specifically in China. The Belt and Road initiative brings Buildtech a great deal of benefits through China’s enormous investments in global infrastructure. China has become the world’s largest auto producer, and this has been boosting progress in the Mobiltech category.
The technical textile industry in the Asia region, and China in particular, has been growing steadily.
