Denim trade show Kingpins will host its winter show from November 28-29 in Basketball City, in New York. The show will focus on the past, present and future of denim trends. The invitation-only event will feature a range of manufacturers and members from the denim industry, offering a variety of indigo talks, educational seminars, and predictions of 2020 trends. Mirroring a growing pattern within the textile world's showcases and trade shows, the Kingpins show will include several companies focused on sustainability within the denim industry.

The upcoming Kingpins New York exhibitors includes event sponsors Lycra Brand and E3, companies like Lenzing, Global Denim, Hebi Geyuan and Arvind, as well as a special selection of Japanese denim companies.Featured discussions will include ‘100 Years of Women’s Garments at Levi Strauss & Co,’ a seminar by Levi's historian Tracey Panek discussing the denim brand's most significant womenswear moments over the past century, and ‘DIY Denim: Subcultures and the Making of Meaning,’ a conversation on the connection between denim, subcultures and fashion "myth-making" featuring authors Andrew Luecke and Amy Leverton.

There will also be two presentations of "Kingpins Denim Trends for S/S 2020. Fit, fabric, finish," a talk hosted by Amy Leverton of Denim Dudes and presenting a forecast of the top four trends of the season, including "research and references, mood and style direction, key color selections, etc.

Reed Exhibitions (RX) will postpone its Long Beach trade show, scheduled for January 3 through 4, 2019. The company will instead shift its focus to its B2C festival scheduled for June 2019. This festival will merge street wear, action sports, lifestyle and fashion alongside music, art, food, education and more indicating a transition to a consumer-facing model. It will be a relevant and authentic fan expo that integrates customer interaction and speaks directly to the youth/fashion lifestyle market.

Reed caters to action sports and street wear retailers and brands. Many of its bellwether brand exhibitors have shown support for the decision, reinforcing that direct consumer-brand interplay is key to creating long-lasting relationships.

The shift from B2B to B2C reflects the rapidly changing industry landscape in which direct interaction with shoppers is paramount. While large brands are focused on fewer, more meaningful retail relationships, smaller start up brands are utilizing technology and digital platforms to market and sell directly to the consumer. This makes meaningful experiences with consumers more important than ever for customer brands, both large and small.

RX will continue to host a B2B trade show from February 5 through 7 at the upcoming Las Vegas Fashion Week, where it will present a range of men’s sportswear, action sports, street wear and footwear brands.

Yes Bank has entered into partnership with Welspun Global Brands. This will facilitate electronic presentation of export documents. With this transaction, Yes Bank becomes the first Indian bank to facilitate electronic presentation of export documents. Welspun Global Brands is a subsidiary of Welspun India.

The electronic documentation of the international trade e-presented through a digital platform will replace the need to exchange physical documentation, thereby reducing turnaround-time from ten days to real-time for all parties involved, while establishing a precedent for faster, secure, cost-efficient settlement of cross border trade, resulting in optimization of working capital.

The digital platform has been built by UK-based Bolero. Welspun India is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of bed and bath textile products globally. The company’s portfolio comprises a wide range of home textile products such as terry towels, bed linen (basic bedding and decorative bedding), rugs and bathrobes.

The company is seeing substantial growth in e-commerce and has developed a few products for the online marketplace as well. Capacity utilisation has gone up from 80 per cent clocked in the previous financial year. The plan is to invest Rs 900 crores as a part of capital expenditure. Capital has been set aside for a new flooring unit in Telangana.

Alicia Ferreira de Sousa from L’École de la Maille de Paris was announced the winner of the inaugural Adidas x Woolmark Performance Challenge. Alicia will receive a cash prize, a three-month internship with Adidas, the opportunity to sell the winning idea along with ongoing industry and training support from The Woolmark Company.

More than 500 students from 58 universities across Europe and North America registered to take part in the Challenge. The 10 finalists were chosen from universities from France, USA, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The Adidas x Woolmark Performance Challenge not only allows wool to enter a new phase in product development, but provides an excellent opportunity for Alicia, and I congratulate her on this exciting win. The Woolmark Performance Challenge has been created by The Woolmark Company in collaboration with sportswear giant adidas, to attract the best young textile innovators to use Australian Merino wool.

Open to tertiary students worldwide, the Woolmark Performance Challenge provides an opportunity to apply the unique benefits of Australian Merino wool to new product applications in the sports and performance market. Alicia Ferreira de Sousa from L’École de la Maille de Paris was announced the winner of the inaugural Woolmark Performance Challenge.

British warehouses are filling up goods against the threat of an exit from the EU without a free trade agreement in place—and fashion firms are among those bracing for a logistical nightmare. Britain is running out of warehousing space as retailers rush to fill them with goods in the event of no-deal. And while stockpiling food and medicine is more urgent than clothing, brands are under pressure too.

One such company is ABF, which operates five businesses, including fast-fashion brand Primark, and which has been stockpiling goods in the north of England. Another is Next. The high street chain—led by chief executive Lord Wolfson—was well advanced in its preparations in case a free-trade agreement is not in place by next March. To plan ahead, the retail giant has been stockpiling some goods in its Irish warehouses, which will be safe to travel to the UK in the event of no deal, thanks to the Common Travel Agreement between the two countries. However, given the rapidity of the fashion calendar and the speed at which trends change and collections are updated, even the best prepared brands cannot stockpile for more than a few months.

Whether it’s transformative designs made from deconstructed denim, or back-to-basics high-waisted mom and dad styles, jeans are a likely pairing for street wear’s core items: graphic logo tees and sneakers. While street was solely about youth culture, the current look for denim as street wear runs the gamut from wide and baggy, to fitted, stylized and even tailored.

The rise of street wear has invited new opportunities for women’s denim brands to experiment outside the confines of the skinny jean. The trend has created a shift in women’s silhouettes. A wider and more square aesthetic is now leading. Layering has become more playful and innovative, with a mixing up of weights and lengths.

Denim jackets, coats, shirts, vests, skirts and dresses are giving off that nonchalant street wear aesthetic thanks to the casual feel of the fabric. Street wear also has pushed a less gender-defined aesthetic. Street garments have cross-appeal, with women shopping from menswear lines and some brands catering to this with unisex lines. Across genders, there has been a general loosening of silhouette, with wider fit jeans, puffed-out jackets and longer-line top. From drop crotch to baggy denim, voluminous denim shapes are already in stores.

A growing preference for advanced automotive interiors along with a rise in the demand for passenger vehicles will drive growth in the textile coating market worldwide. Other triggers are, rapid urbanization along with increasing spending on infrastructure. Benefits including anti-abrasion, thermal insulation, self-cleaning and fire retardation will remain key factors fueling product demand. Others are advances in advertisement platforms including billboards, hoardings and signage. In addition, increasing product adoption in supporting nets, awnings and canopies used during infrastructure development will fuel demand.

Thermoplastics accounted for over 80 per cent of the overall textile coatings demand in 2016. Air bags, automotive upholstery, and bulk bags are major contributing applications. Benefits including durability, strength, and high resilience will facilitate the market growth in this segment.

The US textile coatings market will witness 4.5 per cent growth up to 2024. Positive outlook from home furnishing, clothing and industrial applications will support the overall business growth. Stagnant raw material prices along with increase in spending on R&D for further product innovation will propel regional industry growth.

Key players are: Omnova Solutions, Huntsman, Solvay, Clariant, Covestro, Sumitomo, Lubrizol and Nobletex.

The 10th edition of Planet Textiles 2019 will focus on sustainable innovation and technology. The exhibition, to be held on June 22, 2019 at the Fira Barcelona Exhibition Conference Centre, is expected to attract up to 120,000 visitors from 147 countries. First launched in 2009 in Hong Kong, Planet Textiles is expected to be a seminal event where apparel retailers, brands and buyers can network with an unrivalled gathering of experts from the textile manufacturing sector.

Delegates to Planet Textiles will also get special discounted access to ITMA where they can view the latest in textile production technology in action. A limited number of Planet Textile curated tours of ITMA will be available so that delegates can see new innovative technology with a positive environmental impact.

Planet Textiles is being supported once again by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and will detail disruptive new textile technology, expert insight from leading industry CEOs, retail and apparel brands and NGOs involved in the environmental space.

Special sessions at Planet Textiles 2019 will feature the ZDHC Foundation and Fashion for Good, along with breakout sessions on what denim and textile production will look like in the second half of the 21st Century and how to reduce their environmental impact.

Out of the 10 Asean countries, low wage earners in Myanmar and Cambodia have experienced the fastest growth in their minimum wages. In the five years between 2013 and 2018, workers in Cambodia and Myanmar saw their wages increase by 174.2 per cent and 203.3 per cent respectively. In 2018, Cambodia’s minimum monthly wage rose to R 750,000($182).

Several factors had underpinned the rapid rise in Cambodia’s lowest wages. The rise in cost of living and the government’s continuing efforts to reduce the rate of those living in poverty justifies the increase from around $100 a month to $182 presently.

Cambodia had greatly benefited from being a dollarised economy and from the strength of the US dollar compared to the weakness of emerging market currencies. A stronger dollar mitigates inflation, as most commodities — such as oil, metals, livestock and foods — are priced in US dollars.

Myanmar, which does not have the mainstay of a de-facto greenback economy, saw minimum wages more than double in the past five years, with mushrooming inflation expected to reach 6.2 per cent in 2018, well in excess of an ideal rate of 2 per cent.

A delegation of Knitwear and Apparel Exporters Organization in Ludhiana recently sent a MoU to the chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh apprising him of their problems. In the MoU, Harish Dua, President of the Association noted that Ludhiana needs a big international class textile cluster with availability of all essential services.

An MSME unit cannot afford all kinds of machines and services like embroidery, printing, knitting, dyeing, and electronic computerized cutting. Therefore, it will be in the best interest of exporters and manufacturers of garments that a cluster be made in Ludhiana, where all these facilities — along with the latest state -of -the -art machinery is made available at a subsidised cost to members of the cluster.

Narinder Chugh, Executive Council member of Apparel Export Promotion Council emphasised the need to train and mobilise women’s workforce in the state, especially in Ludhiana. The Punjab government, which is already taking several steps to improve business environment in the state, should also start initiatives to set up hostels for working women. The state government can also offer land free of cost for this purpose, besides constructing hostels with aid from the Central government at the earliest.