The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has developed an intelligent fabric defect detection system, called “WiseEye”, which leverages advanced technologies including artificial intelligence and deep learning in the process of quality control in the textile industry. The system effectively minimises the chance of producing substandard fabric by 90 per cent, substantially reducing loss and wastage in the production.

It helps to save manpower as well as enhance automation management in textile manufacturing. Supported by AI-based machine-vision technology, the novel WiseEye can be installed in a weaving machine to help fabric manufacturers to detect defects instantly in the production process. Through the automatic inspection system, the production line manager can easily detect the defects, thus helping them to identify the cause of the problems and fix them immediately.

WiseEye is developed by the Textile and Apparel Artificial Intelligence Research Team, which is spearheaded by Prof Calvin Wong, Cheng Yik Hung Professor in Fashion of Institute of Textiles and Clothing, PolyU.

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has urged the European Union (EU) not to suspend trade preferences for Cambodia as these sanctions may have adverse impacts on the lives of workers and their families. The decision was made after EU notified Cambodia earlier this month that it had initiated the process for temporary withdrawal of its preferential trade treatment under the Everything but Arm (EBA) scheme for Cambodia, citing concerns over human rights and labor rights.

Around 1,000 garment and footwear factories in the kingdom directly employ about 700,000 workers with more than 85 percent being female coming from the rural provinces. It is estimated that another 2 million out of the country's total population economically depend on the sector. Every month, more than 150 million U.S. dollars is paid out as salary to these workers.

EU is an important trading partner for Cambodia, especially for the apparel and footwear sector; more than 46 percent of Cambodia's total exports of apparel and footwear is to the EU.

The trade war between the US and China has been likened to an approaching tsunami. American consumers would have to pay more, factories could be forced out of China or out of business, and the sophisticated supply chain China has built in recent decades could be broken.

As a link between the two countries, Hong Kong would feel the knock-on effect if the trade war means less cargo passing through the city’s ports. The US is seen as having overpushed the tariffs issue and stands to antagonise all parties, from consumers and US retailers to the whole supply chain. It is not clear what the US wants negotiations on – tariffs, the South China Sea issue, investment in Africa, intellectual property or technology transfers. The country has moved the goalposts in the political game with China from American joblessness to trade deficits and lately to currency manipulation.

America imports 41 per cent of clothing, 72 per cent of footwear and 84 per cent of accessories, such as bags, from China. China and the US have crossed swords since July when the first wave of tit-for-tat tariffs on goods kicked in. The US imposed its latest round of 10 per cent tariffs in September, on $200 billion worth of Chinese products – mostly food and consumer goods. The tariffs will jump to 25 per cent on January 1 next year.

Bangladesh’s apparel manufacturers are facing tough competition due to a devaluation in the currencies of all emerging countries. The Indian rupee depreciated by 10.04 per cent against the dollar in the current year, while the Indonesian rupiah fell by 7.89 per cent and the Chinese yen depreciated by 4.85 per cent.

Readymade garment manufacturers in Bangladesh and exporters have called for a separate exchange rate for exporters, which would give a cushion to exporters as well as help the country enlarge its export volume. The country’s readymade garment sector has already lost its competitive edge in global markets due to a rise in production costs. A lot of money has been spent in improving safety standards to ensure a safe environment for workers. Also manufacturers have to implement the new wage structure from December.

Bangladesh’s overall exports grew 5.81 per cent in the fiscal year 2018 compared to fiscal year 2017. This has been mainly due to higher shipment of garment products. China is the largest apparel exporter to the globe with a 34.9 per cent market share. Bangladesh is the second largest exporter with a 6.5 per cent market share. Vietnam is the third largest with a 5.9 per cent market share. India is ranked fourth.

Sensil Innergy is a technical fabric that uses far-infrared technology to gently reflect the naturally emitted thermal energy back to the body, improving the oxygenation of muscles for peak performance during athletic activity and aiding post-workout recovery. Sensil is strong and resilient, yet soft and comfortable. It is for people who want to feel great while they push past their limits, whether they’re running in the desert or through the streets of a city.

Sensil is a premium nylon 6.6 brand from Israel-based manufacturer Nilit. Apparel and fabric designers have taken to Sensil. It was created based on extensive analysis of evolving consumer attitudes and rapidly shifting retail shopping trends and has rapidly elevated the quality standard for nylon 6.6. Sensil aims at representing Nilit’s new way of conveying the benefits of its premium nylon 6.6 products to the industry and to busy consumers looking for beautiful apparel that also meets their high expectations for value, performance, and quality.

Nilit is a manufacturer and marketer of nylon textile fibers. Sensil is naturally softer, stronger, more durable, and more moisture-wicking and odor-resistant than other man-made fibers. Sensil creates fabrics with beautiful drape and hand. Sensil performance yarns are enhanced to provide additional attributes that consumers require in today’s advanced fabrics.

The Texas A&M University, recently commercialised a biotech version of a cotton plant whose seeds can be eaten. Texas A&M Keerti Rathore started working on the project 23 years ago, and figured out how to silence a gene in the plant that produced a toxin, called gossypol. While gossypol protects the plant from insects, it made the seeds inedible to humans and most animals.

It will be several years before farmers can grow it commercially, as seed supplies have to be ramped up starting next season. US Food and Drug Administration approval is still needed, which the university expects within months. After that, farmers will be able to grow cotton for food as well as for fiber.

The cotton seeds contain proteins to meet the daily requirements of 600 million people should all cotton in the world be replaced with edible varieties.

Levi Strauss & Co. has patent protection for an automated laser solution for finishing its jeans that shortens the process from 20 minutes to 90 seconds. Prior to automation, the manual process for distressing a pair of jeans for Levi’s modeled after a designer sample required a factory worker to apply chemicals to the jeans, use sandpaper to distress them and introduce the holes and tears indicative of designer duds.

This laborious, inexact process typically took 20 to 30 minutes per pair.With the automation technology, the factory worker is removed from the process; a Levi’s designer creates a digital image of the distressed jeans with instructions the laser technology can understand, and the lasers can then replicate every element of the design—from fades to tears—onto a basic pair of jeans. And finishing that process takes just 90 seconds.

The technology allows the company to produce unfinished jeans in Asia, then send them to nearshore countries for finishing. This means that the company can test many different styles, quickly reproduce the best sellers, and have them in stores within days.

Levi’s is presently piloting the technology, which it expects to roll out to all of its factories by 2020.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged the FM Arun Jaitley to extend the deadline for filing GSTR-3B return for September, till the end of the current year, citing technical faults on the GST website being the main obstacle to file returns. Notably, the Ministry of Finance announced extension of deadline by five days to October 25, where Input Tax Credit (ITC) benefit for the period from July last year to March this year will also be made available for businesses, who can claim the benefits by the mentioned date.

In a letter issued to the Finance Minister, CAIT elucidated that there are various issues on the website that are creating a lot of problems for the dealers/consultants to file their returns for the month of September. Furthermore, the CAIT also marked out that the facts depict that the government is intending to raise its revenue with late fees income and termed the move by the government shameful.

The major issues being faced by the return filers are that the portal is unable to serve over 150,000 users at a time because of server failure and the entered figure automatically turns into zero along with numerous other errors while uploading any document. CAIT urged the Ministry of Finance to come up with a solution for this major problem and help to make GST a dream law rather than a nightmare.

Gilberto Benetton, 77, co-founder of Benetton, is dead. Gilberto, along with siblings Carlo, Luciano and Giuliana, founded the Benetton knitwear company in 1965, transforming it into a global brand.

Italian brand Benetton is known as much for its shock factor ad campaigns as its colorful knitwear. The family-owned company has supported sports centers, building restoration and travelling art exhibitions that reflect the brand’s core values of social justice and sustainability.

Benetton is one of Europe’s most controversial fashion brands. Its shock advertising campaigns — whose memorable images included a priest and a nun kissing, and a baby still attached to the umbilical cord — made it a household name. It rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s with its brightly colored clothing.

The group is facing challenges, both from newer competitors such as Zara, H&M and Uniqlo, and the explosion of e-commerce. The plan is to go back to Benetton’s original premise of mid-priced clothes for the long term.

The brand will see a reissue of its most iconic lines, harking back to the days when the family-owned company was selling its brightly colored jumpers in more than 100 countries. The brand is reissuing a unisex collection of T-shirts, logo-embroidered baseball caps and branded nylon bumbags.

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has yet to hand over safety monitoring responsibility to the Remediation Coordination Cell, a government-formed body. Accord has expressed interest in handing over safety monitoring responsibility of 100 fully-remediated readymade garment factories without mentioning any time frame. Accord has not mentioned even the name of any factories in its handover document.

Following the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, European Union retailers formed the Accord. This platform has so far inspected more than 1,600 readymade garment factories. Accord-listed factories have completed more than 89 per cent of remediation works while 172 factories have completed 100 per cent remediation.

The tenure of the platform ended in May this year and it was given a six-month transition period that will end on November 30 this year. Accord was an unprecedented, independent, legally binding agreement between trade unions and brands. The Bangladesh readymade garment industry is undoubtedly safer, and lives have been saved.

Global stakeholders, including buyers, trade unions and investors, have requested Bangladesh to allow the operation of Transition Accord till a national body is ready to take over factory safety responsibility.