FW
Bangladesh is exploring the market for readymade garments in Tunisia. In the last fiscal, products and services totaling $5.4 million were exported from Bangladesh to the North African country, almost two-thirds of which comprised apparel items. However, much of Bangladesh readymade garments are shipped to Tunisia from neighboring countries like Turkey and Italy, resulting in an increase in the price of Bangladesh made garments. So, Bangladesh is keen to establish direct trade links with Tunisia so that garment exporters would be able to sell their products at a lower price.
Besides RMG, there is a big potential for Bangladesh medicines, leather goods and handicrafts in Tunisia. At the same time, Tunisian olive, olive oil and dates have a potential market in Bangladesh. Due to the geographical distance, Tunisia has never received much attention from Bangladesh's exporters. The country’s close proximity to Southern Europe means the European Union, especially France and Italy, is the closest business partner -- both in terms of import and export. Groups of Bangladesh readymade garment manufacturers are scheduled to visit Tunisia to explore the Tunisian market.
"The recently concluded Fashion Access and Cashmere World attracted over 10,000 international visitors from 85 countries during the three-days. Around 227 exhibitors from 20 countries and regions including well-known international brands such as Otto Kessler, LSR International, Cerutti – Massimo Cerutti, Simpson London, Regal, Impression Imtopia, as well as young enterprises and start-ups participated at Fashion Access. They were really impressed by the kind of products and services on display. This exhibition special as the Cashmere World returned after 18 months. It was inaugurated among others by William Fung Kwok-Lun, Group Chairman, Li & Fung, who delivered an insightful speech on the importance of cashmere industry."
The recently concluded Fashion Access and Cashmere World attracted over 10,000 international visitors from 85 countries during the three-days. Around 227 exhibitors from 20 countries and regions including well-known international brands such as Otto Kessler, LSR International, Cerutti – Massimo Cerutti, Simpson London, Regal, Impression Imtopia, as well as young enterprises and start-ups participated at Fashion Access. They were really impressed by the kind of products and services on display. This exhibition special as the Cashmere World returned after 18 months. It was inaugurated among others by William Fung Kwok-Lun, Group Chairman, Li & Fung, who delivered an insightful speech on the importance of cashmere industry.
Buyers give positive feedback
At Fashion Access buyers seek finished while simultaneously visiting APLF for leather, materials and trend inspiration. More than 50 buyers from 21 countries were introduced to a large number of suppliers matching their needs. As STL, Spain said, “I have been visiting the show since 2011 and almost half of my suppliers were found here at Fashion Access. This edition is better than before in terms of quality of suppliers. Also, it is nice to see a variety of fashion hardware and components suppliers in APLF – Materials+.” Similarly, Nicoli Shoes, Dubai, averred, “I own 16 shops in Dubai, focussing on high-end and luxury women’s shoes and bags. Fashion Access is a focused trade show, which makes it a serious trading platform. I am able to meet China and Hong Kong footwear suppliers with competitive prices. I can also visit APLF for leather.”
Exhibitor Wannasu from Thailand explained, “We chose Fashion Access as our first trade exhibition since we launched our brand to be known outside Thailand. We have been approached by several buyers. We took advantage of APLF Leather & Materials+ to source new, better quality leather, material and metallic components.”
At Fashion Access, buyers can find OEM suppliers in the specially designed Sourcing Zone and brands in both Brand Avenue and Design Street. The trade fair is increasingly becoming an incubator for young brands such as Federico Vignato, a company founded one year ago by a young couple who use it as a test bed for their products & services. They are also one of the ‘Best of APLF’ awards winners for their creative ladies' bag designs. Alma Law, Co-founder, Frederico Vignato, says, “We have been approached by several brands and bag manufacturers who have complimented us and given us valuable advice. For a newly founded company, these encouragements coming from professionals are priceless.”
Knowledge sessions
Is the digitisation of footwear production and retail inevitable? Question like this and many others were discussed in depth by experts from across the footwear industry at the fourth Global Footwear Retail Conference (GFRC) sponsored by Tencel and ISA Tantec and co-organised by APLF and the Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America (FDRA). Like other industries, footwear too is facing retail challenges including how to adapt to rapid consumer demand shifts and how to develop and implement speed to market strategies. From 3D printing micro-factories installed in stores to big data analysis and face recognition, new technologies are being introduced at all levels of the industry.
The second day of Fashion Access was for recogning and rewarding the creativity and craftsmanship of young designers and companies. Three winners were selected for the Design-A-Bag Online Competition while 11 companies were given the Best of APLF Awards (BOAA) for their innovative products or applications. Winners of the Design a Bag competition included Hong Kong-based designer Chan Tak Kei, for her playful, imaginative jellyfish bag and Singaporean Ho Kuan Teck for its triangle, 8 shaped, smart ladies handbag.
Among the winners of the BOAA, Simpson London’s hand-stitched, traditional bridle-finish vegetable-tanned leather collection was awarded the Best Bag & Small Leathergoods Collection for its classic and simplicity while in the Best Men’s Footwear Collection Numero Uno was awarded for its hybrid, innovative athleisure collection. The next edition of Fashion Access and Cashmere World will take place in Hong Kong from March 13-15, 2019.
Lenzing and Jeanologia have collaborated to produce a capsule collection called Blues & Hues. The collection has been conceived to showcase the potential of collaboration between environmentally-minded companies which seek to meet the escalating appetite for sustainable denim products.
The collection will showcase new, fresh colors in conjunction with latest laundry application techniques whilst also staying true to denim’s indigo roots. Lenzing is a fiber producer. Always environmentally conscious, Lenzing is featuring new sustainable methods and products. Jeanologia is a textile technology firm, an innovation leader in sustainable fabric finishing techniques.
From fiber to finish, this Blues & Hues capsule collection demonstrates the exciting designs that result when fashion, comfort, and sustainability combine together. Because of their natural origins, Lenzing’s fibers enhance denim with a sustainability element as well as with the aesthetics and performance that are critical for denim today.
Color is key and powerful in this collection. A complete range of pastel colors and vibrant hues have been applied using Jeanologia’s eFlow technology. The denim becomes a reinterpreted basic, thanks to the reactive flow overdyeing that yields a retro aesthetic made in a modern way. Two environmentally-minded companies have worked together to address the market’s escalating calls for sustainable denim.
Sustainable farming is helping drive a more sustainable supply chain for Wrangle’s denim. The brand found that conservation tillage, cover crops and long-term crop rotation can remove three times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere as conventional farming methods. They also improve crop yields and cuts costs.
Long-term conservation crop rotations can yield more cotton, lower production costs and increase environmental benefits. The diverse crops nourish the ground, and help manage pests and diseases, resulting in better quality soil. Wrangler believes its supply chain does not begin with fabric or cotton but with soil and the land itself.
The VF Corp. owned brand has become leader in sustainability in the denim industry. Besides recent investments in indigo foam dyeing technology, Wrangler launched a soil health program in 2017 to help increase the supply of sustainable cotton and encourage wider adoption of responsible farming practices.
Wrangler purchases roughly half of the cotton for its products from US growers. The pilot program builds on the company’s long-standing commitment to supporting US farming communities and other programs including a commitment to 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025, zero waste facilities and manufacturing and technology improvements that have saved three billion liters of water over the last decade.
Better Buying and Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) will collaborate in Bangladesh to support and promote responsible buying practices within garment industry supply chains. The Better Buying platform gives buyers anonymous ratings from suppliers on seven key aspects of purchasing practices – planning and forecasting, design and development, cost and cost negotiation, sourcing and order placement, payment and terms, management of the purchasing process, and CSR harmonization.
Purchasing practices can negatively impact wages and working conditions in global supply chains. ETI believes Better Buying scores and analysis will serve as an independent method of determining strengths and weaknesses within brands’ procurement cycles. There has been a debate about the impact of buying practices on the ability of suppliers to maintain good labor standards. International retailers and brands can therefore, only gain from this initiative, in terms of underpinning sustainable business for all, building their reputation and improving conditions for workers.
Better Buying and ETI expect the information and analysis that will result from the supplier ratings to help companies understand which purchasing practices are working well and which may benefit from focused efforts to improve. By using Better Buying, brands can identify how their buyers, product developers, and others responsible for bringing product to market can improve their day-to-day business activities, thus helping their suppliers uphold better labor standards.
Kutch-based NGO, Khamir is working with the National Institute of Design to experiment with Kala cotton. Kala is a coarse and short-staple strand of cotton grown in large parts of Gujarat.
It is tenacious and more responsive to dyes. However, it’s not easy to work with. From cultivation to creating yarns, it requires more effort compared to mainstream crops. While two groups — consisting of artisan and three students each — worked on cotton, two opted for sheep wool acquired from Kutch. The project was part of the coursework of the design program.
All the clothes were made completely on loom, without any waste, with natural dyes. Young artisans are being encouraged to get exposed to global trends and new ways of designing to reach out to a newer audience. The initiative at NID was thus strategic to providing them a new perspective.
Stakeholders have shown interest in taking the idea further. The indigenous cotton and wool, apart from being sustainable and providing livelihood to the traditional practitioners, are also better suited to the local climate. Indian textiles have thrived on indigenous varieties of cotton used by people in different parts of the country to suit their needs.
Although Vietnam is one of the five biggest apparel exporters in the world, there aren’t any known Vietnamese brands. The textile and garment sectors spearheads the country’s export and generates the biggest number of jobs -- about 2.5 million. However, most employees in the sector are manual workers in charge of simple steps while the steps requiring technical skills like dyeing or designing are facing a shortage.
Shortage of high-quality manpower is also one of the reasons why local production of apparel remains undeveloped and Vietnam has to depend on imported materials. Meanwhile, not much is being done about generating high value additions like designing products or on brand building.
Only about 30 per cent of the 6000 textile-garment businesses in Vietnam operate in textiles, including weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing fabrics. Most of the remaining firms make products ordered by foreign fashion brands. Only a few are able to create their own products, from manufacturing fabrics, designing, to making apparel.
Many companies still have to hire foreign experts and technicians at high costs to be responsible for dyeing, completing fabric and designing products, thus augmenting production costs and reducing their products’ competitiveness compared to foreign rivals.
Master will transfer its continuous dyeing technology with indigo and other dyestuffs of warp chains for denim fabrics to Karl Mayer. Karl Mayer will take over Master’s patents, trademarks, projects and dyeing technology for the IndigoFlow, IndigoRope and IndigoGenius models.
Master will stop manufacturing these machines and focus on developing and manufacturing new machines for packages and hank dyeing. Karl Mayer will further develop the nitrogen technology by integrating it into its current product range Prodye-S and Prodye-R.
The IndigoGenius today represents the most advanced machine in the world. This ingenious technology purely based on ecological and economical parameters, cuts by half the number of dyeing vats.
Karl Mayer is a market leader and a driving force in textile machinery building. It offers machine and appropriate solutions for warp knitting, technical textiles and warp preparation for weaving.
Master is a pioneer and leader in continuous dyeing with indigo and other dyestuffs. Master, based in Italy, it is known for its popular warp rope dyeing system for denim fabric. It is considered to be the most classic processing method, representing the most widely used one in the world. It has been used for over a hundred years and has never been subject to substantial technical changes, either technical or architectural.
Fast fashion is at risk of hitting a speed bump if a looming crisis sweeps Bangladesh’s banking sector. Financial institutions in the South East Asian nation face a credit crunch following mass deposit withdrawals in March and soaring levels of non-performing loans.
A full-blown crisis could spill over into Bangladesh’s strongest link to the global economy — the production of textiles and garments for fast fashion brands and retailers such as H&M, American Eagle Outfitters, Zara, Walmart and Target. A banking crisis would have a knock-on effect on global garment supply chain.
Garment factories’ inability to secure loans due to a banking crisis could possibly hold up the supply chain of global clothing retailers. Bangladesh is the largest exporter of readymade garments after China. Knitwear and woven garment exports between July and January accounted for about 83 per cent of its exports.
Loans from commercial banks remain a key source of working capital for many of the thousands of factories in Bangladesh. Years of corruption and poor lending practices have sent levels of bad debt at some banks above 20 per cent, while capital buffers are dangerously low. Irregularities uncovered at two large commercial lenders have sparked a broad run on national savings certificates, a retail savings product, further hurting banks’ balance sheets.
India is attracting Vietnamese investments particularly in garments and textiles. India allows 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail via the automatic route, which means foreign investors can pour money into the market without prior permission. Vietnamese garment companies can take advantage of the policy by investing in production of threads, fabrics and ready-made clothes. The Indian market of 1.3 billion people is a tempting opportunity for investors.
Currently Vietnam and India are among the five leading garment exporters in the world. Last year, the value of Indian apparel exports to Vietnam grew 44 per cent while Vietnam’s shipment of garment and textile products to India grew by 42 per cent.
Improving trade transactions and connectivity has been classified as a strategic target by the two countries. They aim at bringing bilateral trade to $15 billion by 2020. Last year, Vietnam’s textile and garment exports were up 10.23 per cent from the same period last year while its imports of textile and garment materials, mostly yarns and fabrics, amounted to $19 billion. Between April 2017 and January 2018, Vietnam-India trade reached $10.39 billion, surpassing the $10.13 billion figure recorded from April 2016 to March 2017.
