The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) has approved three investment projects in the bags and garments sector with a total capital investment of $8.8 million. These projects including setting up a bag factory for Quan Ming Handbag (Cambodia) Industrial, a bag and belt factory for Gd New Sky Leather Products Co, and a garment factory for Tao And Kiven Garment.

These factories will generate 3,448 jobs. They will be located in Phnom Penh, and Kandal and Kampong Speu provinces.

As Cambodia may be at risk of losing duty-free export opportunities to the European Union (EU) if the Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement is withdrawn, the country is diversifying its export portfolio to reduce any potential impact. The country is expanding its export portfolio to combat any potential effect. It is also trying to reinforce its productivity and competitiveness in the export sector, which will help its products compete with those of other countries.

Stäubli presented its latest textile machines for weaving and knitting at ITMACH India 2019. The company showcased its new TIEPRO warp tying machine, S1692 cam motion and the S3260 electronic rotary dobby along with Stäubli TF weaving systems.

Weavers attending the exhibition also learned about Stäubli’s broad range of Jacquard weaving machinery. Covering virtually any application, this range includes machine formats with up to 25,600 hooks (or up to 51,200 by combining two machines) as well as Jacquard weaving harnesses for perfect coordination between the Jacquard and the weaving machine.

Locally active in the Indian market since 1947, Stäubli is a renowned player in the Indian textile industry. The company also offers in-house training for machine operators and support for customers’ production teams as part of change management. Maintenance and spare parts schemes are also locally available and highly appreciated.

Pure London is delighted to announce British designer Dame Zandra Rhodes to the AW20/21 show for a keynote address on day one. Zandra will take to the newly created Nomad stage in the National Hall of Olympia London to discuss her ‘50 Years of Fabulous’ at 3.30 pm on Sunday 9th February 2020.

As one of the most enduring and iconic designers of the generation, this year Zandra celebrates her own Jubilee in the fashion industry. Visitors will experience her speak about the ups and downs of continuing to thrive in the fashion world, offering fascinating insights and no doubt a few interesting stories over the years. Over the past 50 years, Zandra has dressed figureheads of the fashion industry in her signature creations, which combine vibrant patterns and finishes with superior-quality fabrics. Her seasonal collections are a fine display of her textile expertise and experience, captured in the colourful and timeless dresses printed and beaded by hand at her London atelier.

Zandra marked her 50 years in fashion in September 2019 with a retrospective exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum, a book published by Yale and a collection for SS20 entitled 'The Jubilee Collection.' The fashion icon shows no signs of slowing down - announcing future collaborations with the likes of IKEA and working on her AW20 collection to be shown in February 2020 at LFW.

The new Nomad Stage offers a dedicated platform for industry leaders, change-makers and personalities to discuss the most pertinent and significant global topics in the industry, share their stories and offer practical business advice.

The Premium Textile Japan (PTJ) 2020 Autumn/Winter and JFW JAPAN CREATION (JFW-JC) 2020 textile shows took placeamid an unprecedented downturn in the apparel market. Although the fairs started initially with relatively visitors (85%compared with the previous year) on the first day, things recovered by day two, with numerous visitors gracing both showvenues and a total of 16,800 visitors recorded over both days.

The PTJ fair was particularly successful awash with buyers who were constantly sourcing new fabrics. Equally prominentwere numerous buyers from leading apparel companies, despite recent trends suggesting a decline in this area. The stand-out feature on the occasion was the increased number of overseas buyers, following on from the previous record breaking PTJ show held in May (with over 150 buyers from 19 countries/regions).

Although no detailed breakdown has yet beenannounced, with multiple registrations from Chinese group buyers alongside other visitors from Asian countries Korea, Taiwan and Singapore as well as the States and Turkey, reflecting significant interest in Japan fabrics.The highlight of this edition was the increased no. of new exhibitors. The Turkey Pavilion made its debut as an overseasparticipation by group, while many domestic companies also joined the fair, seeking to acquire new customers to offset adecline in orders from existing clients via limited routine sales.

Nike has overcome rising costs and new competition in both the online and offline sales channels to post market-thumping sales and profit growth. The footwear and sports apparel giant’s financial resources are a major asset. It intends to press that advantage to keep rivals in catch-up mode. Evidence of that strategy is the company's recent acquisition of the data analytics company Celect and with Nike's aggressive spending on marketing, research and development, and the direct-to-consumer sales channel. At the same time, the growth stock is cutting in places that aren’t delivering healthy returns, including by developing fewer products and discontinuing models when they don't quickly resonate with consumers. These initiatives impact selling expenses, which ticked slightly higher to more than 31 per cent of sales last quarter.

Nike expects sales growth to accelerate in fiscal 2020. This may be possible by efforts at raising gross profit margin through more direct-to-consumer sales. On the other hand, if Nike stumbled in the weeks gross profit margin should also expand, leading to earnings growth in the mid-single digits. China accounted for nearly a quarter of Nike’s global growth last year. At home, its success in standing out against rivals like Under Armour will depend on Nike's continued ability to launch popular new products.

Singapore-based fashion startup Zilingo has acquired nCinga in a cash and stock deal. The acquisition will enable Zilingo to help customers in the United States, Europe and Australia, where brands traditionally lack transparency over supply chain and manufacturing processes. Zilingo will also help to expand the reach of nCinga’s software to core fashion manufacturing markets such as Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey.

Zilingo, has built several pieces of the supply chain — manufacturing, logistics, payments, etc, for retailers and brands. nCinga is a startup from Sri Lanka founded in 2014 and offers an IoT platform to enable real-time production monitoring on factory floors and data analytics tools. Zilingo will deploy the Sri Lankan startup’s Manufacturing Execution System software across its network of 6,000 factories and 75,000 businesses. In fact Zilingo has long been a client of nCinga and nCinga’s product has helped the startup drastically improve efficiency and drive insights by digitizing the shop floor. The Sri Lankan startup’s work has been crucial to Zilingo’s mission of creating a transparent, sustainable, economically viable and socially responsible apparel supply chain.

Retailers continue to struggle with meeting consumer demands for fast, responsibly produced products due to inefficiencies and information asymmetry.

Oonana, based in the US, is an online retail marketplace started by manufacturers to provide clothing brands a low cost and low risk platform to sell direct to consumer. With Oonana, US fashion brands can simply upload their existing product images on the site and defer the costly marketing and time-consuming customer service to the platform. As a marketplace, Oonana is also able to attract and keep more customers by offering a wider selection of vendors and styles. But unlike other marketplaces, Oonana can offer one central shipment of multi-vendor orders which eliminates multiple packages and higher shipping costs for consumers. The direct access gives shoppers first availability on the newest styles and the lowest retail prices by bypassing retailers. Oonana’s full retail proceeds go directly back to the fashion brands (Oonana only takes a small commission).

Fashion brands have had a rough run the past years with record levels of retailer closings that have dwindled their customer base. Continuing downward industry trends and ever-increasing cost pressures from the explosion of fast fashion have left clothing brands to deal with razor-thin margins and cut-throat practices from retailers. It’s clear that the traditional supply chain in fashion is broken and many clothing manufacturers are turning to a new direct-to-consumer model.

Increasing use of e-commerce by consumers and firms in South Asia can potentially help increase competition and firm productivity, and encourage diversification of production and exports, says the World Bank. By unleashing its online trade potential, South Asia can better integrate into international value chains, increase its market access, and strengthen commercial linkages between countries across the region.

Online transactions can be strengthened by leveraging the reputation of large e-commerce platforms to offer consumer protection, return and redress, and data security as an initial substitute for robust contractual and consumer protection mechanisms, and permitting cross-border e-commerce payments. While cross-border trade within South Asia represents only five per cent of the region’s total trade, e-commerce has the potential to stimulate regional trade by bridging the gap between buyers and sellers on different sides of national borders. Apart from firms, consumers in South Asia stand to gain significantly from the potential reduction in costs and availability of a greater variety of e-traded goods and services.

Although e-commerce has grown significantly in South Asia, online sales account for a mere 1.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent of total retail sales in India and Bangladesh, compared to 15 per cent in China and around 14 per cent globally.

Delhi Fashion Club organised “LOCAL TO GLOBAL KHADI” in Chandigarh during “International Fashion Week” which was held on 14th December 2019 at Hyatt Regency, Chandigarh. With this show DFC also celebrates 150yr of Mahatma Gandhi and 100 years of Charkha.

With this show DFC tried to give a platform to such designers who are working closely with the weavers , artisans & making garments with a vision for a better tomorrow for the world and the nation. DFC Promotes “sustainable fashion” concept which is spreading globally & not only talks about eco-friendly fabrics but also urge to design zero waste garments. This helps in saving our environment & Forests as well by avoiding the use of toxic dies and chemicals.

To support the cause during this Fashion Week, Delhi Fashion club organised a unique fashion show consisting of two designers Arbin Tonjam from Manipur (Represented North East Handloom) and Celebrity Designer Ashok Maanay from Banglore (Represented National Handloom Silk).

Delhi Fashion Club presented this show on day one of the fashion week which witnessed the richness of Handlooms & textile of North Eastern State Manipur. Show started with North east textile promotion followed by National Silk handlooms show, Arbin presented his Manipuri handloom to promote north east & accessories for the models includes wooden sticks headgear which were beautifully amalgamated with Manipuri sensibilities of designs, whereas Ashok Maanay’s collection was made of Silk & used handloom sarees and Royal pagdi and silk shalls for mens too, making them look like royal family queens and kings.

The 33rd Annual General Meeting [AGM] of the Export Promotion Council was held today at New Delhi. Ravi K. Passi, Chairman EPCH while addressing the AGM informed that with the active support of the Council, exporting community performed very well with respect to exports from the Country which was Rs. 23,029.36 crores in 2017-18 and reached to the tune of Rs. 26,590.25 in 2018-19 crores registering an impressive growth of 15.46% over the previous year.

The 33rd Annual General Meeting [AGM] of the Export Promotion Council was held today at New Delhi. Ravi K. Passi, Chairman EPCH while addressing the AGM informed that with the active support of the Council, exporting community performed very well with respect to exports from the Country which was Rs. 23,029.36 crores in 2017-18 and reached to the tune of Rs. 26,590.25 in 2018-19 crores registering an impressive growth of 15.46% over the previous year.

Passi further informed about multifarious activities related to marketing, product and design development, skilling, compliance and other initiatives undertaken by EPCH during 2018-19 which included participation in International fairs within India and in the overseas markets, organizing informative seminars all across craft clusters, providing handholding to entrepreneurs, exporters and artisans and Council’s active engagement with MSME’s SFURTI programme in Northern Eastern Region.

He informed that Council also represented various issues pertaining to GST, MEIS benefits and the range of other issues affecting handicrafts sector at the highest level including Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ministry of Finance.

With an objective to offer avenues for technological upgradation, skill development and marketing opportunities, EPCH set up Handicrafts Productivity Centre and Testing Laboratory at Jaipur, upgraded the Saharanpur Common Facility Centre with latest and modern technology machines elaborated Shri Passi.

Rakesh Kumar, Director GeneralEPCH while speaking on the occasion informed the members present in the meeting about Council’s PAN India reach and active participation of the prominent exporters from various crafts pockets in development, promotion and growth of exports of Handicrafts. He further informed the House about the tremendous increase of participation in IHGF Delhi Fair (Autumn/Spring) as well as footfall of overseas buyers in IHGF Delhi Fair in recent IHGFs. The DG-EPCH further informed the House about the council’s future plans to actively engage the social media platforms to increase its reach within India as well across the globe and also providing backward and forward linkages for overall growth of handicrafts sector.

During 33rd AGM six members of the Committee of Administration were also elected. The newly elected members includeRaj Kumar Malhotra of M/s Asian Handicrafts Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon from Northern Region, HansrajBaheti of M/s Thar Art Exports, Jodhpur and LekhrajMaheshwari of M/s Rajasthan Handloom & Handicrafts Industries, Jaipur from North West Region, Nabeel Ahmad of M/s Nawab Regency, Moradabd, Kamal Soni of M/s Vallabh Metal Inc., Moradabd and Sharad Kumar Bansal of M/s Bansal Impex, Moradabad are elected from Central Region informed Rakesh Kumar, DG – EPCH.

The Handicrafts exports during the eight months of current financial year from April to November, 2019-20 is Rs. 17,292.68 crores registering a growth of over 2.72% over the same period in last year.