FW
Hong Kong will host the 49th Hong Kong Fashion Week from January 15 to 18, 2018. The event will attract 1,400 exhibitors from 77 countries at the Hong Kong Convention and Trade Center. The highly anticipated event will serve as an ideal one-stop sourcing platform for the Asian fashion industry. Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the fashion week will present an array of new season’s apparel, designer collections, fashion accessories and garments as well a garment-related products, services and supplies. This trade fair will incorporate categories such as ‘women’s wear,’ ‘knitwear,’ ‘world of fashion accessories’ and ‘sewing supplies’.
Their ‘Fashion Gallery’ will showcase high fashion and brand labels. Their unique premium section ‘Emporium de Mode’ will be dedicated to “stylish and distinctive garments in an elegant setting. There will also be ‘Special Product Zones’ displaying activewear and swimwear, bridal and evening wear, cashmere and wool, denim arcade, fabrics and yarn, fashion jewellery feast, handbags, infant and children’s wear, intimate wear, men in style, packaging and design, salon of scarves and shawls, thermal clothing, trade services and testing, certification and inspection, world youth collection and fashion magazines.
What’s new at the 49th edition is the niche ‘Corporate Fashion/Uniforms’ zone. As per data from the China National Garment Association, 19 industries require the use standard uniforms in Mainland China and the market for this segment is estimated to be valued at over $43 billion per year. In Europe, the uniform market is projected to reach $9.4 billion by 2021.
Another exciting category is the ‘International Fashion Designers’ showcase where cutting-edge collections of featured designers and fashion design talents worldwide are expected to come together. There will also be talks and presentations in seminars and forums. The last edition saw 15,000 buyers from 77 countries and regions in attendance.
"After registering a decline in exports from $468 billion in 2014-15 to $437 billion in 2016-17, the government recently released its mid-term review of the five-year Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, to gauge the impact of several incentives to bring relief to exporters. An incentive of Rs 8450 crores ($1.3 billion) was announced to help the export sector reach its goal of $900 billion by 2020 and increase India’s share in global exports to 3.5 per cent. Labour-intensive industries such as leather and footwear have been granted incentives of Rs 749 crores, the handmade carpets sector Rs 971 crores, agriculture sector Rs 1354 crores, telecom and electronics sector Rs 369 crores, garment sector Rs 2743 croresand so on."
After registering a decline in exports from $468 billion in 2014-15 to $437 billion in 2016-17, the government recently released its mid-term review of the five-year Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, to gauge the impact of several incentives to bring relief to exporters. An incentive of Rs 8450 crores ($1.3 billion) was announced to help the export sector reach its goal of $900 billion by 2020 and increase India’s share in global exports to 3.5 per cent. Labour-intensive industries such as leather and footwear have been granted incentives of Rs 749 crores, the handmade carpets sector Rs 971 crores, agriculture sector Rs 1354 crores, telecom and electronics sector Rs 369 crores, garment sector Rs 2743 croresand so on.
Additionally, a new logistics division has been established in the department of commerce to coordinate logistics development. The incentives also include simplified paperwork, enhanced support to high employment sectors, duty-free procurement of inputs on a self-assessment basis, and other sector-specific incentives. The government has also announced additional steps to make processes relating to trade more straightforward, including a self-certification scheme for duty-free imports, a single point electronic contact to traders with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade for trade and consignment related queries, etc.
Global trends
After growing at a healthy 25.67 per cent export growth in September, October registered a decline of 1.12 per cent. Sector-wise, since September, there has been a 39 per cent decline in the export growth of garments, 25 per cent decline in export growth of gems and jewellery and 10 per cent decline in export growth of leather and leather products. As per recent WTO data, global trade is likely to increase by 3.6 per cent in 2017 from 1.3 per cent growth in 2016. The favourable rise can be attributed to the surge in import demand of North America. These growing numbers have led to the entire Indian textile industry introspecting as to why the exports numbers are going down.
Reasons of decline
Beyond foreign trade policies, the biggest reason that must have restricted the growth of textile in recent times is the implementation of GST and the process of receiving refunds by the exporter. Garment exporters say, competitiveness is affected by an increase in the requirement of working capital and a decrease in incentives for this purpose. Exporters are having a tough competition from countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The cost disadvantage to India also includes the duty-free access to the European countries enjoyed by these countries. Moreover, value of the rupee has become strong and this has reduced its competitiveness in the global market.
Indian export growth has not even crossed 10 per cent since 2011. As per the World Bank data, no country has ever been able to sustain an overall growth rate of seven per cent while having an export growth rate less than 15 per cent. It is time for the policymakers to realise that quick-fix solutions such as cost incentives are no longer adequate for supporting the export growth in the long run.
Positive measures
To grow exports, the government needs to distinguish those sectors in which the country has a competitive advantage, and improve them in terms of market research, innovation, quality, cost, etc. Data reveals investments in R&D and human capital have been low this year. Some other critical areas of focus include poor infrastructure, inadequate logistics and other structural issues. Transport and logistics costs, found to be costlier than tariffs, pose another barrier. Some trade experts suggest that India’s foreign trade relations are somewhat complicated and inefficient. This is also a good time to bring about structural reforms because China is losing its position as the world’s manufacturing hub.
Bangladesh’s export earnings from garments, jute and jute goods, frozen fish and footwear rose 6.22 per cent in November. Total shipments in the July-November period rose 6.86 per cent year-on-year.
Garments accounted for more than 82 per cent of total national exports in the first five months of the fiscal year, 7.46 per cent up from the same period a year ago. Knitwear exports went up 10.86 per cent year-on-year in July-November while woven garments rose 3.99 per cent.
Exports of leather and leather goods, the second largest export earning sector after garments, declined 2.95 per cent year-on-year. Within the same category, exports of leather footwear, however, grew 8.55 per cent. Shipments of jute and jute goods, another top earner, surged 16.51 per cent while jute yarn and twine saw their earnings rise while shipments of raw jute, jute sacks and bags fell.
The country’s garment manufacturers hope shipments grow 12 to 15 per cent a year so that the $50 billion export target by 2021 is reached. They feel cash incentives for exporters and improving infrastructure at ports and airports can help bolster exports. Exporters have also called for measures that will enable them to ship goods through direct cargo flights.
By early 2021 some 18 million items of intelligent clothing, or wearables are expected to be sold. These are fabrics that can measure heart rate, body temperature or stress levels and react accordingly. Conductive yarns, for example, are now being used to produce illuminated clothing, which can contain up to 625 lighting elements per meter.
Wearables are electronic technologies and computers that can be incorporated into items of clothing and worn; one characteristic is that they are directly connected to the internet, which means they are in a position to exchange data. They enable a new form of human/machine interaction with a virtually inexhaustible range of possible applications. Examples such as smart shirts, intelligent accessories or medical products can save lives. Most importantly, by adding to the wearer’s awareness of health and mobility, they improve safety in daily life and at work, as they can alert the user to risks and help in optimising working processes.
In spite of their great potential in the field of clothing, wearables and smart textiles have not yet moved beyond the early development phase. The reason for this is that a huge range of different elements in industry and science needs to work cooperatively to implement new ideas successfully and bring them to market.
"The upcoming Copenhagen Fashion Summit, to be held in May 2018 is set for a revamp. As per the new format, the global multi-stakeholder event will expand to two days, allowing more time to explore the many Summit components, including the new Innovation Forum, which boasts of more than 50 sustainable solution providers. On May 15-16, 2018, the world’s leading business event on sustainability in fashion will kick off its sixth edition at the Copenhagen Concert Hall."
The upcoming Copenhagen Fashion Summit, to be held in May 2018 is set for a revamp. As per the new format, the global multi-stakeholder event will expand to two days, allowing more time to explore the many Summit components, including the new Innovation Forum, which boasts of more than 50 sustainable solution providers. On May 15-16, 2018, the world’s leading business event on sustainability in fashion will kick off its sixth edition at the Copenhagen Concert Hall.
One new feature is the sustainable solutions platform Innovation Forum, which will draw attention to a curated selection of the world's most promising solution providers. Innovation Forum will enable participating fashion brands to meet with 50 plus solution providers covering the entire supply chain from innovative fabrics to green packaging solutions. Innovation Forum will also have a pitch stage for the presentation of disruptive innovations and a speed dating event with more than 350 pre-scheduled business meetings between brands and providers based on a prior screening and matchmaking process.
Leadership assembly
Like every time, the Summit will present an outstanding line-up of high-level keynote speakers, their names to be released in the coming months, just as the Leadership Assembly, a key component of the Summit, will convene industry decision-makers, civil society and government for closed-door roundtable discussions and public-private dialogues on the most urgent environmental, social and ethical issues. Finally, Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2018 participants can look forward to familiar, well-known features, such the release of the annual Pulse of the Fashion Industry report, a presentation from the Youth Fashion Summit, which just announced a partnership with the United Nations Global Compact focusing specifically on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 Good Health and Well-being and SDG 5 Gender Equality, as well as several facilitated networking sessions and panel debates on the most critical topics facing the industry today.
Portugal-based Tintex offers its latest fabric innovations with a new range of more than 80 qualities and styles designed for sportswear, athleisure, fashion and underwear market sectors. This season the new collection plays with new color balance techniques that deploy the benefits of chromotherapy for well-being alongside skin safe materials and finishings. The collection uses up to 90 per cent of new smart and sustainable materials that include Tencel, Modal and Micromodal, organic cottons, Supima cottons, Seacell fibers and natural organic linens.
Tintex, is a maker of naturally advanced, smart and responsibly crafted jersey fabrics which are used in the fashion, sports and lingerie markets. Its mission is to amplify and grow an eco-sustainable strategy for all its production, investment and fabric innovations and spread this message of change, best practice and influence throughout the contemporary textile fashion system.
The company offers beautiful, organic and natural materials combined with unique, hybrid nature-tech smarts, with advanced, added value and creativity. Honest but hi-tech sustainable organics is at the heart of the Tintex DNA to create better, smarter eco-materials, always with new levels of performance and hi-tech smarts, thanks to its expertise in specialist dyeing and finishing techniques, coatings and applications. These are all researched, designed and made using the latest equipment and processes.
Cotton growers in Maharashtra are facing the same problems as their counterparts in Gujarat—a low remunerative price and a widespread attack of pink bollworm on Bt cotton. The bonus of Rs 500 does not seem to have helped much in Gujarat which means distress level among cotton growers in Maharashtra, who have not been given such bonus, could be higher.
A severe spell of pink bollworm attack has caused damages worth Rs 10,000 crores to cotton growers in Maharashtra. The pink bollworm attack has damaged nearly 40 per cent of the estimated crop. The GM variety of Bollgard II has lost much of its resistance to pest attacks.
Gujarat had announced in October a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal for cotton over and above the minimum support price of Rs 4,020 per quintal for the small staple variety, Rs 4,270 for the medium staple, and Rs 4,320 for the long staple.
Gujarat is India’s top cotton producing state, accounting for nearly 25 per cent of the national yield. Cotton is grown on over 2.7 million hectares in Gujarat. Though Maharashtra has a larger acreage under cotton—normally 3.8 million hectares but 4.2 million hectares this year—it has lower productivity.
A number of textile and garment firms in Vietnam may benefit from the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) expected to be signed next year. This is especially true for firms that have close production chains, from fiber, cloth, yarn, and buttons to finished products. There will be ample opportunities to upgrade the value chain for the textile and garment sector as EVFTA will provide tariff preferences to Vietnamese exporters to the EU.
Vietnamese producers can upgrade their value chain, adding weaving or knitting stage to existing cutting and sewing. At present, this operation is particularly challenging, as it requires financial resources and high-skilled workers to manage the high-technology machinery. Vietnam, rich in labor and limited in available capital, is deeply engaged in the low-end of garment manufacturing activities (the cut and sew stage of production). The textile and garment sectors actually show huge differences between each other. Textiles are more capital-intensive, relying on technology and requiring highly skilled workers. They add higher value than the garment sector, which is labor-intensive and mainly reliant on low skilled workers.
However, many textile and garment firms in Vietnam might not be able to enjoy the benefits of EVFTA as many companies that import materials from countries like China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and not from EVFTA members.
International forecast output of man-made fibres (cellulosic and oil-based, filament and staple fibres) has been set at 71 million tonnes as against 30 million tonnes of natural fibres. As per estimates by CIRFS, the European man-made fibres association, worldwide production of man-made fibres is set to increase further, whilst natural fibres will remain the industry’s biggest ‘employer’. At the farm level, estimated sales in 2016 amounted to around US$ 50bn. Due largely to the higher price of cotton and jute in 2015, output rose sharply by a further 8 to 10 per cent in 2016.
Of all the natural fibres, cotton is well known for consuming large volumes of water and use of pesticides to control the ever growing number of pests. On the other hand, many of the figures available are outdated and thus fail to reflect the correct position as new varieties and modern cultivation methods have led to tremendous improvements in these areas.
Extensive training programmes in the producer countries are helping small farmers gain higher yields whilst using fewer resources. The introduction of a nationwide water management system in Israel recently hit the headlines while describing the country as a ‘water wonder’. The Israeli water authorities launched a programme in 2008 not only to desalinate larger quantities of sea water, but also to repair leaky pipeline systems, install closed irrigation systems and, in collaboration with farmers, to tread new ground in cultivation. Comparing cotton yields per hectare between countries such as Mozambique with 162 kg, the USA with 912 kg, China, Turkey and Brazil with 1500 kg each, Israel has now taken the lead with 1892 kg.
Diesel has announced the departure of its creative director Nicola Formichetti and a new CEO Marco Agnolin. Renzo Rosso, Founder of Diesel and head of the OTB group has now recruited a specialist in fast fashion for this managerial role. Agnolin served for seven years as Chief at Bershka, the youth label from Spanish giant Inditex. The manager, introduced as a retail specialist, will fill the role left vacant by Alessandro Bogliolo, who left Diesel for Tiffany & Co this autumn.
The appointment therefore seems to highlight a new direction for the Italian brand. While Alessandro Bogliolo, who took the company’s reins in 2013, came from a luxury background, having previously served as director of operations at Bulgari, Marco Agnolin’s experience is much more clearly oriented toward the mass market, as shown by his time at Inditex, fist as country manager in Italy, then as chief of Bershka.
Who will be replace Nicola Formichetti’s successor as creative director is a big question. It also raises doubts as to whether the brand will continue to work in line with the selective distribution strategy implemented by its former CEO. As of now, the group has not specified any strategic guidelines for Diesel’s future.
Diesel, which accounts for 60 per cent of the OTB group's turnover, reported sales of 960 million euros in 2016, although its balance sheet still registered a loss.
