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Trade in textiles and textile products between Indonesia and France has been growing rapidly. Indonesia’s export value of textiles and textile products to France touched $46.52 million in the first half of this year. In terms of exports, France ranks eighth in the European region and Indonesia's position can be consolidated further, feels Arlinda, Director General of National Export Development (PEN), The Ministry of Commerce (Trade). Arlinda says, the European Union has been trying to stem the flood of Chinese textiles after the end to textile quotas in 2005.
He said France is the center of world fashion and apparel manufacturer of high quality apparels. As per statistics, the export value of Indonesia continues to move North. Hence, the Ministry of Trade needs to promote it further through exhibitions and fairs.
On a worldwide basis, the Textile & Clothing (T&C) industry is a growing industry. Operating in a competitive environment, the EU and Japan are still playing lead roles in developing high technology and quality of fibres and fabrics as well as in creating high value added apparels and fashion. Both the EU and Japan are key export markets for their respective textile and clothing industry. In EU’s case, Japan is the seventh T&C export market reaching almost €1.9 billion. For the Japanese industry, the EU is the 3rd export market reaching almost €0.7 billion.
Euratex, the European Textile and Apparel Confederation, and JTF, Japanese Textile Federation, maintain excellent relationship and complementary activities. The trade structure of T&C between the EU and Japan is complementary. Under those circumstances, both industries believe that a trade deal would expand the trade and investment in T&C between the two parties and promote further business development. It would also build platforms in various types of R&D co-operation, thereby creating new innovations and business opportunities.
Over the last years, both associations have had deep discussions on the way to reach an agreement that would benefit companies mutually. They recently agreed on major issues, as for tariffs elimination and rules of origin. President of Euratex, Piolat emphasized that the European Apparel and Textile Confederation is the political voice of the textile and clothing industry in Europe. And it is the mission of Euratex to create a favourable environment within the European Union for manufacturing of textile and fashion products. The EU textile and clothing industry, including manmade fibres, remains an essential pillar of the local economy across the EU regions.
Year-to-date through July, worldwide imports of clothing into the US have shrunk by 4.98 per cent during the first seven months of 2016. Of the top 10 markets that the US imports garments from, only Vietnam and Bangladesh showed growth in import consignments of 1.83 per cent and 1.12 per cent for the period.
Spending by US consumers declined slightly in July. Americans are increasingly spending less on clothes and home furnishings, a trend that could hurt Vietnam clothing exporters in years to come. Young people are spending more on expenses like rent, mobile phones, and personal services than they were a decade ago. This leaves less money for buying clothes. Other factors blamed for the slowdown are delayed inventory shipments, bad weather.
Overall exports from Vietnam to the US rose 1.83 per cent in the first seven months of 2016. As per estimates the share of clothing exports from Vietnam to the US could jump 10 per cent for the whole of 2016. This is based on the fact that work orders are coming in bulk and for higher value-added apparel items this year. Markets showing a year-on-year drop in imports into the US market for the seven-month period include China, India and Pakistan.
Asia’s leading fashion accessories fair Fashion Access and Cashmere World opened its doors to fashion professionals and buyers looking for special items for their boutique collections for Spring / Summer 2017. The fair will end on September 24 and is being held at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. Organised by APLF with 32 years experience in trade fair management in Asia has united with Fashion Access and Cashmere World in their zest to satisfy brand sourcing and sub-contracted production requirements.
This year the fair has more than 150 exhibitors at the trade fair that are suppliers of fashion accessories, cashmere and fine fibre goods. For direct sourcing purposes, the fair will serve as a boutique fair where brands can be found in the mid to higher price ranges. Besides a large number of exhibitors offer ODM and OEM services for brands and designers wishing to outsource their production.
In this matter, Fashion Access and Cashmere World offers two dimensions of business activity from exhibitors that hail from 20 countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Cayman islands, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, UK & the US. Besides functioning as a trade fair, Fashion Access and Cashmere World will offer a series of educational seminars that take place during the fair and in the same venue.
The 28th edition of Collection Première Moscow (CPM) will take place from February 20 to 23, 2017. Though there is still time, but preliminary work on the event has started. Registration documents have been sent out and organisers expect the event to be highly subscribed. The official deadline for registrations is December 1 but this can also be stipulated for an earlier date depending on the provisions governing some national pavilion participations.
With over 45,000 sq. mt. at its disposal, the CPM will again become the international fashion hot spot in Moscow. Alongside participations from Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Turkey there are also many smaller joint stands from Indonesia, Romania, India, Colombia, and Finland, but to name a few Nations. As experience shows, the area occupied rises for the Autumn/Winter season and this is already reflected in the high demand for exhibition space. Following the last event in September last, CPM project director Christian Kasch looks to the future with optimism. He says that the organizers were indeed very satisfied with the way the past CPM concluded. Most of the exhibitors here did take a fair amount of orders and posted high customer footfall in their stands.
For newcomers, finding a matching partner in Russia continues to be key. Here the Igedo Company assists international firms in their search for Russian agencies or distributors. To this end, entrepreneurs can register for free on the Wanted portal of the CPM website (www.cpm-moscow.com) in order to present their brands and make initial contacts.
"H&M, one of the fastest growing, fast fashion brand which with more than 4,000 stores in 62 countries kicked off its campaign for recycling of clothes. The brand which believes in sustainable fashion took back 12,000 tons of clothes to support the recycling of clothes initiative. In a recently launched, star studded high profile campaign the brand announced “There are no rules in fashion but one: Recycle your clothes."
H&M, one of the fastest growing, fast fashion brand which with more than 4,000 stores in 62 countries kicked off its campaign for recycling of clothes. The brand which believes in sustainable fashion took back 12,000 tons of clothes to support the recycling of clothes initiative. In a recently launched, star studded high profile campaign the brand announced “There are no rules in fashion but one: Recycle your clothes."
Brands launch promotions to recycle clothes
With ‘fast fashion’ becoming a environmental concern recycling of clothes seems to be the future mandate. While all global brands are rallying for it, H&M is leading it from the front. The Swedish firm launched a €1 million contest to seek ideas for turning old clothes into new, invested in Worn Again, a company developing textile recycling technology, and now enlisted hip-hop artist MIA to produce a music video called ‘Rewear It’ that aims to "highlight the importance of garment collecting and recycling."
Along with H&M, Nike is also the global partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is dedicated to drive a transition to a circular economy — an industrial system in which everything at the end of its life is made into something new, in contrast to today’s economy, where most consumer goods are produced, used and then thrown away. And as Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M explains they have to go from a linear model to a circular model and to do it at scale.
Much like H&M, Nike too has taken sustainable initiatives. Explaining Nike’s ambition to achieve its "moonshot ambition" of cutting its environmental impact by half while doubling its business, Hannah Jones, the company’s chief sustainability officer says incrementalism and efficiency measures will not get them there. Similarly, Anna Gedda, H&M’s head of sustainability reveals that the company needs to decouple growth from resource use, so that economic and social development can happen, but within planetary boundaries. In fact. not just H&M, almost all major global brands including American Eagle Outfitters, Eileen Fisher, Levi-Strauss & Co, Nike, the North Face, Patagonia and Zara collect their old merchandise. Clothing designer Eileen Fisher has called her industry 'the second largest polluter in the world, second only to oil.
Though H&M is the front runner in promoting recycling of clothes the company has been facing controversy as its low-cost range of clothes (women’s T-shirts for $5.99 and boys’ jeans for $9.99) is believed to be one of the major reason why apparel industry is growing so fast .The global apparel industry generates an estimated $2.5 trillion annual revenue and that it will double in the next decade. Adding to the concern efforts to collect old clothes by retailers and nonprofits such as Goodwill Industries, the overwhelming majority of items eventually wind up in landfills, at least in the US. Americans dispose of about 12.8 million tons of textiles annually, which amounts to about 80 pounds for each man, woman and child reveals the US Environmental Protection Agency. Also increased use of cotton, the most used fabric in fashion use up a lot of natural resources and agricultural chemicals increasing the industry’s environmental hazard. In spite of the tactical measures taken up by the major players, the industry needs to undertake more radical action together if it wants to balance sustainability.
Welspun India has said that the two cases filed against it in the US over bed sheets supplied not being 100 per cent Egyptian cotton are at preliminary stages and it cannot be determined whether they will even be permitted to proceed as class actions at present.
Admitting that two putative class action complaints have been filed against it, Welspun India said in a BSE filing that they have not been certified for class treatment by relevant courts. This is required under the US law before any action may proceed on a class basis. No motion to obtain such certification has been made yet, it added. ‘Accordingly, we believe that these actions are only in the preliminary stages, and that it cannot be determined at present whether they will even be permitted to proceed as class actions. Consequently, we believe that these actions cannot be determined to be material at this point in time,’ the company observed.
The central allegation in both complaints is that certain Welspun sheeting products were not 100 per cent Egyptian Cotton, the filing said. ‘Neither complaint challenges safety nor fitness of these products. Both complaints allege that the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million. However, none of the complainents seek a specified amount of damages or provides a methodology for determining damages, the company said.
Pakistan’s cotton has a high level of contamination. Contamination is one of the critical issues spinners face in their efforts to maintain first grade yarn quality. The contamination proportion is 20 gm per bale, while the international market standard is only 2.5 gm per bale. Contamination produces low quality lint cotton, yarn and manufactured goods. Generally, the quality of cotton is determined by its color, fiber length, strength and finesse. One of the important factors which make the quality of raw cotton low is contamination.
Pakistan’s cotton has a large impurity content. It has a high level of foreign matter, trash water contents and is considered poor by international standards. These impurities have been reducing the beneficial effect of improved cultivation and impairing not only the quality of raw cotton but also the subsequent processes of textile products.
One way to avoid contamination is to start picking at the time when fully matured bolls are opened. A number of impurities like pieces of leaves, immature and empty bolls, stems, flowers, sticks and weeds, trash and dust mix with cotton due to carelessness of pickers. Cotton is the most important cash crop of Pakistan. It is a major source of foreign exchange earnings and also provides livelihood to millions of people.
Researchers have developed a textile capable of harnessing energy from both sunlight and wind. A fabrication strategy merged two different lightweight, low-cost polymer fibers to create energy-producing textiles. The first component of the textile is a micro cable solar cell, able to gather power from ambient sunlight. The second is a nano generator capable of converting mechanical energy into electricity.
Under ambient sunlight, and in the presence of wind blowing or human motion, the textile swatch was able to charge a small commercial capacitor up to 2V in one minute. The textile could continuously power an electric watch, charge a cell phone, and even drive water-splitting reactions, releasing hydrogen.
After optimising individual components, researchers worked on optimizing the overall textile. To maximise its energy output, they had to perform a systematic optimisation of the individual electrical connections and overall patterns between the photovoltaic and tribo electric components. After the system was optimised, the team put together a plain-weave fabric that included a four-centimeter-square tribo electric textile and a 1 x 4 centimeter photovoltaic textile, mixed with wool fibers.
Overall, the fabric doesn't generate a lot of electricity. But it has the advantage of being able to generate electricity where it may be needed.
Inditex first-half operating profit increased eight per cent in the six months through July. Revenue rose 13 per cent in the first weeks of the third quarter, excluding currency shifts, slowing down from growth of 16 per cent in the first half. Inditex operates Zara and other brands through more than 7000 stores in 91 countries. The company has prioritized online expansion over store openings. The strategy also includes bigger stores in key markets, as part of an attempt to maintain growth after revenue increased eight-fold since the company’s 2001 initial public offering.
Inditex is the world’s biggest clothing retailer with several brands under it viz. Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe. Inditex has a number of textile design, manufacturing and distribution facilities in Spain. The company is also benefiting from the steady pace of economic growth in Spain, where the retailer gets about a fifth of its sales. Every part of Inditex’s fashion business is vertically integrated.
Currency fluctuations hurt Inditex on two fronts as the strong dollar raised costs for the 35 per cent of garments the retailer sources from Asian countries. Meanwhile the weakness of the Russian ruble, British pound, Mexican peso and Turkish lira eroded sales growth.
