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"With fashion trends changing at the drop of a hat, consumers throw away nearly 83 percent of their clothes and shoes into garbage bins every year. Some brands also burn their unsold stock to protect their exclusivity. A glaring instance of this is Burberry which destroyed $36 million worth of unsold clothes/accessories in 2017."
With fashion trends changing at the drop of a hat, consumers throw away nearly 83 percent of their clothes and shoes into garbage bins every year. Some brands also burn their unsold stock to protect their exclusivity. A glaring instance of this is Burberry which destroyed $36 million worth of unsold clothes/accessories in 2017.
However, a new reuse and re-wear revolution is emerging on new platforms that are upcycling discarded garments into new clothes. Eileen Fisher launched a new recycling program Renew which recycles old garments to be sold at either stores or pop-up shops. Similarly, another brand Reformation transforms old materials and vintage clothing into new feminine creations while Cambodian brand tonlé uses surplus fabric from mass clothing makers and turns it into zero-waste collections, or Queen of Raw, which connects designers and textile firms with dead stock fabrics from factories/brands.
Alongwith these, several subscription-based brands are emerging which allow people return worn clothes for
new ones: For Days buys back worn T-shirts from customers to recycle them into new tees. In 2018, wellness hotel brand Westin launched a new initiative to recycle the sheets/towels from its global hotels into pajamas for children in homeless shelters.
Reward for customers returning old clothes
Many brands are also reward their customers to return their unwanted clothes for recycling. Guess recently launched a new scheme with I-Collect that offers customers a 15 per cent discount on new clothes to customers who return five clothing items. Similarly, J. Crew partnered Blue Jeans Go Green to recycle old denim to build housing for communities in need. Sweden-based Nudie Jeans offers a discount to customers who return their old jeans. The brand also provides these customers free repairs for life.
Rental fashion gains momentum
Increasing number of online resale shops allows the new generation of customers to avail luxury fashion at affordable rates. Many websites like eBay, of course, and RealReal, Poshmark, Vestiaire Collective, Vinted and thredUP also sell high-end clothes at cheaper rates. Some of these platforms have also launched innovative concepts to sell clothes. For instance, thredUP has launched a new collection concept, Remade, where the brand researches on what exactly resells to create an affordable collection designed to be resold. Each item on this website is sold with a buyback promise, ensuring it will be resold on thredUP, with sellers earning 40 percent of the original value.
Another fast emerging trend is that of rental clothing. Several platforms allow their customers to rent their wardrobes. The goliath in this space is Rent the Runway, which rents its designer dresses and accessories for special events through a monthly unlimited membership service. Members can rent four items at a time and rotate them in and out as fast as they want. The platform has also partnered with WeWork for installing drop-off boxes at the co-working spaces that allow its members to rent their wardrobe via tablet.
The rent-not-own fashion model liberates its customers from the time and energy eaten up by shopping while freeing up space in its closets. In future, people will stop buying new clothes and shoes and re-wearing and renting will get cooler.
Non-for-profit organisation Oxfam has published a report accusing Australia-based brands of failing to pay living wages to its workers in foreign countries.
The report, ‘Naughty or Nice’, is a part of a two-year campaign started in 2017. According to the report, paying for essentials like food, housing, healthcare and education should be covered by a basic living wage. However, the report reveals that some of the Australia-based brands do not offer this to their employees in foreign countries.
The report has released a list of fashion brands that have failed to ensure payment of living wages to women making their clothes in countries like Vietnam or Bangladesh. The research conducted by Deloitte Access Economics says women aged 18 to 25 make up 80 per cent of the factory workers in the global garment industry. It affirms that the local minimum wage in Bangladesh equates to just 39 Australian cents an hour, 64 cents in Vietnam and 93 cents in China.
Pakistan’s textile sector has been hit by a liquidity crisis. Refunds have been delayed. The zero-rated status to the export industry has been withdrawn and replaced by a 17 per cent sales tax on the textile sector. Exporters were promised refunds within 72 hours. But refund applications of exporters are still in process and meanwhile the liquidity crisis has got worse. The energy package is yet to be implemented.
Pakistan’s textile exports increased by 26 per cent in the last fiscal year and last month exports increased by eight per cent in quantitative terms and by 4.10 per cent in value terms. Pakistan’s textile exports during the first four months of the current financial year increased by 4.10 per cent. Knitwear exports were up 9.49 per cent. Bed wear exports were up 5.72 per cent. However, exports of raw cotton from the country came down. The country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 33.52 per cent. Exports during the period increased 3.81 per cent. Imports into the country declined 19.21 per cent. However, in the last four months of the current financial year, cotton yarn exports decreased by 2.14 per cent, cotton cloth exports by 4.83 per cent, and exports of tents, canvas and tarpaulin by 1.58 per cent.
Novozymes has launched Livelong, a solution for producing better quality and longer lasting clothes from plant-based fibers. Livelong is a biological solution where enzymes are used to extend the lifetime of fabrics. Until now, the enzyme technology process has only worked on cotton. The solution makes it possible for the first time to extend the life of plant-based fabrics by 20 per cent, making the garments look new, wash after wash. It saves substantial water, chemicals and energy by reducing textile waste.
Novozymes is a Danish company. Being a country of energy efficiency and environmentally friendly solutions, Denmark is always striving towards technological advancements through research and development.
Global clothing production has more than doubled in the last 15 years, but consumers keep clothes for just half the amount of time, making the textile industry one of the most wasteful industries in the world. Consumers are demanding more sustainable solutions and they are willing to pay for it. However, they need help in making the right choice. Consumers are demanding traceability and transparency and they want to be informed. The market is changing, consumers are changing, and consumption patterns are changing. The next generation is far more conscious about what they are purchasing.
Renowned luxury labels are opening pop-up stores and staging world-exclusive fashion shows in South Korea. Louis Vuitton recently opened a new flagship boutique in Seoul late last month designed by renowned architects Frank Gehry and Peter Marino and located in the high-end Cheongdam neighborhood in Gangnam. The French luxury house also showcased a series of pop-up stores at department stores in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, offering South Korean consumers the exclusive advance opportunity to buy select items from next year’s collection.
British-based luxury-handbag maker Mulberry took full ownership of its South Korean business by buying Mulberry Korea from local partner SHK. As part of a wider Asian development strategy, Mulberry made an additional investment of 1.3 million pounds.
Luxury fashion and perfume house Givenchy terminated its distribution contract with Shinsegae International, part of the country’s largest retail conglomerate, Shinsegae to operate its own branch there. Givenchy Korea, under the leadership of Ramon Ros Parellada, hired nearly 100 employees to kick off its own business. The company recently opened its first outlet in South Korea in Seoul, entirely dedicated to its kids collection.
Delvaux, a Belgian luxury goods maker, also launched a branch in the country, its sixth overseas store. The brand, known for its delicate yet very expensive handbags, has recently pushed a local expansion by opening boutique stores.
The Australian Fashion Council has become the second fashion body to sign the UN Fashion Charter. The charter, launched in December 2018, aims to assist the fashion industry in achieving a target of 30 per cent greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
The charter boasts 88 signatories including Adidas, Burberry, Kering, Inditex, H&M, PVH, Stella McCartney and Target as well as 27 supporting organisations such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the China National Textile and Apparel Council.
The council has also appointed Leila Naja Hibri as new chief executive officer.
In February 2020, Giles-Kaye, the current chief executive officer of the AFC since 2017, will pass the baton to Hibri, the general manager of Australian fashion accessories label Helen Kaminski. An AFC board member since December 2018, Hibri has a background in economics and accounting, with over 15 years experience in luxury and premium brand management for companies including Prada and Luxottica Group.
British footwear retailer Clarks has appointed the management consultancy firm McKinsey to help with a transformation of the business. The appointment is part of a wider plan to grow the business’ underlying profitability and focuses on “renewing the relevance of the brand to consumers and partners. The brand aims to reconnect with its customers by designing iconic new products and launching an exciting new brand and marketing strategy that is already engaging consumers across the world. Its new strategy will allow the business to achieve sustainable levels of growth and profitability by 2023.
Clarks finance director Paul Kenyon has left the business and will be replaced by Philip de Klerk, former chief executive of materials maker Low & Bonar. In January, the retailer announced its United Kingdom factory in Street, Somerset could close after failing to meet manufacturing and cost targets.
For the third quarter PVH Corp’s revenue rose 2.5 per cent. PVH raised its full-year adjusted profit forecast after its third quarter results beat expectations, powered by higher demand for its Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger apparel in Europe. The company has been trying to attract millennial shoppers by sponsoring social media influencers including Bella Hadid, singer Billie Eilish and British F1 racer Lewis Hamilton to promote its brands. Sales at Tommy Hilfiger, its biggest revenue generator, jumped about ten per cent. Calvin Klein, which is recovering from the fashion missteps it made last year, saw sales rise marginally.
PVH’s business is strongly anchored in the US, where in 2018 it generated 46 per cent of its sales. The group is reorganising itself in the US market. Tommy Hilfiger has been working to boost its appeal in China, engineering double-digit growth in the country in 2018. Asia accounts for 12 per cent of the group’s sales. The group has cut the share of its production that comes from China to the US market. Three or four years ago, about 35 per cent of its production for the US was coming out of China. For next year, it is looking at something that’s closer to ten per cent.
Blossom Première Vision will be held in France, December 11 to 12, 2019. Première Vision is the leading international trade fair for materials and services for the fashion industry. To respond to developments in the market, the group launched Blossom Premiere in July 2016: Blossom Première. This exclusive operation is devoted to collection launches. It is aimed at international upmarket, luxury design brands. The biannual event, dedicated to the spring/summer 2021 pre-collections, will showcase the fabrics, leathers and accessories of 120 companies. There will be eleven new companies: eight weavers, two tanners and one accessory manufacturer. In total, the event will host 82 weavers, 28 tanners and eight accessory and component manufacturers. These companies will come mainly from Italy, with 72 exhibitors, and France, with 28 companies, Japan, with nine groups, United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal, with three each, and Switzerland and Germany, with one each. The show allows experts to share information and inventive thoughts and upgrade their business.
Exhibits include natural and synthetic fabrics of woven and knits, fiber and yarns, furnishing fabrics, technical textiles, laces, tapes, embroidered fabrics, embroidery threads, sewing threads, sewing needles, interlinings, buttons, zippers, hangers, labels, bar codes, attachments and spares, software consultancy, mannequins, dyes and chemicals, testing equipments.
The wool market has shrugged off the lethargy and eased enough to bring a few bargain hunters out of the woodwork. Knitwear types are always the first ones to shrug off the sleep patterns of the hibernation brought about by the off-season, and the carding sector while showing a lot more restraint than a couple of years ago is trending upwards and showing some signs of life. The price comparison of cardings to fleece has reached more sustainable levels again, although a lot of the change has been driven by the drop in fleece wool prices rather than a surge in the price of locks.
The worsted sector, or fleece wools being woven into fabric in the traditional sense for uniforms, men’s and women’s suiting, is plodding along. Orders are dribbling back along the pipeline, but not much more than that.
The leaders of the industry, at the pinnacle of fashion and couture, have laid down the foundation and are going about their business. However, the second tier is just remaining a little more reticent given the number of units they must sell. The further down the pyramid one goes, the larger the number of units and the smaller the margin per unit generally available.
