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AEPC in collaboration with ILO will hold a seminar on Enabling Competitiveness in the Apparel Sector on August 30, 2019. The seminar, to be held in Chankyapuri, New Delhi, will be inaugurated by the APEC Chairman. It will include the launch of the Compendium on Good Management Practices for the Apparel Sector.
The compendium has been developed with a focus on issues such as Workplace Co-operation, Quality, Productivity, Clean Production, Workforce Management, & Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). The project aims to benchmark apparel industry production, management practices and profitability to global standards. It will help the participating units to save the time and costs of their project. The session will include observations by Ajay Shankar, Former Secreatry, DIPP and a special address by Ravi Capoor, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles. It will conclude with a vote of Thanks by Balram Kumar, Secretary General, AEPC.
The first session of the seminar will discuss the strategies for developing enabling policy framework for promoting long term competitiveness. It will be moderated by Sudhir Kumar, Advisor, NITI Aayog.
The second session, to be moderated by Sudhir Garg, Jt Secy, Dept of MSME will highlight the various learnings from the industry initiatives and experiences.
The third and the final session will include a panel discussion with the BEWG representatives on brand perspectives. It will be moderated by Gautam Nair, Managing Director & CEO, Matrix Clothing. This session will include a presentation on the Good Practice Manual by Sudipta Bhadra, Director ILO & Kelvin Sergeant, Specialist Enterprise, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia and Country Office for India. It will also include an interactive session with the representatives of BEWG on the Compendium.
The seminar will conclude with discussions on the way forward for the industry in the India
The SDC International, ISFT College and KDCL have collaborated to organise four seminars and a grand fashion show at the ITMACH 2019, to be held from December 5 to 8, 2019 in Ahmedabad. The event will be the largest confluence of textile technology, textile professionals and policy makers in the country.
The event will highlight challenges faced by textile professionals in color communication, coloration and compliance; encourage collaborations between fashion and textile coloration and provide a platform for innovators, users and compliance organisations to engage in and collaborate for a ‘greener’ coloration industry.
"A new luxury or premium look is giving the traditional five-pocket denim a life beyond basics. New denim makers are responding to the changing mindset of consumers who now prefer brands that offer comfortable styles and designs besides using sustainable fabrics and adopting responsible manufacturing practices."
A new luxury or premium look is giving the traditional five-pocket denim a life beyond basics. New denim makers are responding to the changing mindset of consumers who now prefer brands that offer comfortable styles and designs besides using sustainable fabrics and adopting responsible manufacturing practices.
Increased focus on consumer experience
Though athleisure products such as leggings and track pants briefly diverted the consumer’s attention from denim, jeans have still retained their counter-culture connotation, making them relevant for the moment. And Sharon Graubard, Creative Director of MintModa points out athleisure items don’t have the classic appeal of jeans as jeans are sexy and modest, casual and elegant, and be paired with anything from a simple T-shirt to the most extravagant brocade jacket. In addition, customers can also personalise their denims by modifying their designs and styles.
Susan Lee, Designer and Fabric Merchandiser at Twin Dragon feels luxury has evolved from being driven by
brands and a price range to the kind of experience it offers to customers. It now focuses on the end-product and the benefits it offers to consumers. As per Tricia Carey, Director of Global Business Development for Denim at Lenzing Fibersb the ‘street to runway’ trend has resulted in brands including Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Michael Kors transforming the use of the indigo base cloth in a unique way.
This is evident from the works of Lenzing, which uses Tencel in its denim to give them a more fashionable look. Tencel offers denims a sheen or luster that is more reminiscent of higher-end or dressier styling. It also offers longevity to these denims as such jeans are worn often, washed infrequently, can be repaired and last a long time.
New fabrics, fittings add to comfort
Many luxury makers are primarily using cotton with small amounts of modal, polyester or elastane in their denims. They are also adopting certain blends with other natural fibers like linen, flax and even wool. Brands like Off-White, 6397, ReDone, Chloe, Brock Collection, R13, Frame, Mother, The Great specialise in denim though they also offer collections that include denim in the mix.
MM6 offers subtly innovative silhouettes and washes and treatments. Barneys also has an excellent jeans department. Similarly, boutiques in downtown Manhattan like 3×1 in SoHo and Self-Edge on Orchard Street celebrates the craft of denim, which fits into the current passion for all things artisanal.”
Self-Edge offers an innovative denim range ‘Strike Gold,’ which uses indigo-dyed thread for the warp and a beige dyed thread for the weft in a 17-ounce fabric. The 634S by Iron Heart is the flagship model that brings the brand’s signature 21-ounce selvage denim to a straight-cut jean made with hand-picked U.S. cotton that offers a “super soft hand” in an “ultra sheen” finish.
Move towards sustainable denims
Sustainability, which has become the primary criterion for most denim consumers, is being increasingly adopted by new age brands who are also discussing about the impact that their choice of fabrics has on the environment. A case in point, the brand Twin Dragon, which uses powdered indigo in place of liquid indigo for saving water. It also uses laser techniques instead of traditional washing and also turned to recycled and sustainable fibers for its denims.
The GOTS Bangladesh Seminar 2019 is scheduled for September 8, 2019 at the International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The theme for the seminar will be ‘Connecting for Success and it is expected to be attended by 250-300 industry leaders from up to 150 different organisations and businesses.
The one-day seminar will address key issues relevant to the organic textile industry. Delegates will learn about best practices and know how related to the biggest opportunities – and challenges – to help transform their supply chains. The seminar will consist of four sessions including: Sustainable retail: Recent trends, priorities, and experience of conscious buyers; GOTS technical criteria and its implementation: Latest criteria and experiences from implementation partners for technical aspects of the standard; Connecting on the job - workers and management: Exploring working conditions at garment (and other) factories in Bangladesh, connecting workers and factory owners to discuss relevant social compliance issues; Connecting supply chain partners: Connecting key supply chain partners including garmenting, wet processing, testing, certifiers, and chemical suppliers.
As per Pulse of the Fashion Industry 2019, by 2030 global apparel and footwear industry will grow by 81 per cent, exerting an unprecedented strain on planetary resources. If the pace of progress in sustainability does not increase, the harmful consequences of fashion will become even more challenging to overcome.
To deal with this issue, Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), the world's foremost leadership forum for sustainability in fashion, has unveiled a new campaign that brings together leading voices from across the fashion industry to drive awareness and inspire action on sustainability.
The campaign includes prominent leaders such as Arizona Muse, model, ambassador and consultant; Katharine Hamnett, CBE, designer and activist; Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of International Institutional Affairs, Kering; Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability, H&M Group; Samuel Ross, founder and designer, A-Cold-Wall*; Julia Ormond, actress and founder, ASSET; Connie Nielsen, actor and activist; Tim Blanks, Editor-at-Large, The Business of Fashion; Wilson Oryema, artist, writer, activist and model, etc.
Munich Fabric Start will organise Bluezone- the world’s most important denim fair on September 03-04, 2019 in Munich. The fair will present the latest developments in denim, finishes, washes and ready-made solutions under the All-related collab Project zone in Halls 6 and 7, supplemented by vintage and timeless segments.
The All-related Collab Project zone will also define future collaborations. It will combine creativity, cooperation, transparency and responsibility. International designers, fabric suppliers, additional manufacturers and producers have split up into eight teams for this event in order to realise their vision of a sustainable denim silhouette.
Australia has partnered International Labor Organisation to improve working conditions, empower women and boost the competitiveness of Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry. The partnership has been strengthened by the re-commitment of funds for Better Work Bangladesh as part of Australia’s ongoing partnership with ILO. Australia has been supporting BWB since 2016 and today the program reaches 485,708 workers in 210 factories who work with 22 international brands.
Australia is committed to fund this program until June 2020 as a demonstration of support for industrial safety, labor law governance and women’s economic empowerment in Bangladesh. Australia’s ongoing support for the Better Work Bangladesh program drives important changes in workplace safety in the garment industry. Better Work has made measurable impacts on the lives of millions of workers and their families. It aims to unite multiple stakeholders; promoting decent work for all and helping the garment industry in Bangladesh thrive.
Reliance Industries is converting used plastic bottles into clothes. The conglomerate which has its roots in the polyester business aims at making sustainable clothing affordable and accessible. The company is already processing two billion used PET bottles every year and plans to scale it up to six billion in two years. Reliance already has an umbrella brand, R|Elan, for eco-friendly fiber made from used plastic. The manufacturing process is aimed at reducing carbon footprint at every stage by using biofuels and pre-dyed fibers, which eliminate the water and chemical discharge from wet dyeing. The strategy is to manufacture co-branded apparels and Reliance has already partnered with Arrow, Wrangler, Raymond, Lee, among other international brands.
Consumers in developed countries are embracing ethical or sustainable fashion, and are even ready to pay a premium for it. The Indian buyer, though, is still very price conscious. So as a strategy Reliance is selling the sustainable fiber on the basis of attributes that it will provide to the clothing made from it at a price competitive to non-sustainable products with the same attributes. Global brands are making everything from swimwear to winter wear to backpacks with recycled material. India can catch up soon if it looks at its waste as a resource.
The World Trade Organisation’s index ranks Vietnam first in export growth among emerging economies. Vietnam has 14.6 per cent growth while Bangladesh is in second place with 9.8 per cent growth. The figure is 5.7 per cent for China and 5.3 per cent for India. Mexico has a 4.5 per cent export growth, UAE 3.7 per cent, Turkey 2.4 per cent, Brazil 1.9 per cent and South Africa 1.5 per cent.
Vietnam has moved faster in producing goods which are being relocated from China and has the advantages of a shorter lead to Bangladesh’s exports of apparel and clothing. Readymade garments are still the main driving factor for Bangladesh’s export growth with its increased stake in the global market. Due to the ongoing tariff war, a significant volume of trade has relocated from China to other countries but Bangladesh has been unable to capture a significant portion of it despite being an attractive sourcing destination. One reason could be poor delivery capacity. Another is the appreciation of the currency against the dollar, which has eaten up Bangladesh apparel makers’ competitive edge in global markets.
The value of Vietnam’s yarn exports to China has decreased by 2.5 per cent. The reason is the depreciation of the Chinese currency against the dollar. Vietnam imports cotton from the US to make yarn products for export to China. If the yuan continues to fall, Vietnam’s yarn producers will continue to face difficulties.
Apparel brand Esprit will no longer source from Tatmadaw – firms run by or affiliated with Myanmar’s military as they have fuelled “brutal operations against ethnic groups. This was decided by the brand after a recent report from the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar uncovered that revenues from the military’s affiliated businesses have been used to enhance its ability to carry out gross violations of human rights with impunity.
The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) has highlighted in recent years, earnings from Tatmadaw – firms run by or affiliated with Myanmar’s military – have fuelled “brutal operations against ethnic groups”, said to constitute serious crimes under international law. Since 2016, the country’s military has forced the deportation of more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh; whilst 14 foreign companies have been outed as having supplied the military with fighter jets, armoured combat vehicles, warships and missile launchers during this period.
Having called on the UN Security Council and Member States to impose sanctions against companies run by the country’s military; fashion brands, including Esprit, H&M and Bestseller, have now made vocal their intentions to reevaluate where they’re sourcing from, as to stop any association.
In light of its findings, FFM made a series of recommendations which it hoped will erode the economic base of the military, undercut its obstruction of the reform process, impair its ability to carry out military operations without oversight and thus reduce violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and serve as a form of accountability in the short-term.
