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China has been pressuring western brands to apologise for perceived slights against its territorial integrity and/or for support for Hong Kong protestors — a trend that has already affected the likes of Givenchy, Coach, and Calvin Klein. In fact, Spanish fashion giant Inditex — the world’s largest retailer, selling in 200 markets via its online platform and 96 markets through 7,400 brick-and-mortar stores issued a public apology to distance itself from the Hong Kong protests and ensure its business won’t be frozen out in China.
This came on the heels of the unprecedented pressure China put on Cathay Pacific to publicly apologise for staff that were involved with the Hong Kong protests, which eventually led to the resignation of the company’s CEO and sent a message to the world that business will have to recognize the “one-China” policy or be punished. The world was waiting to see how long it would take for the Mainland to apply its brute influence across foreign businesses operating in China, and the response was fast.
On September 2, the Inditex-owned fast-fashion brand ZARA closed some stores in Hong Kong. Although it hasn’t been unusual for stores to close or change operating hours during the Hong Kong protests due to unsafe working conditions, staff taking leave to participate in demonstrations, or lack of customer turn-out, the Global Times nevertheless took the opportunity to call out the fashion giant.
Widely recognised as the noisy mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, the paper published an editorial piece on September 1, entitled, Zara faces Chinese boycott after suspected support for the strike in HK, which accused the brand of closing its stores in support of the Hong Kong protests.
Inditex aims at being a pure player by 2020. In the second quarter, Inditex sales are expected to be up eight per cent, though demand is dropping. The first quarter was the most profitable for Inditex since 2013. Sales moderately rose by 4.8 per cent compared to the 4.5 per cent of the fourth quarter of 2018.
Inditex is one of the best positioned in the market, and at the same time it continues to sell through its stores and its online channel. The political instability may not affect the group. Despite this, the Spanish giant is not excluded from the currency effect that could probably erode its margins in the second quarter. Inditex still swims in turbulent waters, with the shade of a recession in several European counties, a weakened consumption and retail in a transformation phase.
Meanwhile competitor H&M closed its second quarter with a rise of 11 per cent in sales. Gap’s sales in the same quarter fell by four per cent. And sales at Fast Retailing fell by 7.3 per cent. Gap is in the middle of a restructuring. Fast Retailing is undertaking international expansion and H&M has started embracing digitalization after two consecutive fiscal years with disappointing results.
US blue denim apparel imports from China fell 11.01 per cent in this year till July. The drop is dramatic compared to overall apparel imports from China in the same period, which were up 2.33 per cent.
Most of US blue denim apparel imports are jeans. US denim apparel importers are reducing their exposure to China tariffs through a combination of partnering with vendors and diversifying their geographic production capabilities. They are reducing the percentage of their total apparel production which comes from China and reducing their dependency on China.
China’s jeans market share came down to 22.48 per cent, just a tick above Mexico’s 22.27 per cent. For the first seven months of the year, jeans imports from Mexico grew 12.53 per cent in value, topping China’s shipments so far this year. This was notably in contrast to Mexico’s overall apparel shipments in the period, which were down 2.94 per cent. Among the suppliers gaining ground this year from Asia was Vietnam, with imports to the US up 30.24 per cent, and Pakistan, with shipments rising 8.72 per cent. But imports from Bangladesh were down 1.51 per cent. Shipments from Cambodia declined 9.48 per cent and those Indonesia dropped 13.89 per cent.
Unifi sales are up 7.6 per cent over the prior year.
This US company recycles PET into the brand fiber Repreve. But profits have fallen due to the significant competition from textured yarns imported into the US, unfavorable currency exchange rates, volatile feedstock costs and a higher effective tax rate.
Flake is produced at its PET bottle recycling facility. The site has a capacity of up to 75 million pounds per year. Unifi both sells the flake externally and sends it to the Repreve recycling center, where it’s processed into chips. The chips are both sold externally and converted by Unifi into Repreve yarn. Companies making outdoor wear, backpacks, socks or T-shirts use Repreve.
Unifi has production facilities in the US, Colombia and Brazil. It has sales offices in a number of locations in the Americas and Asia. The company has invested in capital projects, including improving production capabilities and technology enhancements in the Americas as well as annual maintenance work. There will be further production enhancements in the Americas, including purchasing Evo texturing machines. The machines, which can process Repreve recycled polyester, operate at higher texturing speeds than existing equipment, make a broad range of products and enable the production of new performance yarns.
Textile waste has increased by a massive 811 per cent from 1960 to 2015, says Retail Dive. The majority of this waste, approximately 66 per cent, is being dumped in landfills. Plastics show the largest increase in waste since 1960, a colossal 8,746 per cent. Rubber and leather, common materials used in footwear and clothing, have also shown a significant increase at 361 per cent.
Across the globe consumers now purchase more than 80 billion pieces of new clothing each year, with an increasing amount ending up in landfills. Companies want to be seen as being environmentally responsible. It’s about reducing waste during textile production and reusing or recycling waste to produce other products. Rugs and outdoor fabrics, for instance, are increasingly being made with recycled materials instead of new plastics. Fashion design students are experimenting using milkweed and flax to create luxurious fur from 100 per cent plant material. Another student design team has come up with the idea for a spandex-type elastic fabric using a protein found in oysters. An exhibit of textile innovations in the US included a dress made by a Japanese design team that features naturally glowing silk, made from silkworms injected with a green fluorescent protein derived from jellyfish.
Wartenbergh is replacing Carlos Ortega, founder and shareholder of the Pepe Jeans Group. Most recently, she was chief merchandising officer at Calvin Klein, a role she took up just four months ago. But she spent many years at PVH, the American group behind global brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Arrow, Van Heusen, Izod, Speedo and Calvin Klein. Before being promoted to chief merchandising officer, Wartenbergh held many roles at the retail group, including group president of global licensing and strategic initiatives at Calvin Klein. She cut her teeth in the merchandising division of Tommy Hilfiger in the Netherlands in 1999.
Pepe Jeans owns the Pepe Jeans London, Hackett and Façonnable brands and distributes Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein in Spain. The group is majority owned by L Capital Asia, a private equity unit backed by LVMH, and M1, a subsidiary of Lebanese investment firm M1 Group. Pepe Jeans has 355 stores, including 219 Pepe Jeans locations, 105 Hackett shops, 29 Tommy Hilfiger outlets, two Norton stores and 16 Façonnable sites. The company is looking at closing a number of Façonnable stores as part of a wider restructure to turn around its finances.
Textile and Apparel South East Asia Summit 2019 will be held in Cambodia, October 28 to 29, 2019. Ten to 50 exhibitors are also expected to display their products and services at the event. This will be one of the biggest and most important gatherings of stakeholders of Southeast Asia’s garment sector. The summit aims to provide an opportunity to industry stakeholders to grow the textile and apparel business and ensure growth in Southeast Asia. It will showcase latest opportunities and trends as well as good practice sharing to accelerate the growth and development of the industry. Industry leaders and experts from all over the world will speak at the event. Major topics to be discussed are: the influence of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on the region’s textile and apparel industry; apparel procurement; different trends in the region’s labor markets; and the latest policy on investment in the industry.
Southeast Asia is among the leaders and plays an important role in global textile and apparel industry. The region has a strong comparative advantage for manufacturers, including market access, low labor costs, investment incentives, and a strong industrial base. In the region, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar have the fastest-growing textile and apparel industry.
As a green regenerated cellulose fiber, Lyocell has attracted worldwide attention. With increasingly stringent environmental protection policies and awareness of social responsibility in enterprises and consumption, Lyocell is worthy of vigorous promotion and application.
The promotion of regenerated cellulose fibers is a concrete action for the industry to practice green development and promote sustainable development of the textile industry. It will significantly improve production technology and equipment level of new solvent-based cellulose fibers, and will also serve the structural adjustment of the textile industry. Transformation and upgrading of the regenerated cellulose fibers industry and the green manufacturing of textile fiber raw materials have made positive contributions.
With the continuous breakthrough of various basic research, equipment and process technologies in the green cellulose fiber industry and the advancement of industrialization, the industrial application of new solvent-based regenerated cellulose fibers will usher in a broad space for development. Of the 70 million tons of chemical fibers in the world, the total amount of regenerated cellulose fibers is less than five million tons, of which traditional viscose accounts for the majority. Major projects for the conversion of new and old kinetic energy include advanced basic textile new materials, key emerging strategic fiber new materials and bio-based chemical fibers.
A the just concluded Munich Fabric Start exhibitors focused a lot on sustainable fabrics, trims. GOTS-certified organic cotton fabrics printed with opulent bird and botanical prints, color saturated fabrics derived from cork and high shine metallic fabrics made with recycled polyester are among the statement-making fabrics were on display. Cotton alternatives like modal, Curpo and Tencel elevate fabrics with a drapey and soft hand feel. Linen and Tencel blends offered soft yet sturdy option, while thick pile organic cotton fabrics mimick the feeling of velvet and shearling.
Set to a color palette with names like zero emissions, white, naked truth neutrals and clean ocean blue, a dynamic range of hues can be achieved through vegetable-based dyes, waterless foam dyes and fabrics tinted with natural elements. Turkish denim mill Orta has showcased laser-friendly jeans coated with clay. Sustainable trims provide the finishing touch. Patches and labels made with recycled leather, compressed leather waste and recycled vegetable tanned leather are ideal for sustainable denim stories. Fabric labels made with organic cotton or recycled polyester serve ready-to-wear. Oeko-Tex-approved silicone labels deliver a sporty option.
Fashion sales in Germany fell 1.9 per cent in July 2019, compared to the previous month. Germany is the biggest fashion market in Europe but the country is expected to enter a recession in the third quarter of the year. Fashion sales in the United Kingdom, the second biggest European fashion market, have been on the rise for two consecutive months. Retail in the country was up 2.9 per cent in July. However, the rise was more moderate than in June, when the rise was 3.2 per cent. But like the German economy, the British economy is shrinking. During the second quarter of 2019, the GNP of the country dropped 0.2 per cent, due in part to the fear of a possible exit from the European Union without a deal. France is where fashion sales are showing the worst performance. For April, sales in the sector shrunk 6.7 per cent, being the biggest drop in the last seven months. France is the third biggest fashion market in the continent.
Fashion consumption in Europe has slowed down. Apparel, footwear and accessories market have weakened in the past few months and at the same time the ghost of recession is again haunting Europe.
