The 5th session of Spinexpo, to be held from January 16-17, 2019 in Paris, will focus on Organic Futurism. © Spinexpo. The theme will focus on how to use traditional materials more creatively thanks to new technologies that combine organic and synthetic materials to create more high-performance yarns. The fair will present a preview of its collections and color ranges for the Spring/Summer 2020 season. The key theme of the trends for the collection will be In Between. Buyers will be taken on an educational and entertaining tour of the challenges facing the profession today.

One of the new lines on show will be KnittingIndigo from the Taiwanese spinner AA Global, which is the result of more than 30 years of research.

Bangladesh has announced that inconsistencies in the newly announced wage structure for readymade garment workers would be solved after the national elections scheduled for December 30, 2018. State minister for labor Md Mujibul Haque urged all agitating workers at Ashulia, Gazipur and Narayangonj to join work as it would not be logical to create unrest in the RMG sector ahead of national elections.

The minister arranged the briefing following a meeting of Crisis Management Core Committee. Representatives from several ministries, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, industrial police and other law enforcement agencies and labor leaders attended the meeting. He urged factory owners to give workers a clear idea about the new wage structure and requested them to develop relationship with the workers to avert any untoward situation.

Workers of many factories at Ashulia, Gazipur and Narayanganj started demonstrations on December 9 rejecting the new wage structure. The workers allege their basic wages in some grades in the new structure have been decreased from what they were previously.

The Bangladesh government has decided to reduce the rate of source tax on RMG export earnings by 58 per cent. Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has already conveyed his consent to National Board of Revenue to reduce the source tax to 0.25 per cent from current 0.60 per cent.

Earlier, in September, the government had slashed the tax rate for RMG exporters to 0.60 per cent for the current fiscal year, following pressure from exporters, reducing from 1 per cent reinstated in the budget.

NBR would complete the procedures, including taking vetting from law ministry, to issue the statutory regulatory order reducing the rate to 0.25 per cent. As per Income Tax Ordinance-1984, exporters are supposed to pay 1 per cent tax at source on their export income. According to an NBR estimate, previous reduction in source tax may reduce its earnings from the sector by Tk 1,600 crore in the year. Now NBR will incur another Tk 1,400 crore for the fresh tax cut.

Denim trends for 2019 are expected to be shaped by consumers and the environment around them. While the connection between denim and politics ebbs and flows through history, the relationship is expected to pick up steam in the coming year as the next US presidential election nears and younger generations continue to find their voice.

A whole generation is getting into demonstrating and gaining a voice about what’s happening around the world. Millennials and Gen Z will likely follow in the footsteps of young generations from the ’60s and ’70s, which took bold actions to fight racism and injustice, fought for women’s rights and protested the Vietnam War. Their fashion will follow, too.

Flare and crop flare are gaining traction in the women’s market, while men’s is moving toward straight cuts with an exaggerated cuff. Bolder historic references come through in washes like acid, enzyme and tie-dye. Raw denim is shifting toward something that looks handmade and one-of-a-kind. This is an artisanal direction, which will challenge many companies, particularly those that manufacture on a large and cheap scale.

Fashion has become more democratic. People want something that doesn’t look mass produced. Social media will be the tool that helps keep luxury streetwear on the map in 2019 and beyond.

Gap’s quarterly revenue is up 6.5 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. Net margin was 5.57 per cent and return on equity 29.45 per cent.

Gap’s payout ratio is currently 45.54 per cent. The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, with a yield of 3.65 per cent. The firm has a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.97.

The company has one platform for all its brands, ensuring customers can purchase items for any of them in one place. This has also ensured its new brands get the recognition that would not have been possible if they had had a separate web presence. An upshot of this is that the company was able to deliver strong growth from its online and mobile channels in the second quarter.

Gap offers apparel, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, and children under the Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta, and Intermix brands. Its products include denim, tees, button-downs, khakis, and other products; and fitness and lifestyle products for use in yoga, training, sports, travel and everyday activities.

US jeans imports from China rose just 2.91 per cent for the year through October to $790.89 million worth of goods, compared to the year-ago, while shipments from Mexico increased 1.61 per cent in the same timeframe to $679.41 million. Imports from both countries have only increased slightly as the countries face disruption in US trade policy. In order to mitigate risk in their supply chains, the countries have had to shift sourcing plans.

Tariffs have caused China to lose a majority of its jeans market to other Asian nations. Vietnam saw shipments to the US rise 46.16 per cent in the last 10 months to $248.95 million, while Bangladesh shipments increased 12.78 per cent to $481.41 million.

Other Asian suppliers seeing a hike include Pakistan, with imports rising 12.52 per cent to $206.05 million; Cambodia, with shipments up 27.49 per cent to $99.08 million; and India, posting a 44.59 per cent hike to $31.35 million. Meanwhile, suppliers are also taking market share from Mexico since they have the same attributes of quick shipping times and duty-free trade because of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). US jeans imports from CAFTA countries rose 7.37 per cent in the 10 months to $116.37 million worth of goods.

Bangladesh’s exports of terry towels rose by 49.60 per cent from July to November. In fiscal 2018, exports of home textiles, including terry towels, bed sheets, linen, curtains, and pillow covers, grew 9.95 per cent year on year. However, terry towel exports declined 4.40 per cent year on year.

With a trade advantage of nearly 15 per cent, including six per cent cash incentive, the home textile sector in Bangladesh, especially terry towels, is performing well. Bangladesh regularly exports different types of home textiles and specialized textile products including terry towel bed sheets, bedspreads, pillows, pillow covers, cotton table napkins, furnishing fabrics, curtains, window and door curtains, cushions, cushion covers, carpets, table covers, kitchen accessories, mattress covers, bath linen, and other home furnishings.

However, at least 10 small and medium factories have closed in the past two years. Another three or five are struggling to survive. At least 70,000 workers lost their jobs due to closure of those factories. The sector’s (including terry towel) growth started to witness a decline from January 2014, when the European Union allowed zero-duty benefit to Pakistan under its GSP Plus scheme on the export of home textiles and some other products. The EU imported over $6.86 billion worth of home textiles in 2016.

"Until recently, many online brands considered brick and mortar stores passé. Companies like Warby Parker, Bonobos and Casper relied more on their well-designed website to capture the market. However, growing competition, surging online advertising costs and cheap mall space are prompting these digital natives to again embrace offline stores. Infact, 90 cents of every retail dollar in the US is spent on a physical location."

Until recently, many online brands considered brick and mortar stores passé. Companies like Warby Parker, Bonobos and Casper relied more on their well-designed website to capture the market. However, growing competition, surging online advertising costs and cheap mall space are prompting these digital natives to again embrace offline stores. Infact, 90 cents of every retail dollar in the US is spent on a physical location.

This “clicks-to-bricks” phenomenon encompasses big names like Amazon Books and Casper as well as less-known startups such as men’s shorts purveyor Chubbies and hair color brand Madison Reed.

Physical presence boosts growth

Physical presence is necessary for a brand’s long-term growth. Retail startups now include a store opening plan in pitches to venture firms. Bonobos, acquired last year by Walmart, recently opened in Lexington, Kentucky, and will soon have stores in over 60 locations. Buying ads on Google, Facebook and Instagram once made a lot of sense as it allowed nascent brands to narrowly target shoppers and grow fast. Now social feeds are jammed with posts from obscure brands. The competition to grab attention has pushed up the cost of ads even as they become less effective with so many of clamoring for attention.

With millions of square feet of space available across the country, opening a physical store has become cheaper. Landlords are offering leases as short as a year with extension options. That flexibility extends to temporary locations, too, with spaces dedicated to rotating pop-ups so tenants can easily test concepts. To further reduce risk, they’re offering to help pay for store remodeling and taking a small percentage of sales instead of monthly rent.

A physical store offers instant gratification, merchandising, employee service and dressing rooms to get shoppers to buy more and return fewer items. Alexa Buckley, co-founder women’s shoe purveyor Margaux, outlines the merits of having a store when she rented a loft space in Philadelphia. Despite heavy rains and wind from the remnants of a hurricane, 200 women showed up and generated almost a month’s worth of sales. In July, Margaux opened a permanent store in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. She’s planning more.

Offline boost profit margins

Profit margins in physical stores are better, too, without the brands needing to pay for shipping or as many returns. Plus, offline customers tend to buy more, and after the store’s debut there is a noticeable lift in the surrounding area’s online sales. On the heels of that brick-and-mortar success, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, an early Amazon backer, invested $30 million in UntuckIt so it could open more stores.

Bonobos’s “guide shops” are set up for customers to try on and order clothes. The brand focuses not on sales-per-square-foot — a traditional industry metric — on how much the stores drive sales online and off in a particular market.

Digital natives are absorbing many of the lessons honed by retailers for the past century: that people like to feel the fabric, try on glasses, get face-to-face shopping tips. The question is whether Bonobos, Warby Parker and the rest have also learned the painful lessons — how over-expanding can cannibalise existing stores — that laid low so many specialty retailers in recent years.

"The Indian arm of NJ-based company, Mirrorsize US Inc, plans to launch a ‘Draping’ product in the next three to four months. “Based on customer’s selection of fabric, style, etc, we will sew the apparel to drape it on the person on his/her mobile to give real life visualisation and enrich customer experience,” says Arup Chakraborty, Founder and CEO, of the company. Also on the cards is style recommendation. This will depend on getting funding from a brand. Style recommendation will be based on customer’s style preferences, “We will use deep learning to recommend styles to a customer by geography,” he explains."

The Indian arm of NJ-based company, Mirrorsize US Inc, plans to launch a ‘Draping’ product in the next three to four months. “Based on customer’s selection of fabric, style, etc, we will sew the apparel to drape it on the person on his/her mobile to give real life visualisation and enrich customer experience,” says Arup Chakraborty, Founder and CEO, of the company. Also on the cards is style recommendation. This will depend on getting funding from a brand. Style recommendation will be based on customer’s style preferences, “We will use deep learning to recommend styles to a customer by geography,” he explains.

The company currently offers MD GetMeasured – for bespoke merchants to get precise body measurement of their customers and MS Size2Fit for merchants selling readymade apparels, “where our product will give precise size recommendation to a customer by brand, by apparel and by apparel category. Shirts are available as regular, slim and casual fit,” adds Chakraborty

Solution to solve sizing issues

Chakraborty points out sometimes online returns are as high as 55 per cent, predominantly due to ill-fit. There is no technology available to get precise human body measurement which prompted them to introduce a solution that cannot only solve ‘sizing’ and ‘personalisation’ issues but also remove supply chain inefficiencies and help scale enterprises by making business more seamless. “This device requires no additional hardware/investment and works on any smartphone and tablet. Users can get their precise body measurement, real-time in seconds. We create a 3D model on the run-time and deform the 3D model to take the shape of the object,” informs Chakraborty.

Independent of background and light

The solution can work with both cluttered and uncluttered background. It is independent of the side pose and can identify another human. It also works in low light. “We generate 3D model of the object on the run-time and deform the 3D model to the shape of the object,” he adds. Drawing a comparison with Michael Black from MPI Germany, known to be the guru of 3D mesh who developed a similar technology to deform a 3D mesh from two images, Chakraborty notes, “Black formed a company called Bodylabs.com and after R&D for over two years, filled his paper claiming accuracy of 8-10 cm. Bodylabs was acquired by Amazon in 2017. Our accuracy is <1 CM and we’re in the process of filing our paper at IEEE in early 2019,”he explains.

Robust plans ahead

Though users can wear both tight and loose fitting garments, the company prefers them to wear tight fitted cloths for accurate results. “We use Physics, Simulation, FEM, Computer Graphics etc. to drape our user. It’s an enterprise SaaS model, which will allow brands, retailers and institutions to use our product,” Chakraborty avers. The company plans to roll-out GTM strategy in Q1’19 and expects to hit $30 million in global revenue (SaaS) in FY 2019-20 as per US GAAP.

"They were times when overseas operations of luxury retail brands would automatically boost their domestic image. But now, times have changed. Today, in order to grow and scale up, well-known labels are merging with each other. The most recent example is the purchase of Versace by Michael Kors for $2bn. With the retail market facing growth stagnation for sometime mergers provide an effective route for expansion. Last year, mergers and acquisitions in the retail sector increased 15 per cent."

They were times when overseas operations of luxury retail brands would automatically boost their domestic image. But now, times have changed. Today, in order to grow and scale up, well-known labels are merging with each other. The most recent example is the purchase of Versace by Michael Kors for $2bn. With the retail market facing growth stagnation for sometime mergers provide an effective route for expansion. Last year, mergers and acquisitions in the retail sector increased 15 per cent.

Balancing exclusivity and growth

The fiduciary responsibility of public companies leads to increase in sales and profits particularly in case of luxury retail companies. This ultimately leads to more commercialisation. However, exclusivity will always remain the pillar of luxury. The prevailing problem for luxury retailers therefore, is to drive growth without compromising on exclusivity. To achieve this, retailers are opting for consolidation. Several factors are driving consolidation, these include: bifurcation, expanding into places like China and digitization.

There numerous examples of brand consolidation across the luxury market, for example, Louis Vuitton and YSL are both now owned by LVMH and Kering. The Chinese groups Fosun International and Shandong Ruyi are currently dominating the market having bolstered significantly their luxury fashion portfolios by acquiring European brands like Lanvin and Bally. But these groups already have an increasing number of competitors including the US-based Tapestry, which now owns Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman and, most recently, Michael Kors.

Evolving versus maintaining the brand

Consolidation provides easier access to products, greater experiences through digitisation and better product guidance through brand integration for consumers. For example, Sainsbury’s acquisition of Argos’ parent company has enabled customers to gain easier access to a wider variety of products under one roof. However, these new conglomerates need to carefully communicate the integrated brand vision to avoid compromising the authenticity and integrity that made the original brands successful. It’s essential to strike the right balance between growth and brand integrity – particularly exclusivity and uncompromising quality. Design and customer experience are the essential ingredients of luxury brands - not price points.

Establishing a balance

Consolidation benefits not only the acquiring brand but also the one that is acquired. The acquiring brands needs to rejuvenate and increase relevancy through new brands, whether emerging luxury players or more established and iconic luxury brands. The acquired brand, on the other hand, needs to expand its footprint and penetrate new markets which seem difficult with finite resources, distribution channels and supply chain. These benefits make the choice a lot easier for brands like Michael Kors et al, to buy market share rather than investing time and pounds into trying to capture it.

However, consolidation has its own share of problems. Striking the right balance between growth, exclusivity and brand integrity is likely to be a major challenge for brands embarking on the consolidation. So is integrating different cultures, fashion principles and value system.