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Aizel.Ru Internet Store and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia have joined hands to support emerging Russian designers.
Starting March 10, 2018, Aizel.Ru will become the main platform for sales of local brands, presented at the shows of the key fashion event this spring. Over 100 emerging Russian designers will get a chance of being presented at the internet site.
Aizel Trudel has long been cooperating with dozens of Russian designers. However, giving hundreds of new designers a chance of getting through, Aizel. Ru will become the largest RuNet-based platform across the globe to present Russian fashion. It believes its cooperation to be an education project for emerging designers, for whom the internet should become a key channel of promotion.
Aizel.Ru will support brands with its expertise in the fashion e-commerce sphere. The marketplace will help designers with professional shooting of their collections and will offer support right after they enter the platform and while they use it.
Aizel.Ru is the first Russian fashion marketplace, a member of the Aizel Group, an internet store selling clothes and shoes for women, men and children, as well as accessories and cosmetics of the top global brands. This unique totally Russian fashion project in the online retail sphere has been operating for over 17 years. Aizel.Ru presents fashion trends in both the premium luxury category and in a more affordable segment, and offers brands popular among progressive youth, too. In particular, the store features brands such as Gucci, Burberry, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Christian Louboutin, Marc Jacobs, Victoria Beckham etc.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia kicked off in full swing this Saturday, attracting thousands of visitors and fashionistas.
The week launched with several children’s runway shows, with children’s brand Acoola presenting its Street Tropical, Seaview and School collections and the country’s largest children’s department store Detsky Mir showing off its latest seasonal looks, created by the retailer’s designers.
On day one, arguably the most famous of all Russian designers, Zaitsev looked radiant when he himself appeared on the runway. He was met with a standing ovation - truly, the most respected of all Soviet and post-Soviet Russian couturiers deserves no less. His models led him to the end of the runway and back.
The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia this year played host to the Kazakhstan Fashion Week Showcase, showing off designers from the former republic.
For day two the schedule included street wear, more designers from Kazakhstan, classic couture and a secret performance by a Russian star of screen and stage. The day began with a conceptual show by the Moscow brand Sensus Couture. This is well-known for its brave search for nowness and its inspired originality.
Leather, latex and silk were the course for the day, and Sensus employed its traditional color palette - red, white and lots of black. Many looks were straight-on street wear, with models strolling in pullovers and shorts with some thigh-high boots, while others were traditional evening wear - little black dresses with Ziggy Stardust-like lightning symbols, bold jackets with leopard skin prints, sheer golden coats.
Day three of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia started off with much aplomb, with a whole new slew of young designers to whet the visitors’ insatiable appetites. The first major show of the third day was by Snezhana Paderina.
This Parsons School of Design graduate is well-known for her love of architecture, technology and cyberpunk, and her interest in combining modern technology and traditional techniques in her approach. Combat boots and beautifully-crafted high heels accentuated the otherness of this collection, and modernist art was often incorporated into the garments.
Day four offered a diverse cast of designers. Students of Moscow’s HSE Art and Design School presented a show. First, deconstructed capes and ponchos made of recycled fabrics filled the runway, then oversized trench coats and tulle capes with the collection’s name emblazoned in bold lettering, then even more deconstructed garments, with long tendrils of fabric flowing behind the models. A lot of what was shown could still be classified as modernist street wear, but with a definite avant-garde feel to it.
At the next show, Nastya Nekrasova presented her new collection. One of the constant themes in Nekrasova’s work has been the work of the Athens sculptor Leochares. As for the garments themselves, these had a lot of classical in those as well - silk and wool numbers, free and flowing shapes, oversized sleeves (as if from an antique theatre costume), and busts models carried underarm. But this was a collection by a young Russian designer, so a little modernism was unavoidable - skirts with abstract scribble art and high leather heels spiced up this avant-garde collection.
The final day saw a collective show by the leading educational fashion project in the country, Rebel School. The project gathers the best tutors in the country. Rebel School students presented a diverse collection of modern avant-garde street wear, with designs ranging from oversize orange hoodies and capes and catholic schoolgirl outfits to comfy trousers and shirts to Alice-in-Wonderland style dresses.
Color combinations were the traditional to street wear black, orange, white and red, with several striking blue outfits in the mix. The show bended gender norms, with model Sima Kozochka coming out in a men’s prison robe inspired fit, while other female models wore stylish men’s suits.
"An average consumer buys four pairs of jeans a year in the US; in China’s Xintang province, a hub for denim, 300 million pairs are made annually. These figures could illustrate the harmful impact of denim manufacturing on the environment. And showcasing these effects, award-winning filmmakers David McIlvride and Roger Williams, have created a new documentary film, ‘The RiverBlue: Can Fashion Save the Planet?’ It is estimated that 70 per cent of Asia’s rivers and lakes are contaminated by the 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater produced by that continent’s textile industry."
An average consumer buys four pairs of jeans a year in the US; in China’s Xintang province, a hub for denim, 300 million pairs are made annually. These figures could illustrate the harmful impact of denim manufacturing on the environment. And showcasing these effects, award-winning filmmakers David McIlvride and Roger Williams, have created a new documentary film, ‘The RiverBlue: Can Fashion Save the Planet?’ It is estimated that 70 per cent of Asia’s rivers and lakes are contaminated by the 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater produced by that continent’s textile industry. In scene after scene, the dark frothy spill off can be seen rushing out of dye facilities while a cadre of scientists and environmental experts detail the public health crisis that has resulted from the largely unregulated manufacturing process.
Loads of chemicals & counting
To get the desired look, denim is subjected to several chemical-intensive washes. Campaigners from Greenpeace, who tested the outflows near dyeing and finishing facilities in top denim producing towns of Asia, found five heavy metals (cadmium, chromium, mercury, lead and copper) in 17 out of 21 water and sediment samples taken from throughout Xintang one of the locales featured in the project. Toxic campaigners in China also discovered heavy metals like manganese, which can be associated with brain damage, in the rivers. These chemicals don’t stay put. They can also be transported to North American oceans, atmosphere and food chains and accumulate in places far away from their original source.
The change agent
The film poses a very pertinent question to viewers: Are brand-name clothing corporations disregarding the environment in their zeal to make clothes faster and cheaper for consumers? Offering a solution, the film illustrates through innovation and consumer education there can be change. In California, a designer was trying to re-establish himself as manufacturer of good jeans when director David McIlvride found him. He narrated an incidence that he led them to the Spanish company, Jeanologia where they distress jeans by engraving images on the fabrics with lasers (light and air) and eliminating water without increasing the cost. They are now considered a leading industry innovator.
Jeanologia now creates technology to treat and finish jeans (giving them a certain feel or aesthetic). The company started searching for ways to make garments in a more sustainable way. They have been dyeing clothes with water since the beginning of time and faced the reality that even though it had been done this way in the mass consumer world, it was not sustainable, explained Alex Penadés, Jeanologia. Jeanologia developed several technologies using light and air to finish jeans using little water and no chemicals.
Using these innovations, an average pair of jeans requires just a glass of water to finish when it used to require 300 litres. However, it requires a big capital investment. Depending on the business model the capital investment is made by the dyeing and finishing facilities or brands. Jeanologia has Environmental Impact software to measure the footprint of every style and brands know where they are and how they can improve. Three years ago, about 16 per cent of the jeans in the world were made in a sustainable way he says. Now 35 per cent of jeans are made sustainably and about six billion pairs of jeans are made a year so that means two billion pairs are now being made in a more sustainable way.
According to Penadés, brands have a choice to manufacture in a traditional way or a sustainable way. The water and energy of traditional production is costly and so is pollution. Today, including the capital investment, you can produce the same product at the same price. Brands can do it. If the consumer is aware, they have to request these kinds of products today. Consumers must also know what their impact on the environment is because of their acts of consumption. It’s all about co-responsibility.
Welspun proposes to set up three manufacturing facilities in Telangana. Two of them would be dedicated to technical textiles, while the third would be for making pipes.
Welspun has a presence in home textiles, pipes, plates, coils, steel, infrastructure and energy. It is one of the largest home textile manufacturers in the world. In fiscal 2018, the company plans to expand its towel capacity from 72,000 metric tons to 80,000 metric tons. It will also invest in a new flooring facility.
Welspun’s next growth engine is flooring solutions, where it is investing heavily in over the next two years. The products include area rugs, carpets, carpet tiles, accent rugs and wall to wall carpets. Welspun has invested Rs 100 crores to set up a fresh state-of-the-art fully automated cut and sew unit in the made-ups segment with a capacity of 10 million units per annum.
Welspun is known as one of the most innovative companies in the home textile space, with a portfolio of 26 unique inventions across the globe, contributing 36 per cent to its sales.
Being India’s largest consumer of cotton, Welspun works with farmers at various cotton growing locations across the country to help them adopt better quality cotton crops. The company also guides and mentors farmers on right practices, seed and pesticides.
Vietnam hopes the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will enable it to boost exports to major markets such as Japan, Australia, Canada and Mexico. The CPTPP is a new free trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The agreement is also expected to provide opportunities for Vietnam to strengthen foreign direct investment in fields that the country seeks to develop. Vietnam’s garment and textile exports to CPTPP countries currently account for only 13 per cent of the total value, much lower than that of 38 per cent to the US market. Among the eleven member countries, Japan imports most of Vietnam’s garment and textile products, 8.8 per cent.
The garment and textile sector in Vietnam has also pinned its hopes on Australia and on increasing exports to this market. The agreement is also expected to provide additional opportunities for seafood exports. Japan currently is Vietnam’s largest seafood importer among CPTPP member countries, accounting for more than 15 per cent of Vietnam’s seafood export turnover. In addition, Mexico is a major tuna importer. In 2017, tuna export turnover to Mexico increased 66 per cent compared to 2016. With strong commitments to reduce tariffs, shrimp, tuna and octopus exports will benefit greatly from the CPTPP.
US manufacturers are developing advanced materials such as conductive fabrics with antistatic properties, electronic textiles that monitor heart rate and other vital signs, antimicrobial fibers, life-saving body armor, and fabrics that adapt to the climate.
There are a vast range of products offered by the industry, from burlap and cheese cloth, to industrial woven fabrics, to specialty fabrics for the aerospace manufacturing environment and beyond. US textile and apparel manufacturers shipped nearly $78 billion of products in 2017, exporting nearly $29 billion of materials to more than 200 countries worldwide.
Over the past three months, sourcing for fabrics is up 21 per cent over its historical average, sourcing in the category of industrial textiles is up eight per cent, and sourcing for textiles is up six per cent. This activity comes at a time when the US is focusing closely on trade, to level the playing field for US manufacturers against unfair trade practices from abroad – something that has hit the American textile industry hard in recent decades. Other factors playing into what many see as a resurgent US textile industry are low domestic energy costs, advances in automation, and a growing buy it, make it, ship it production model made possible by e-commerce.
Rachel Lund, Head of Insights and Analytics at the British Retail Consortium analysing latest UK labour market statistics says labour market figures confirm the retail industry is undergoing significant structural change. Despite the fact that the number of jobs in retail during the festive period was higher in 2017 compared to previous year, employment was down by 73,000 compared to Christmas two years ago and by more than 1,00,000 compared to ten years ago, in the midst of the financial crisis.
The reality is the economics of retailing are changing. Over the last two years, taxes on physical stores have grown by an estimated 8 per cent and employee wages by 10 per cent at the same time as overall sales have grown by less than 3 per cent and pounds spent on non-food products in physical stores have fallen by 5 per cent.
As a result, retailers are having to radically rethink how they operate in order to survive, investing more in technology and restructuring their store portfolios and workforce. While the result will raise productivity in the industry, the transition will not be painless and will affect some communities more than others.
Rupee appreciation in real terms has hurt Tirupur’s exporters, making it hard to compete on a cost basis with lower income countries such as Bangladesh. Bangladesh has already signed an FTA with the EU which has given it a 10.5 per cent cost advantage over India. Similarly, Vietnam is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU and is already part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
While Tirupur’s exporters managed to overcome external shocks in the past, and ride through periods of slowdown such as the 2008 crisis, the cause of Tirupur’s pain this time is domestic policy. The combination of demonetisation and a hurried, faulty GST implementation has brought Tirupur to its knees.
Demonetisation completely decimated domestic demand by removing all liquidity from the market. GST has increased costs, not only of compliance but also of materials, services and working capital. Prior to GST implementation, the sum total of export incentives amounted to 13.65 per cent of FOB value. Subsequent to GST, this fell to eight per cent, a steep reduction of 5.7 percentage points.
Tirupur is India’s largest cotton textile export cluster. The tightening of liquidity for exporters has led to a contraction in demand for downstream processing units, leading to their inability to pay back loans on their capital.
A technical textile workshops will be held at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International School of Textiles and Management, Tamil Nadu from April 5 to 8, 2018. It’s meant for textile entrepreneurs in and around Tamil Nadu. Textile industries can work to enhance their products by value addition for the technical textile arena.
These workshops will be a platform to provide technical support, knowhow and the entire necessary infrastructure at one place. The workshops include three phases. The first phase would elaborate on various fields in technical textiles, product development, manufacturing processes and market. The second and third phase comprise planning and executing business plans on the technical textile sector.
Participants will undergo both theoretical and practical training including industrial visits. This sectoral training program will include sessions on medical textiles–products, manufacturing process, technology, machines, standards, market demand and marketing strategy.
Field visits will be arranged for participants to manufacturing and application sites to understand the practical aspects. Participants will also be provided with a questionnaire to conduct a survey at health care centers, medical textile product dealers and end users. Sessions on new product development, brain storming, SWOT analysis, discussions on intellectual property rights and new business startups have been planned.
The sectoral programs will cover agro textiles, home textiles, industrial textiles and packing textiles.
The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA) and Ecommerce Gateway Pakistan are jointly organising the three-day 19th Textile Asia 2018 - International Textile, Garments Machinery and Clothing Trade Fair from March 29 to 29, 2018 at the Karachi Expo Centre. PRGMEA chairman (Central) Shaikh Mohammad Shafiq disclosed the fair is expected to host over 2,000 foreign delegates as well as 65,000 visitors from the trade and corporate sector.
The focus is value addition in the textile industry to enhance export of value-added textile and garment products. This three-day trade fair is well known as South Asia’s biggest B2B textile, garment, embroidery, digital printing machines and chemical and allied services fair.
Over 1,000 International brands will showcase their products in 800+ booths and 2,000+ foreign delegates from 27 countries, including Austria, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, Turkey, the UK and the USA, will be present at the event.
Li Yang from the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province, China is the Guest of Honour. She is promoting Zhejiang Export Fair in Textile Asia for business, investment and joint venture opportunities. The PRGMEA chairman said Textile Asia is the only UFI (Paris) approved textile trade fair in South Asia which has immense buying selling potential of textile, garment and allied industries and is poised to introduce overseas suppliers of textile and garment materials, accessories and parts and machinery to the textile and garment industry of Pakistan. He complement their efforts for delivering high quality, value added products and promised to assist them in developing their export business.
