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In 2021, 62 per cent of the total value generated by the world’s top 50 valuable luxury and premium brands was from apparel brands reveals 2021 Luxury and Premium 50 report by Brand Finance. The report states, 30 apparel brands dominated the ranking. However, the value of these brands declined due to COVID-19. Total value of the world’s top 59 most valuable and premium brands declined 5 per cent year-on-year, from $227.1 billion in 2020 to $219.5 billion in 2021.
Gucci wins despite a drop in brand value
Italian fashion value Gucci emerged second in the list dominated by German auto giant
Porsche, who topped with a brand value of $34.3 billion. Gucci’s brand value however, declined by 12 per cent this year. With a 118 per cent growth in brand value, French ready-to-wear and leather luxury goods brand Celine emerged as the fastest growing brand, while American luxury design house Coach recorded the biggest decline of 31 per cent in brand value in its apparel segment. The value of this segment declined to $47 billion.
Tapestry bucks downturn with strong e-commerce growth
Along with brand value, sales and profits also took a hit this year. However, Coach’s parent company, Tapestry recorded triple-digit e-commerce growth besides a strong rebound across the Chinese market. The report also brands’ relative strength based on factors such as marketing investment, customer familiarity, staff satisfaction, and corporate reputation. Automaker Ferrari tops this list with 2 per cent growth to $9.2 billion. It emerges as the world’s second strongest brand in the list. Rolex follows as the second strongest luxury and premium brand in the world. The brand’s value increased by one per cent to $7.9 billion in 2021 due to the watch market’s strong resilience to the pandemic turmoil
Towards responsible apparel production
Alex Haigh, Valuation Director, Brand Finance believes, the pandemic can help transform the industry by accelerating e-commerce use and making apparel production socially and environmentally responsible.
Taking steps in this direction, German automaker Porsche has introduced the brand’s ‘Strategy 2025.’ Through this strategy, the automobile brand aims to launch more sustainable offerings like Taycan which sold 20,000 units last year. The auto giant also aims to maintain the traditional aspects that the brand is known for.
Hospitality suffers as consumers ‘work from home’
The rise in work from home culture led to a complete standstill in the hospitality industry. However, two hotels Shangri-La and Intercontinental managed to buck the trend. Ranked on the 29th position, Shangri-La emerged as the highest-ranked hotel brand. Home to several five-star luxury properties across Middle East, Asia, North America and Europe, the hotel recorded an impressive growth across mainland China as domestic leisure travel supported demand. On the other hand, the Intercontinental Hotel was ranked 35th in the list.
One of the world’s biggest fashion markets-China throws away 26 million tons of clothes every year. Less than 1 per cent of these discarded clothes are reused or recycled, which contributes to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, says a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Exporting used clothes to poorer countries
As per a Bloomsberg Quint report, one of the reasons, China does not recycle used clothes is because the country has legally banned recycling due to health and safety reasons. China has appointed state-approved organizations to assemble used clothes and segregate them according to their condition. These are then exported to other countries.
China’s exported around 6.4 per cent of the world’s total used clothing in 2015, reveals data from the UK-based
Textile Recycling Association. Majority of these were exported to Africa. Many are sold on e-commerce sites like Alipay. Hangzhou-based e-commerce seller Baijingyu or White Wales collects about 70 per cent of used clothes and sells them at overseas second-hand clothing markets. Another 15 per cent are used in construction, agriculture, or gardening, or sent to waste-to-energy incinerators. Their main markets are Southeast Asia and Africa.
Some clothes are exported to Europe and the US before being re-exported to Africa. Earlier, China used to import used clothing. But it banned imports of 24 kinds of solid waste, including used textiles in 2017. Now, it sends more clothing for re-use and recycling which has led to a spurt in small startups in the country. One such start-up is the Re-Clothing Bank in Beijing makes patchwork jackets, bags and carpets out of used clothes.
Designing for durability
Yet, China throws away a vast majority of discarded apparels into waste bins, compounding environment issues. China has one of the biggest waste bins in Jiangcungou, Shaanxi province, which collects almost four times the amount of predicted daily waste.
It also cuts and adds discarded garments to trash-to-energy incinerators to make them more efficient. However, this is not an environmentally sustainable solution, says Allan Wheeler, General Delegate-Textile Division, Bureau of International Recycling. He advises designers to design their clothes for durability and consumers to curb their consumption patterns.
In January this year, the Kerala government introduced a ‘fat tax,’ on certain food types not suitable for consumption. The tax aims to curb consumption of unhealthy foods in India. In fashion, especially couture, the tax refers to the practice of charging extra for clothes in bigger sizes.
Fat tax helps designers, who have to forgo their profit margins to provide larger sizes, connect with customers who have to pay extra to clothe themselves suitably. Designer aggregator stores in India like Fuel, Pernia’s Pop Up Shop, and Aza usually stock extra-large pieces for three months without guarantying sale, which makes it difficult for designers to send them multiple pieces in a variety of sizes. Luxury women’s wear brand Papa Don’t Preach doesn’t make plus-sized clothing if not demanded by a customer at its store. The brand does not stock more than two to three pieces of a particular design at any given time, since it’s made to measure.
Additional raw material costs hinder production of plus sizes
One reason designers shy away from producing large size clothes in India is because they require more raw
materials which increases their production costs. Shubhika Sharma, Founder and Creative Director of Papa don’t Preach, believes this cost needs to be borne by designers as the actual additional costs aren’t that steep. However, in India luxury designers try to control their production costs by using cheaper raw materials, says local fashion watchdog Diet Sabya.
As a lot of the embroidery work being done today on garments is machine-based and the fabrics are procured from China at throwaway prices, designers’ justification for charging extra for more fabric, embroidery, etc does not stand, points out Neelakshi Singh, Professor, National Institute of Fashion Technology and Pearl Academy. Sharma adds, designers do not make a loss making an XL size for a paying customer. Though the cost of embroidery does increase marginally it can be accommodated in the original price. Sharma advises designers to learn from growing sustainable fashion movement and apply it to plus-size production.
Resizing can help write off fat tax
For emerging designers, staying in business, means catering to the average, the middle — the S through L sizes. However, these sizes don’t generally fit Indian bodies, points out Sharma. For them, tops and bottoms have different sizes and an L size garment made for Indian body type won’t fit any other customer. This is because in India, plus size individuals actually belong to the mid-sizes that are more affordable for customers and more profitable for designers. Hence, if the current measurements are resized according to Indian bodies, it could help to write off fat tax completely.
Such an initiative has been introduced by the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Textiles. Together, these two bodies are carrying out a National Sizing Survey that will measure 25,000 men and women across six major cities in the country, in the age group 15-65 years. The survey aims to make the ready-to-wear fashion industry more aware of Indian sizes. Though some industry leaders including Vishakha Bhaskar, Co-founder, Angrakha are skeptical of these efforts, it’s not too late for the Indian fashion industry to revolutionize the concept of plus size in India.
National perspective plans ‘Vision 2021’ and ‘Vision 2041’ were launched by Bangladesh to transform itself from least developed countries (LDCs) to a middle-income country, and become a developed nation by 2041. ‘Vision 2041’ aims to amplify Bangladesh’s bilateral trade strategies to uprgrade its industrial eco-system and make substantial investments in infrastructure, says a Textile Today report. Primarily, the vision aims to establish a strong trade relationship with leading Asian economic giants like China to make ‘Export Policy 2018-2021’ a reality.
Bangladesh-China close ties spur infrastructure investments
Bangladesh seems to have succeeded in establishing a close relationship with China. This can be gauged from the
credit lines offered by China for key infrastructure projects in Bangladesh and investment inflows in power and energy, textiles, weaving, leather, footwear, construction, light engineering, and stock exchange.
This elevated strategic partnership is a result of recent visits by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in October 2016 to Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to China in July 2019. With strengthened bilateral relationship, China has granted duty-free access to 97 per cent Bangladeshi products from July 1, 2020. The Tariff Commission of the State Council of China has also implemented zero-tariffs on 8,256 products originating from Bangladesh. Additionally, China’s duty -free coverage has freshly included 5,161 numbers of products. This resulted in the trade between Bangladesh and China in FY 2019-20 increasing to $ 12.14 billion through the export to China were only $ 600.11 million.
Growth opportunities in China’s RMG market
Over the last 10 years, from CY 2010-2019, China’s RMG market has increased by 368 per cent while its RMG imports have hovered around 0.50 per cent. The annual average imports of its knitwear and woven garments, which had fallen in in 2009 due to the world financial crises, bounced back by 29.23 per cent in CY 2010 and by 45.09 per cent in CY 2011. Since CY 2012 the imports of HS Code 61 & 62 had been following cyclical growth and fall.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh could not explore the growth opportunities in knitwear market as Vietnam is nearer to China than Bangladesh. Also, as a member state of ASEAN, Vietnam enjoys duty free facilities given by China, since ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) January 1, 2010.
Duty free advantage helps Vietnam outstep Bangladesh
The share of Vietnam’s knitwear exports to China has been continuously increasing as the country had been able to grab market share of other smaller exporting countries. However, exports by rest of the World are forecasted to increase in CY 2020 and CY 2021. Over the last three years, Bangladesh’s exports of top 10 knitwear products have increased. These include knitted T-shirts, singlets, jerseys, trousers, shirts, whose exports have grown by double-digit CAGR, indicating the high potential of Bangladesh in export of these items.
However, Bangladesh’s knitwear exports to China are expected to decline by CY 2021 if the country fails to explore the Chinese duty free facility up to the optimal level.
The Italy-Pakistan Textile Technology Center (IPTTC) established at National Textile University Faisalabad (NTUF) would improve Pakistan’s textile processing and enrich required skills.
During the inauguration ceremony held at NTU, Jauhar Saleem, Pakistan’s ambassador to Italy said that technological advancement in textiles would help Pakistan stay competitive in the European Union (EU) market, where it exports textile products worth over $5 billion.
Italian Ambassador to Pakistan Andrease Ferrarese said that the tech centre would also help in creating jobs and improving the working conditions in the Pakistani textile sector, adding that Italy would act as a strategic alliance for Pakistan to promote its trade and development agenda.
He said that the centre has been equipped with state of the art Italian textile machinery that would help to improve textile processing, especially the finishing and final look of products.
Italy has provided machinery for the textile sector under an an MoU was signed between Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in 2018.
According to a new report, the US secondhand clothing market is projected to more than triple in value to $80 billion in 2029.
Even more transformative is secondhand clothing’s potential to dramatically alter the prominence of fast fashion—a business model characterized by cheap and disposable clothing that emerged in the early 2000s, epitomized by brands like H&M and Zara. Fast fashion grew exponentially over the next two decades, significantly altering the fashion landscape by producing more clothing, distributing it faster and encouraging consumers to buy in excess with low prices.
While fast fashion is expected to continue to grow 20 per cent in the next 10 years, secondhand fashion is poised to grow 185 per cent.
The secondhand clothing market is composed of two major categories, thrift stores and resale platforms. But it’s the latter that has largely fueled the recent boom. Secondhand clothing has long been perceived as worn out and tainted, mainly sought by bargain or treasure hunters. However, this perception has changed, and now many consumers consider secondhand clothing to be of identical or even superior quality to unworn clothing. A trend of “fashion flipping”—or buying secondhand clothes and reselling them—has also emerged, particularly among young consumers.
Japan's apparel retail sales have declined by 23.5 per cent year-on-year in September. After a slight recovery in August, EU’s apparel retail sales moved down in September, down 12.6 per cent compared with that in same period of last year.
According to Eurostat retail data, EU retail sales fell 1.7 month-on-month but up 2.1% year-on-year in September. Among them, the retail sales of textile, clothing and footwear decreased by 6.3% month-on-month and 12.6% year-on-year.
According to the statistics of Japan's trade ministry, Japan's commodity retail sales fell by 0.1 per cent month-on-month in September, 8.7 per cent lower than that in same period of last year. Among them, the retail sales of textile and apparel decreased by 2.4 per cent month-on-month and 23.5 per cent year-on-year.
Viscose speciality fibers manufacturer Kelheim Fibers has partnered with the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP) in two strategic programs.
The Bavarian firm has signed up to the Bio-Based Fibers and the Circular Economy programs, the aims of which are to bring key players from industry and science together to develop a long-term strategy to actively shape the sustainable realignment of the European textile industry.
According to Kelheim, its membership of the two three-year ETP programs are in recognition of the fundamental changes inside the textile supply chain, particularly against the backdrop of the increasingly important sustainability debate.
Kelheim’s sustainability criteria also includes the full life cycle of its products: when a textile, after its use, can become the raw material for new fibres and new products, that is a huge advantage in terms of sustainability. We want the best possible result – bio-based fibres and circular economy are the way to get there.”
The European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP) is the largest European network for the promotion of textile research and innovation. It brings together over 200 members from industry, research, higher education, clusters, associations and textile-related sectors.
Kelheim Fibers GmbH is the world’s leading producer of viscose specialty fibers and a key supplier of viscose fibers for the tampon industry. About 90,000 tons of viscose fibers are produced every year at Kelheim in South Germany with applications ranging from fashion, hygiene and medical products to nonwovens and specialty papers.
Local apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh have urged the bond authorities to increase the amount of waste permitted while producing garments to 30 per cent from items imported duty free under bonded warehouse benefit.
Currently, manufacturers are allowed to waste 7 to 9 per cent of the required materials while making export-oriented garment items. It is 7 per cent during the dyeing process and 9 per cent in case of processed knitted fabrics.
However, the percentage of waste in making export-oriented garment items has risen as most local manufacturers are entering the high-end market.
A portion of fabrics is wasted for various reasons during manufacturing. For instance, incidents of wasting fabrics and yarn take place when these materials are cut or processed. Scraps are also produced while sewing fabrics. The process of making fancy or high-value added garment items generate more waste compared to the production of basic apparel products.
This is because, in many cases, garment manufacturers and exporters cannot maintain the commerce ministry's fixed 7 per cent and 9 per cent waste allowances in making fancy and high-end garment items.
As a result, the bond office and customs offices sometimes cause delays in releasing goods from ports because of a mismatch in the amount of fabrics imported and its consumption for making finished apparel goods for export under bond licenses.
Bangladesh has received $256.5 million from the global Green Climate Fund to promote private sector investment through large scale adoption of energy-efficient technologies in the textile and garment sectors.
The Idcol, as the direct access entity (DAE) of the GCF, received the approval of the funding proposal for the program titled ‘Promoting private sector investment through large scale adoption of energy-saving technologies and equipment for Textile and Readymade Garment sectors of Bangladesh.’
It is the largest approved funding proposal for any DAE of the GCF accredited globally, Under the program, Idcol will get $250 million concessional loan for a tenure of 20 years with a grace period of five years for financing energy-efficient equipment.
Another $6.5 million will come as technical assistance (grant) to develop enabling environment by covering areas such as capacity building, awareness, support in loan disbursal and monitoring and evaluation of the programme parameters. Out of $250 million loan, $100 million will be utilized to finance textile sector energy efficiency projects, while $150 million will be channeled to four local financial institutions for financing energy efficiency projects in the RMG sector.
The total program size will be $423.50 million, including co-financing from Idcol, local financiers and the project sponsors.
