Customers in the US looking for plus sized clothing are often disappointed. For one not too many brands make clothing above size 16. And even if they do they don’t present the entire wardrobe. Some may make only T-shirts and not pants.

The reality is that there’s money to be made in catering to overweight people especially women. It makes business sense for designers to expand their size offerings since there’s a large market of people who would like to dress themselves in interesting clothes and in new fashions and ethical materials.

Plus size clothing sales represented around 17.5 per cent of all women’s clothing sales in the US in 2016. Plus size fashion is here to stay and has already conquered the hearts and budgets of many in the apparel industry. Spending on this niche is on the rise and so are the opportunities for retailers wanting to tap into the 46 billion dollar opportunity. E-commerce contributes to the growth of plus size fashion primarily because of ease of access, size availability and convenience that it provides. While one size does not fit all, and standard sizes for all is one of the major challenges to the segment, personalization is further leading to the success of many brands.

The alpaca fiber market is witnessing high growth mainly due to the upsurge in demand for alpaca fiber fleeces and other types of fashion accessories made with alpaca fiber. Alpaca clothing is warm, soft and extremely comfortable. Alpaca fiber is witnessing a greater demand over wool in the textile industry being a natural fiber that provides more warmth minus the scratchy texture of wool.

As the trend of offering highly sustainable and eco-friendly garments and accessories is gaining popularity, alpaca fiber market is growing at a rapid pace with the surging demand for warm and soft alpaca fiber.

While the alpaca fiber market is expanding at an impressive growth rate, market players are aiming at producing alpaca fiber with even better quality to attract more consumers. As high genetic merits can lead to producing large quantities of high-quality alpaca fiber, manufacturers in the alpaca fiber market are putting efforts into providing nutritious feed to alpacas. Nutrition makes a significant impact on the health and reproduction capabilities of alpacas and ultimately helps obtain softer and high-quality alpaca fiber. Leading manufacturers and distributors in the alpaca fiber market are investing heftily in alpaca nutrition in order to be able to offer the finest quality of alpaca fiber and gain a competitive edge in the alpaca fiber market.

Adidas has made Futurecraft.Loop, a performance running shoe out of thermoplastic polyurethane. It is 100 per cent recyclable. The technology allows the entire shoe to be ground up, melted back into raw material, and used for new products. Like most running sneakers, the shoe is a jumble of textures. It has a knit upper that looks and feels like woven polyester, except in spots where it turns into a more rigid material to provide support. The midsole is fused pellets, resembling styrofoam. A stabilizing torsion bar in the midsole is a hard, molded plastic, while the outsole is tough but flexible. The laces replicate the look of cloth, and the insole has a knit pattern on the top but a material like pressed plastic pellets on the underside.

Today, the average performance running sneaker uses 12 to 15 different materials. That material mix is part of the reason a running shoe can’t be easily recycled. The materials would all have to be separated, or one might contaminate the recycling process of another. It’s not even possible to separate certain fiber blends, and some items, such as cotton, can’t yet be recycled without a substantial loss in quality.

The challenge of making a running shoe from a single polymer is that it needs to replicate the functions and performance of all those other materials replaced. That’s what Adidas has done on the Futurecraft.Loop.

The global textile market is expanding at a CAGR of 4.24 per cent. Population growth, rising disposable income levels, and rapid urbanization in developing countries like China, India, and Mexico are likely to boost product demand. Moreover, an increasing number of supermarkets and retail outlets in these countries is expected to drive the demand further.

Development of technical textiles that offer protection against high temperatures, electric arc flash discharge, molten metal impact, and acid environment is estimated to fuel the textile market growth. Therefore, the growing personal protective equipment market is expected to drive demand for textile products.

Middle East and Africa are projected to witness a revenue growth of 4.19 per cent from 2019 to 2025 owing to constant product innovations in the apparels application segment. Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast years. Cotton is the most widely used raw material in the global textile industry owing to its excellent durability and resistance to dust mite and hypoallergenic property. In terms of volume, polyester held a market share of 28.04 per cent in 2018 and will grow further owing to its properties such as high strength and excellent shrink resistance.

The Heya Arabian Fashion Exhibition will be held in Qatar from April 26 to 30, 2019. It will feature over 250 brands from 11 countries and include 20 fashion shows. Participating countries will include Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, China, Belgium, and England. The show provides an enriching event for lovers of Arabian fashion, whether designers, shoppers or businesswomen.

The Heya Arabian Fashion Exhibition will feature an Indian pavilion to promote Indian designers. Three Indian designers will take part. Suneet Varma will make his Qatar debut. Varma will also partake in workshops talks throughout the event on fashion, textiles, and sustainability. Pero, 3 Clothing, and SR will showcase their latest collections.

Sales of apparel at many outlets in Qatar, especially those in value retail, remain strong. Apart from citizens, shoppers from Kuwait and Oman buy shirts, blouses, undershirts, shorts, and pants. Ramadan is known as a peak period for clothing retailers. Qatar Summer Festival features a variety of entertainment activities for all ages and attractive promotions and discounts at malls and other shopping destinations. Shop Qatar Design District brings a colorful showcase of local and international pop-up shops, cafes, fashion shows, workshops, master classes as well as engaging design dialogue, all under one roof.

Any country whose exports comprise mainly manufactured goods would do well to think of smart manufacturing. At the heart of smart manufacturing lies a smart factory which is equipped with a fully connected fluid system that can use artificial intelligence and data from connected operations and production systems to learn and adapt to new information. That results in faster manufacturing operations with less human intervention and more precision.

Automated workflows, synchronization of assets and optimised energy consumption in smart factory can increase yield, uptime and quality while reducing costs and waste. These smart factories will utilise multiple digital and physical technologies including digital twin, digital design, additive manufacturing machines and autonomous robots. It is this kind of technology that will drive production processes in the not so distant future. In fact, companies in wide-ranging industries from apparel to automotive manufacturing are already building smart factories.

Bangladesh and Vietnam have already made it a part of their long term industrial policies and companies are investing heavily for strategic benefits. Vietnamese corporations estimate spending heavily on digitisation and automation with the next five years and these potential investments may be significantly larger than global estimates. The expected benefits of investing in Industry 4.0 by Vietnam’s workforce include improvement in operational efficiency and improved access to customers through integration and digitisation of value chains.

Levi Strauss net revenue for the first quarter globally grew seven per cent. Revenue growth from brick-and-mortar stores was 11 per cent, reflecting positive comp performance of existing stores as well as ongoing expansion of the company’s store network internationally, while e-commerce grew 24 per cent. Direct to consumer grew 14 per cent for the quarter in total, and has now grown double-digits for 12 consecutive quarters. Direct to consumer includes the brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce sites that Levi Strauss operates.

Levi Strauss is taking the opportunity as a newly publicly traded company to breathe fresh life into its brands and approach to business. The new chapter the company is writing is being driven by changes in retail-consumer relationship and the push to expand its reach to new customers in new ways. A key strategy is to become a leading world-class omnichannel retailer. Another vital strategy is to diversify the business by expanding more into tops and women’s under-penetrated markets. Levi’s women’s business grew 18 per cent in the first quarter.

When the company discovered the main reason shoppers left stores without buying anything was because they couldn’t find their size or color, it implemented an RFID system to help better track inventory and keep its stock up to date.

The worldwide market for home textiles is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1 per cent over the next five years. Home textile is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibers often referred to as thread or yarn. Home textiles include terry towels, bed sheets, curtains, pillows cases, rugs, carpets etc used for home furnishings. Bedding is the largest segment of home textiles with a production value market share of 38 per cent.

Developing economies such as China and India are major home textile exporters while the US and Europe are major importers of home textiles. China is the largest supplier of home textiles, with a production value market share of nearly 29 per cent and sales revenue market share of nearly 23 per cent. North America has a production value market share of 20 per cent and sales revenue market share of 30 per cent. Europe enjoys a 16 per cent production value market share and 28 per cent sales revenue market share.

In the next few years, the home textile industry will be a steady energetic industry. It presents a lot of opportunities and there will more companies entering this industry, especially in developing countries.

Itema Italy hosted a Denim Day. The day was dedicated to trends and challenges throughout the denim sector, with a special focus on how to meet sustainable perspectives by presenting and introducing new business models and innovations. The event provided an unique opportunity to share ideas, experiences and best practices. It represented an exclusive and rare occasion for the industry to enter into a fertile and sparkling debate involving all actors of the denim supply chain. The event shed light on the most recent green innovations through a market and customer-oriented approach. The whole supply chain was the center of a lively debate which highlighted the connections between ethics and business, the most recent product and process innovations, key technologies, as well as a survey of digitalisation in the value chain for the textile sector.

The event also highlighted the most recent rapier, airjet and projectile weaving innovations designed and developed by Itema exclusively for denim fabrics. Innovations presented by Itema, tailored and customized for denim production, attracted great interest from denim mills delegates attending the event, impressed by the considerable cost-saving, user-friendliness and unparalleled innovative content of the Itema looms.

Itema is a provider of advanced weaving solutions, including weaving machines, spare parts and integrated services.

Infinited Fiber, based in Finland, has produced a strong, sustainable fiber from textile waste. The company is currently running a 50-ton pilot plant and plans to increase the annual capacity of next generation sustainable textile fiber production up to 500 tons in order to meet the growing demand from the market.

Besides cotton rich textile waste, Infinited Fiber manufacturing process can use most material containing cellulose, e.g. recycled paper, cardboard, and agricultural waste such as straw. The reborn fiber will be the same. Properties of the Infinited Fiber include a natural soft look and feel, consistent proven quality, 30 per cent to 40 per cent better color uptake than competing fibers. It’s antibacterial and bio-degradable and has excellent moisture absorption qualities. In addition, it has a total cost competitiveness in the textile production supply chain. The reborn Infinited Fiber is re-usable forever, carbon neutral and applicable like natural cotton without any microplastics harming the environment.

The business model of IFC is to license the Infinited Fiber technology for global fiber producers in textile and non-woven industries. End-use applications include fashion, disposable personal care products (e.g. wipes, diapers, pads) and technical products (e.g. automotive filters, dairy, construction applications). The production process is protected by several patents in key market areas.