"It’s more than just conjecture that many mall stalwart brands have suffered due to the rise of fast fashion giants H&M and Zara, whose ability to significantly reduce time to market and undercut pricing of once iconic brands, have added to the woes fashion’s specialty retailers. Now, unexpectedly, H&M the world’s second largest clothing manufacturer behind Inditex’s Zara, decided to close down 160 stores. The fashion giant, in mid-2018, accumulated over $4 billion in unsold inventory, forcing significant discounting to clear out the goods."

It’s more than just conjecture that many mall stalwart brands have suffered due to the rise of fast fashion giants H&M and Zara, whose ability to significantly reduce time to market and undercut pricing of once iconic brands, have added to the woes fashion’s specialty retailers. Now, unexpectedly, H&M the world’s second largest clothing manufacturer behind Inditex’s Zara, decided to close down 160 stores. The fashion giant, in mid-2018, accumulated over $4 billion in unsold inventory, forcing significant discounting to clear out the goods. This resulted in unexpected reductions in profits for the 6th straight quarter.

Martino Pessina, President of H&M's of North American operations, revealed the brand has already begun scaling back on the heavy discounting in its North American locations. It’s unclear how a company that has hooked customers on fast and cheap can simply flip the switch, without repercussions.

H&M isn’t the only fast fashion player that is feeling some pain. More recently, fast-fashion retailer Charlotte Russe filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. It initially planning on only closing about 20 per cent stores but could end up liquidating if it is not able to find an investor to keep the business going.

Emergence of online players

Another cause of concern for the two fast giants is the emergence of a whole new breed of online-centric players. These upstarts include brands like ASOS, Boohoo and Misguided in the UK, who are building followings by cutting down supply chains to bring out offerings in as little as a week. Another major disruptor, Fashion Nova is supercharging its digital-first brand utilising a social strategy, powered by Instagram. They have managed to build more than 14 million social media followers; and in 2017 Fashion Nova became one of the most Googled brands in the world. The company has been able to introduce anywhere between 600 and 900 new pieces per week.

Seeking transparency around brand’s eco footprint

It’s no secret that fast fashion has been responsible for a catastrophic level of environmental pollution. The trifecta of overt use of raw materials, water pollution and greenhouse gas emotions are only a part of the story. Not only is this circular buy, wear and toss behavior impacting landfills, and becoming a major carbon contributor, that may not be the worst of it. Fast fashion has played a very dark role in contributing to black-market trafficking of forced labor, as evidenced in the New York Times documentary, Invisible Hands, by journalist Shraysi Tandon.

Additionally, hundreds of lobbying groups are raising awareness and influencing demand for drastic industry change. This has led to growing evidence that both millennial and gen Z’s are pushing for a new level of transparency around the ecological footprint and entire life cycle all products. And according to a recent Nielsen survey, 73 per cent millennials have demonstrated a willingness to pay more for products that are sustainable.

Trending driven by personal fashion expression

Trending appears to be evolving from a top-down fashion evolution, to a bottom-up percolation, driven by social media and personal fashion expression. The effect has both given permission and encouragement to throngs of consumers to cultivate their own, unique personal styles.

Contrary to the forces behind fast fashion, consumers of all ages and demographics are investing in fewer, but higher quality basics that can be mixed, matched and re-worn; even with the addition of some great vintage accessories.

Uncertainty around the UK’s imminent exit from the European Union has hit consumer spending.
In February, UK retail sales decreased by 0.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis from February 2018, when it had increased 0.6 per cent from the preceding year.

On a total basis, sales increased by 0.5 per cent in February 2019 compared to 1.6 per cent in February 2018. This is below both the three-month and 12-month averages of 0.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.

Over the three months to February, in-store sales of non-food items declined 2.8 per cent on a total basis and 3.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis. This is below the 12-month total average decline of 2.4 per cent.

Over the three months to February, non-food retail sales in the UK decreased 0.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis and 0.4 per cent on a total basis. This is below the 12-month total average decrease of 0.2 per cent.

Online sales of non-food products grew 5.4 per cent in February, against a growth of 6.4 per cent in February 2018. This is below the three-month average of 5.6 per cent and pulls down the 12-month average to 6.9 per cent.

USA plans to scrap the generalised system of preferences (GSP) benefits for India within the next two months. GSP allows India to export up to $5.6 billion worth of products to America duty-free. It will not have significant impact on its shipment to the US.

Farm, marine and handicraft products are among India's exports most likely to be hit, Indian tariffs are within the bound rates under the World Trade Organisation's commitments and are on an average well below these bound rates.

The US had initiated the review of the GSP status to India on the basis of representations by the US medical devices and dairy industries but it subsequently included numerous other issues on a self-initiated basis.

These included issues related to market access for various agriculture and animal husbandry products, easing of procedures related to issues like telecom testing, conformity assessment and tariff reduction on ICT products.

India's top GSP exports to the US in 2017 included motor vehicle parts, ferro alloys, precious metal jewelry, building stone, insulated cables and wires.

The US-China trade war can help enhance Bangladesh’s exports especially of garment, textile, IT and agricultural products.
The country can receive a lot of work orders, mainly shifted from China—the largest apparel supplier worldwide—because of the tariff war. Also, a higher domestic demand has propelled Bangladesh’s miraculous and extremely robust economic growth. At the end of the year, GDP growth is expected to hit 7.5 per cent.

But much depends on the continuation of trade privileges when the United Kingdom comes out of the European bloc. England is not only Bangladesh’s third largest export destination but also the hub for Bangladesh to reach other European countries. Both the European Union and the United Kingdom have promised to continue providing the generalised system of preferences facility after Bangladesh graduates in status from least developed to developing country. However, it is still a matter of concern how the Rules of Origin will be determined.

Bangladesh needs more entrepreneurs for new job creation and to reduce income inequality as the country is now on a development trajectory. Investing in good infrastructure, providing good logistics and easy facilitation can help develop an efficient global value chain, and thereby attract global companies to move their production centers to Bangladesh.

There has been a spurt in demand from China for Indian cotton. Five lakh bales will be shipped to China in the next two months.
It is to be noted Indian standard unit of 10 lakh equals 1 million.
The Cotton Association of India had estimated exports for the 2018-19 season to decline by 27 per cent to 50 lakh bales compared with exports of 69 lakh bales last year. India’s total cotton export shipment is around 32 lakh bales up to February 2019.

There has been uncertainty in the global cotton trade due to the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Though there will be no trade now with Pakistan for a few months, there’s good export demand for Indian cotton from many other countries like Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and many more. During the past couple of weeks, around four lakh to five lakh bales of cotton have been sold by Indian exporters to China for March-April shipments. Pakistan accounts for ten per cent of India’s cotton exports. India has already exported 6.5 lakh bales of cotton to Pakistan. Increase in export demand from other countries is likely to compensate for the loss of trade with Pakistan.

Prices of raw cotton are ruling below the minimum support price levels. The decline in the domestic prices has brought export parity.

Sports retailers are differentiating themselves from their competitors in order to offer customers an unique shopping experience.
In the past, brands could dictate what sports collections had to look like, but the conservative sports looks won’t work in future.

A number of interesting small brands are delivering something special. These brands come from the fashion, luxury and sustainability segments. They are presenting themselves in a new way and with different approaches.

Tentree, based in Canada, has one goal: to plant one billion trees by 2030. Ten trees are planted per product sold. What started with one T-shirt has become an impressive collection and 58,230 trees have been planted in the European business alone and 25 million worldwide.

Templa, based in Australia, presents a young, very contemporary ski collection in the luxury segment. All materials and their processing are highly functional. Only the look is strikingly different: calf-length down coats, sack-like parkas, wide cargo pants.

With its strikingly colorful women’s collections, Blutsgeschwister serves around 350 fashion locations in Germany. The brand is known for parkas, hoodies and hooded jackets. Jackets and parkas are equipped with a water column and are therefore ideal for urban environments. In addition, the brand attaches great importance to sustainable production.

Pakistan is extending subsidised loan credit to the textile sector.
The Export Financing Scheme (EFS) has increased the credit limit for textile exports. The Long Term Financing Facility (LTFF) for investment in the textile sector has been enhanced. The loan credit under the EFS will be available at a subsidised mark-up of three per cent and under LTFF at five per cent.

In addition, the project financing limit will be raised. This will not only help cover the financing cost but also encourage large scale plants having an edge in economies of scale.

Textile exporters in Pakistan were facing difficulties as the share of the subsidised credit limit had dwindled to 27 per cent from 41 per cent in a year. The sector has been relying heavily on commercial loans. The discount rate was raised to 10.25 per cent from 5.75 per cent during the same period. More importantly, during the last year, the currency had devalued 35 per cent against the dollar. The cost of financing for textile projects has substantially increased along with the requirements of working capital and in the last five years imports of textile machinery have remained almost stagnant.

Textile exports make up around 60 per cent of the country’s total exports.

Polyester has grown to represent 55 percent of the world’s fiber consumption, and acts as a staple of our industry. The polyester industry in India is currently valued at $1.3 trillion (US).

Polyester is a synthetic polymer made of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) or its dimethyl ester dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and monoethylene glycol (MEG), all derived during the refining and distillation of crude oil.

Originating from research headed by W.H. Carothers and working for DuPont on the development of synthetic fibers, British scientists Whinfield and Dickson took up the research in the late 1930s and eventually patented PET or PETE in 1941. Polyethylene terephthalate forms the basis for synthetic fibers like Dacron, Terylene and Polyester.

Manmade textile industry is on the cusp of turnaround with a revival in its demand in the last few weeks following producers’ ability to fix prices of their products in the wake of stabilising crude oil prices.

Sensing this opportunity, leading manmade fiber and yarn players have chalked out massive investment plans to expand their capacity and grab large share in the world market. Filatex India, for example, has envisaged Rs 275 crore (US$ 39.24 million) expansion plan to raise their production capacity of yarn and power to reduce its production cost and improve its EBIDTA margins for this year.

Trading at $85.10 a barrel in the world market, crude oil price gradually slipped to the level of $49.79 a barrel towards the end of December and gradually picked up again to trade currently at $65.05 a barrel. Most importantly, crude oil price is holding above $60 a barrel since February 1 which allowed synthetic yarn, fabric and textile manufacturers to fix their product prices for long term. Prices of synthetic yarn and fabric moved in tandem with crude oil prices, being the latter the sole raw material of the former.

US consumers of Levi’s will be able to go to Levi.com and design their own pair of jeans through the brand’s FLX technology.

Consumers will be able to start with seven of Levi’s most popular fits, including the 501. From those seven fits, using a variety of design combinations, they’ll be able to design over a thousand combinations of their own personalized jeans. Consumers can handpick their desired wash, the type of wear pattern, whether or not they want deconstruction and if so, where and what size. They can opt to over-dye their jeans in a myriad of colors like pink, black and green, and can choose from a select set of images and words to have etched on their jeans for further personalization. The jeans will be produced and shipped and delivered to consumers’ homes in a matter of days.

FLX technology is the company’s digitized finishing solution to streamline the process through eco-friendly lasers. With this, the company shifts its focus of providing a finished good to the consumer to providing a blank canvas. This eliminates the risk that comes with designing for long lead times and consumers’ ever-changing tastes and needs. This phase of customization is aimed at deepening consumers’ connection with the brand.