Hundreds of garment workers in Bangladesh and Vietnam toil for Australian fashion brands. These brands care more for the clothes than the people making them. Systemic exploitation of workers has been enabled by Australian companies like Kmart, Target, Big W and Cotton On whose buying practices compel factory operators to reduce cost of production.

These buying practices include fierce price negotiation, short-term contracts with factories, and reducing delivery times at one end while imposing fines for not meeting those squeezed deadlines. Buyers for instance insist on the installation of automatic fire extinguishers for rooms where finished clothing is stored, but do not require the same for the sewing floors where hot machines can also ignite.

Brands are supposed to be responsible for making credible commitments to ensure the payment of living wages to workers making their clothes. The global garment industry is infamous for its labour sweatshops in developing countries.

Workers are grossly underpaid and work under despicable conditions – producing for a global apparel market valued at around three trillion dollars. They get paid less than the living wage – the wage required by a worker to meet the basic needs of a family unit of four (two adults, two children) in order to maintain a decent quality of life.

Lifted by higher prices on women’s and children’s wear, retail apparel prices in the US rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1 per cent in January amid clearance sales. The January increase for apparel was the largest since February 2018. Raw material prices have shown stability.

Cotton prices may remain steady thanks to solid fundamentals. From fiber firms to apparel manufacturers, everyone has noted an easing off of raw material price inflation that cut into their bottom lines. They remain wary, however, of ongoing volatilities, such as tariffs and increases in related commodities.

Hanes Brands last year incurred input costs inflation. The company has now been able to integrate these increases into its price structure and will be able to recoup the costs and improve margins. For Unifi, the spike in polyester raw material costs in September and October 2018 and the resulting demand disruption created an even more challenging environment for its regional business and its performance missed expectations. External pressures in the regional business included elevated raw material costs and suppressed demand for certain textured and covered yarns. This created internal pressures to implement selling price increases that left Unifi less competitive with elevated inventory levels and resulted in weaker leverage of its cost structure.

As per All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), export enablers ensured by the government are likely to increase textile and clothing exports to $15 billion during remaining period of the current fiscal year. APTMA appreciated the government for recognising the importance of exporting industry and providing regionally competitive energy to five zero rated sectors. It urged the government to ensure supply of energy on regionally competitive price in order to ensure stability.

The association says, proposed to constitute a task force on cotton production to achieve 15 million bales and ensure implementation of vertical & horizontal growth of cotton, acquisition of high yield cotton technology, broad basing of sustainable cotton production, provision of agricultural extension services and provision of direct support to farmers to reduce their input cost. It also urged the government to liquidate all textile industry refunds of sale tax, income tax, policy & package initiatives.

The Event of a Thread: Global Narratives in Textiles is on in Turkey, February 21 to July 7, 2019. The exhibition features works by international artists who use textiles to create aesthetic and cultural narratives through painting, photography, archive materials, objects, installations, and video works. It focuses on the historical, social and cultural meanings of fabrics, and investigates the various uses of textiles as a tool of expression.

Prior to this, the exhibition was held in Germany and Kuwait. It builds on the original selection by creating new connections in each institution it travels to, with the assistance of curators at each institution and the addition of new works from local artists.

The Event of a Thread demonstrates the variety of opportunities provided by textiles as a multifaceted tool of expression in addition to its purpose as a surface produced via the systematic integration of yarn layers, warps and wefts. Social, cultural and historical narratives are untied from threads of fabric and rearranged for to create new connections between them.

One of the special areas in the exhibition has been dedicated to Eyüboğlu, the first artist to develop a synthesis between painting and embroidery, textiles, and yazma traditions in Turkey.

Texprocess India and Gartex India have formed an unified industry platform called Gartex Texprocess India. With the merger of the two strong textile trade fair brands, the organisers, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India and MEX Exhibitions, aspire to work in collaboration for India’s textile industry development, facilitating global sourcing and networking in the textile value chains.

Stakeholders will be provided a strong brand of enhanced offerings through a single-source business platform – Gartex Texprocess India. While Texprocess India was launched as a pavilion to create an innovation platform for garment manufacturing and textile processing at the Techtextil India tradeshow in Mumbai, Gartex India is held annually in New Delhi and has grown wider in scope covering not just garment and the textile manufacturing value chain but has also added segments like the innerwear manufacturing zone, in addition to digital textile printing, embroidery and other verticals.

Leading in both apparel consumption and exports, India holds the second largest textile manufacturing capacity globally with the textile machinery sector witnessing a growth of eight per cent to ten per cent year on year. As the world's second largest exporter of textiles and clothing, Indian apparel manufacturers are moving towards increasing their manufacturing capacities and upgrading technology, giving rise to automation garmenting processes to enter the Indian market.

Manufacturers from the country's largest man-made fabric (MMF) hub in Surat have stopped exports to Pakistan in the aftermath of terror attacks in Pulwama district a few days ago. Over 40 CRPF personnel were martyred in the attack by the terrorist of the Pakistan-based organization.

Before 2014, the MMF exports from Surat to Pakistan stood at Rs 2,400 crore. The export of MMF fabrics from Surat to Pakistan was predicted to touch Rs 3,000 crore by 2018. However, latest figures of Synthetic and Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) suggest that exports between Surat and Pakistan have fallen sharply in the last couple of years and that they were less than Rs1,000 crore per annum now.

SRTEPC data says exports of MMF fabrics in 2016-17 stood at Rs 887 crore and Rs 958 crore in 2017-18. Exports of MMF fabrics in 2018-19 (till December 2018) have witnessed a sharp fall at Rs 624 crore against Rs 720 crore during the same period in the previous year.

Shima Seiki’s MACH2S wholegarment knitting machine offers the flexibility of producing wholegarment knitwear using every other needle as well as conventional shaped knitwear using all needles. This feature helps users invest in their technology wisely.

The SVR202 machine features an 80-inch knitting width and tandem knitting capability for added flexibility in knit manufacturing. Twin carriages can be used together for double-cam knitting or used separately for single-cam knitting of two identical pieces in tandem. Other features include the R2CARRIAGE, spring-type moveable sinker, DSCS Digital Stitch Control System, stitch presser and takedown comb.

Shima Seiki is a Japanese computerised flat knitting machine manufacturer, known for quality, reliability, productivity, user-friendliness and cost-performance. The SDS-ONE APEX3 is the latest version of Shima Seiki’s 3D design system. At the core of the company’s Total Fashion System concept, APEX3 provides comprehensive support throughout the product supply chain, integrating production into one smooth and efficient workflow from yarn development, product planning and design to production and even sales promotion.

Especially effective is the way APEX3 improves on the design evaluation process with its ultra realistic simulation capability, whereby virtual samples minimise the need for actual sample-making. Together with wholegarment knitting, APEX3 realises significant savings in time, cost and material, contributing to truly sustainable knit manufacturing.

Shandong Ruyi plans to list some of its assets in Singapore. The Chinese apparel and textile maker is seeking opportunities for its assets to become publicly listed in a stock exchange in Southeast Asia, especially in Singapore, which has a good capital market. The hope is to have a funding platform in suitable major capital markets, in different parts of the world, to gain better access to global investors.

Ruyi, which hopes to be the next Louis Vuitton, has more than 20 subsidiaries in 11 countries, and more than 5,000 retail stores in 33 countries. It is building the world’s largest global, vertically integrated textile and fashion business. It has acquired stakes in cotton farms in Australia, wool trading companies in New Zealand, a textile innovator in the United States as well as mid to high-end apparel brands and distribution companies in Japan, France, Hong Kong, Britain and Switzerland.

In 2016, Shandong Ruyi bought a majority stake in SMCP, the French group that owns affordable luxury brands Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot. Shandong has also acquired British trench coat maker Aquascutum as well as a minority stake in St. John by Fosun. China is transforming itself from an export-dependent economy to a consumption-driven one.

IHGF was held in New Delhi from February 18 to 22, 2019. This is the world’s largest congregation of handicrafts producers. The fair provides exporters a world class marketing platform to showcase their creativity and craftsmanship to the international buying community.

Indian handicrafts exhibitors showcased designs and styles of home, lifestyle, fashion, furniture and textiles under one roof. Among the exhibits were houseware, table, kitchen and hotelware, fashion jewelry and accessories, furniture, home accessories, home textiles, furnishing and floor coverings, lamp lighting and accessories and decorative and festive décor.

Buyers came from the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Spain, Netherlands, the UAE, China, Canada, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey and Hong Kong. Buyers from new countries like Albania, Togo and Barbados were added this year. IHGF witnessed various activities during the five day extravaganza such as brain storming seminars, fashion shows and awards distribution.

Among the brands at the show were Trendsbee, Nicobar, Gemporia, FabnRugs, Tommy Hilfiger, Sleepwell, Raymonds, Godrej, FabIndia, DLF Brands, Goodearth, Westside, Purple Turtle, Oberoi Hotels, Pepperfry, Paytm and India Bazar. During 2018-19 Indian exports of handicrafts grew 13.26 per cent. The country’s earnings from handicrafts exports have grown from Rs 387 crores in 1986-87 to Rs 23,029.36 crores in 2017-18.

Premiere Vision was held in France, February 12 to 14, 2019. The highlighted the strength of its leadership and influence on the global creative fashion industry. This season, the show once again fulfilled its role as a catalyst for the creative fashion sector. The event presented by 1,782 exhibitors. Highly acclaimed fashion information for spring/summer 2020 was on show. Developed by the Première Vision fashion team, the fashion forums along with the trend tasting seminars were all well attended.

This edition hosted, 53,156 visitors from 127 countries. This is a 2.3 per cent decrease in attendance caused chiefly by a net decline in the number of UK visitors. The show recorded an 8 per cent increase in the number of Asian visitors, and also a 6 per cent increase in visitors from the US, while French presence was relatively stable at +1 per cent. The number of visitors from Turkey instead declined by 6 per cent, a downturn linked to the instability of the country's political and economic situation. Despite a dip in attendance from the UK, the country remains third in number of visitors. The show’s high-tech and technical sections as well as its Wearable Lab and the forum dedicated to sportswear materials attracted a fair number of visitors. On display were innovations in materials – yarns, fibers, fabrics, leathers, textile designs, accessories – and manufacturing solutions tailored to the development of their spring/summer 2020 collection.

There was also an enthusiastic response to the Première Vision marketplace, now being adopted by industry professionals as a complementary tool to enhance their sales development and communications. The physical implementation of the marketplace deployed at the show was a resounding success. Buyers from major international brands and exhibitors clearly expressed their excitement. Launched last September with the weavers’ collections, the digital platform integrated tanners in February.