Alicia Ferreira de Sousa from L’École de la Maille de Paris was announced the winner of the inaugural Adidas x Woolmark Performance Challenge. Alicia will receive a cash prize, a three-month internship with Adidas, the opportunity to sell the winning idea along with ongoing industry and training support from The Woolmark Company.

More than 500 students from 58 universities across Europe and North America registered to take part in the Challenge. The 10 finalists were chosen from universities from France, USA, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The Adidas x Woolmark Performance Challenge not only allows wool to enter a new phase in product development, but provides an excellent opportunity for Alicia, and I congratulate her on this exciting win. The Woolmark Performance Challenge has been created by The Woolmark Company in collaboration with sportswear giant adidas, to attract the best young textile innovators to use Australian Merino wool.

Open to tertiary students worldwide, the Woolmark Performance Challenge provides an opportunity to apply the unique benefits of Australian Merino wool to new product applications in the sports and performance market. Alicia Ferreira de Sousa from L’École de la Maille de Paris was announced the winner of the inaugural Woolmark Performance Challenge.

British warehouses are filling up goods against the threat of an exit from the EU without a free trade agreement in place—and fashion firms are among those bracing for a logistical nightmare. Britain is running out of warehousing space as retailers rush to fill them with goods in the event of no-deal. And while stockpiling food and medicine is more urgent than clothing, brands are under pressure too.

One such company is ABF, which operates five businesses, including fast-fashion brand Primark, and which has been stockpiling goods in the north of England. Another is Next. The high street chain—led by chief executive Lord Wolfson—was well advanced in its preparations in case a free-trade agreement is not in place by next March. To plan ahead, the retail giant has been stockpiling some goods in its Irish warehouses, which will be safe to travel to the UK in the event of no deal, thanks to the Common Travel Agreement between the two countries. However, given the rapidity of the fashion calendar and the speed at which trends change and collections are updated, even the best prepared brands cannot stockpile for more than a few months.

Whether it’s transformative designs made from deconstructed denim, or back-to-basics high-waisted mom and dad styles, jeans are a likely pairing for street wear’s core items: graphic logo tees and sneakers. While street was solely about youth culture, the current look for denim as street wear runs the gamut from wide and baggy, to fitted, stylized and even tailored.

The rise of street wear has invited new opportunities for women’s denim brands to experiment outside the confines of the skinny jean. The trend has created a shift in women’s silhouettes. A wider and more square aesthetic is now leading. Layering has become more playful and innovative, with a mixing up of weights and lengths.

Denim jackets, coats, shirts, vests, skirts and dresses are giving off that nonchalant street wear aesthetic thanks to the casual feel of the fabric. Street wear also has pushed a less gender-defined aesthetic. Street garments have cross-appeal, with women shopping from menswear lines and some brands catering to this with unisex lines. Across genders, there has been a general loosening of silhouette, with wider fit jeans, puffed-out jackets and longer-line top. From drop crotch to baggy denim, voluminous denim shapes are already in stores.

A growing preference for advanced automotive interiors along with a rise in the demand for passenger vehicles will drive growth in the textile coating market worldwide. Other triggers are, rapid urbanization along with increasing spending on infrastructure. Benefits including anti-abrasion, thermal insulation, self-cleaning and fire retardation will remain key factors fueling product demand. Others are advances in advertisement platforms including billboards, hoardings and signage. In addition, increasing product adoption in supporting nets, awnings and canopies used during infrastructure development will fuel demand.

Thermoplastics accounted for over 80 per cent of the overall textile coatings demand in 2016. Air bags, automotive upholstery, and bulk bags are major contributing applications. Benefits including durability, strength, and high resilience will facilitate the market growth in this segment.

The US textile coatings market will witness 4.5 per cent growth up to 2024. Positive outlook from home furnishing, clothing and industrial applications will support the overall business growth. Stagnant raw material prices along with increase in spending on R&D for further product innovation will propel regional industry growth.

Key players are: Omnova Solutions, Huntsman, Solvay, Clariant, Covestro, Sumitomo, Lubrizol and Nobletex.

The 10th edition of Planet Textiles 2019 will focus on sustainable innovation and technology. The exhibition, to be held on June 22, 2019 at the Fira Barcelona Exhibition Conference Centre, is expected to attract up to 120,000 visitors from 147 countries. First launched in 2009 in Hong Kong, Planet Textiles is expected to be a seminal event where apparel retailers, brands and buyers can network with an unrivalled gathering of experts from the textile manufacturing sector.

Delegates to Planet Textiles will also get special discounted access to ITMA where they can view the latest in textile production technology in action. A limited number of Planet Textile curated tours of ITMA will be available so that delegates can see new innovative technology with a positive environmental impact.

Planet Textiles is being supported once again by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and will detail disruptive new textile technology, expert insight from leading industry CEOs, retail and apparel brands and NGOs involved in the environmental space.

Special sessions at Planet Textiles 2019 will feature the ZDHC Foundation and Fashion for Good, along with breakout sessions on what denim and textile production will look like in the second half of the 21st Century and how to reduce their environmental impact.

Out of the 10 Asean countries, low wage earners in Myanmar and Cambodia have experienced the fastest growth in their minimum wages. In the five years between 2013 and 2018, workers in Cambodia and Myanmar saw their wages increase by 174.2 per cent and 203.3 per cent respectively. In 2018, Cambodia’s minimum monthly wage rose to R 750,000($182).

Several factors had underpinned the rapid rise in Cambodia’s lowest wages. The rise in cost of living and the government’s continuing efforts to reduce the rate of those living in poverty justifies the increase from around $100 a month to $182 presently.

Cambodia had greatly benefited from being a dollarised economy and from the strength of the US dollar compared to the weakness of emerging market currencies. A stronger dollar mitigates inflation, as most commodities — such as oil, metals, livestock and foods — are priced in US dollars.

Myanmar, which does not have the mainstay of a de-facto greenback economy, saw minimum wages more than double in the past five years, with mushrooming inflation expected to reach 6.2 per cent in 2018, well in excess of an ideal rate of 2 per cent.

A delegation of Knitwear and Apparel Exporters Organization in Ludhiana recently sent a MoU to the chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh apprising him of their problems. In the MoU, Harish Dua, President of the Association noted that Ludhiana needs a big international class textile cluster with availability of all essential services.

An MSME unit cannot afford all kinds of machines and services like embroidery, printing, knitting, dyeing, and electronic computerized cutting. Therefore, it will be in the best interest of exporters and manufacturers of garments that a cluster be made in Ludhiana, where all these facilities — along with the latest state -of -the -art machinery is made available at a subsidised cost to members of the cluster.

Narinder Chugh, Executive Council member of Apparel Export Promotion Council emphasised the need to train and mobilise women’s workforce in the state, especially in Ludhiana. The Punjab government, which is already taking several steps to improve business environment in the state, should also start initiatives to set up hostels for working women. The state government can also offer land free of cost for this purpose, besides constructing hostels with aid from the Central government at the earliest.

Taiwan-based Eclat, is a sportswear maker. The company specializes in making high-end fabrics and turning them into sports clothing for brands including Nike, Lululemon, Under Armour, Polo Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secrets and Adidas as well as retailers such as JC Penney, Amazon, Kohl’s and Target.

For the first 10 months of 2018, Eclat’s revenue rose more than 16 per cent and is set to see healthy growth next year. At the end of 2016 the company ended its production in China. This now seems like a wise choice as fabrics have already been hit under the package of tariffs that the US imposed on Chinese imports in late September. This has made Eclat less vulnerable to the trade jousting between the world’s two leading economies than its Chinese rivals. The investment environment in China has been deteriorating dramatically and it is extremely difficult to find qualified workers. Wages in China are double those in Vietnam, while production efficiency is also better in Vietnam.

Currently, Eclat’s production facilities are mostly in Taiwan and Vietnam. Eclat generates around 60 per cent of its revenue from North America. Europe accounts for 20 per cent of the company's sales while Japan and Australia combined take about ten per cent.

Artificial Intelligence on Fashion and Textile (AIFT) will be held simultaneously with Shanghai Tex, November 25 to 27, 2019. AIFT will provide an open platform for researchers, engineers and practitioners in the area of AI, fashion and textile to explore the ways of driving the industry toward Industry 4.0 and the new era of retail. Speakers will cover the internet of things, textile and apparel supply chain modeling, textile material defect detection, textile material color measurement, wearable devices, 3D image modeling for fitting, retail sales replenishment and fashion sales forecasting, carrying out a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and challenges in the textile and fashion industry brought by AI.

AIFT will develop a long-term cooperation with Shanghai Tex 2019. An Artificial Intelligence alliance will be established together with a number of institutions during AIFT 2019. Adopting research, application, popularization as its core values, AIFT aims at connecting researchers and industry practitioners to accelerate the development and application of AI in the textile and fashion industry.

Computer technology, especially AI’s rapid development over the past 20 years, has changed lifestyle and society. The textile and fashion industry will step into the fourth industrial revolution as soon as mature technology applications in production processes become routine.

The issue of sustainability in the apparel and textiles sector took centre-stage at the recently concluded Centre for Responsible Business’ (CRB) 5th annual Sustainability Conference (India & Sustainability Standards) in Delhi. The conference organised a number of sectoral/thematic sessions in partnership with like-minded organisations at the conference. The three-day event assembled a diverse mix of relevant stakeholders to bring their perspectives, experiences and insights on the table – thereby ensuring that the multi-stakeholder nature of the dialogue was maintained.

A session on the situation of ‘Women in Value-chains’ focused on the apparel & textiles, speakers unanimously agreed that there is need to raise the standard of working conditions for women workers, and to accord specific attention to prevent sexual harassment and violence. Members agreed upon industries encouraging women in management and decision-making positions.

Speakers also discussed on ways to promote child-friendly supply chains in apparel & textiles sector – an imperative for international buyers/brands. CRB alongwith the Global March Against Child Labor (GMACL) has developed a toolkit to help companies undertake the necessary due diligence to assess and mitigate child and forced labor in the apparel and textiles supply chain.