The 2018 Apparel & Accessories Market, held from October 24-27, 2018 at the Market Center, Texas, strongly indicated regional variations in consumer tastes with many brands adapting their offerings to local tastes. There was a lot of demand for waffle knits by Vining at the event. Its popcorn sweaters – the pullovers as well as the cardigans – were also popular. Women’s casualwear brand Fiore witnessed a lot of popularity for its fuzzy sweaters besides velvet tube tops, teddy coats and flared pants.

Be Stage, a Los Angeles-based label specialising in US-made fashions for the larger ladies, offers striped shirts with added details like pockets and sparkles. It shirts are available in big floral prints in plus as well as regular sizes. Regional differences in size and fit were also seen as factors to bear in mind, with Sam Um, a Sales manager with Entro, an LA-based wholesaler of contemporary women's clothing, noting that the biggest difference is in sizing. While Southern people really love flowy, comfortable styles, New York customers like more fitted, business-like stuff; things that are not as colorful, nor as bright.

While views on regional variations differed and many had conflicting opinions on coming trends, majority of exhibitors reported that sales were sluggish at best. Indeed, the event was seen by many as a particularly low watermark for the sector, a situation exacerbated by the fact that its scheduling makes it rather too late for autumn/winter styles and too early for spring/summer collections.

The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) has welcomed the new duty drawback rates announced by the government. The increased rates will provide relief to exporters, says Narain Aggarwal, Chairman SRTEPC. The drawback rates declared now need to be enhanced at least up to 6 per cent to 7 per cent. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has decided to raise Composition Scheme Limit and Exemption Threshold to benefit small and medium enterprises (SMEs).The threshold has been doubled for people living in the hilly states and those in the North East region to Rs 20 lakh from the earlier Rs 10 lakh. The GST Council has comforted the tax exemption limit to Rs 40 lakh of annual turnover from the earlier cap of Rs 20 lakh and increasing the composition scheme (without input tax credit and no recovery of taxes on output liability) limit to Rs 1.5 crores from present Rs 1 crore.

The GST Council will also provide composition scheme to those providing services or mixed supplies (goods and services) with a turnover up to Rs 50 lakh. Secondly, service providers and those who render mixed supplies of goods and services with a turnover of up to Rs 50 lakh in the informal sector will be entitled to the composition scheme under the GST regime. The composition rate for services has been put at 6 per cent. Moreover, composition taxpayers will pay tax quarterly, but file returns annually.

Comparable store sales for US retailers during November to December showed small or moderate increases. Macy's shares plunged almost 20 per cent, while nearly every major retailer was pulled down. Comparable sales for Target grew 5.7 per cent over the holiday, while sales growth for Kohl’s was 1.2 per cent.

The holiday shopping season opened with high expectations owing to robust consumer confidence amid a strong employment market, relatively low gasoline prices and a boost from tax cuts. Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers invested in heavily beefing up their online platforms and offering incentives to lure buyers, such as free shipping during the peak holiday season. At the same time, these companies spent heavily to improve the in-store experience, hiring consultants to help beautify the surroundings and in many cases employing more workers during the peak festive season.

But retailers still have not found a winning recipe for the transition to the e-commerce era. Though consumers had more money to spend, and they spent it, the cost of doing business got higher. Expenses have become a problem because as more of the business moves online people will not pay for the shipping. Companies like Macy’s, JC Penney and Gap have shuttered stores in recent years, while Toys R Us went out of business.

Krochet Kids and Able are among ethical fashion brands working to alleviate poverty by empowering women. Krochet Kids, based in Uganda, provides job opportunities to women in need to help them break the cycle of poverty. The program includes mentorship, educational and financial services.

Able is a lifestyle brand whose mission is to end generational poverty by giving women economic opportunities. The brand has grown a lot over the years and currently works in countries like Ethiopia, Mexico, Peru. All of the company’s products are made by women. Able is committed to radical transparency and publishes the wages of employees and also uses a platform that measures social impact.

Mayamiko produces clothes, accessories and home ware. The brand uses and draws inspiration from African techniques and locally printed fabrics. Disadvantaged women, many of them being HIV patients or orphans, learn sewing and tailoring and develop business and financial skills. Upon completion of the training, they receive guidance, mentorship and recognized qualifications as well as access to microloans to help them start their own business.

Ethical fashion refers to how clothing is made and takes into account the materials that are used but also the treatment of the workers, their salaries and their safety. The movement is growing and shedding light on the unsustainable practices of fast fashion – miserable working conditions, unlivable wages, environmental degradation and pollution.

Ghana has exempted textile manufacturers from paying certain taxes and VAT. The aim is to enable textile workers to compete fairly in the market. The value added tax was bleeding textile companies. The tax component meant the cost was passed on to the depots, wholesalers, retailers and ultimately customers, who had to pay higher prices.

The textile industry in Ghana is facing serious difficulties. Workers are being laid-off because of the pace of smuggling of cheap and fake prints from China. The market is flooded with counterfeit textiles. The tax stamp on fabrics will set up a task force to arrest those selling pirated materials. The textile sector which had a workforce of nearly 30,000 barley has 3,000 now.

Togo and Ivory Coast are often the entry point for smugglers, with some Ghanaian market traders even travelling to China to collect designs. The borders are very porous with only a few of them manned by security people, making it very easy for these counterfeiters to pass through.

Employment figures in the industry reduced from a high of 25,000 in 1975 to 5,000 in the year 2000, before sliding further down to 3,000 in 2003 and 1,500 at the close of 2016.

According to the quick estimates of IIP for the textile and clothing sector, the General Index for the month of November 2018 is 0.5 percent higher as compared to the level in the month of November 2017. The cumulative growth for the period April- November 2018 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 5.0 percent.

Growth for textiles excluding apparels declined by - 4.8 percent, while that of wearing apparel increased by 22.1 percent in November 2018 over the same month previous year. Cumulative change for April- November 2018 for textiles indicated an increase of 2.5 per cent while that for wearing apparel of 8.4 per cent over the same period previous year.

The UK Joint Apparel Association Forum has requested the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade to immediately approach the UK authorities to recommence a dialogue on preferential arrangements as an extremely high priority trade agenda item. If a negotiated trade deal takes place, then a 21-month transition period up to December 31, 2020 has been agreed upon by both parties to put everything in place and allow businesses and others to prepare for the moment when the new post Brexit deal between the EU and UK begins. In fact, during this period, UK can negotiate any trade deals.

In the absence of a bilateral preferential agreement, the UK will rely on WTO rules to deal with all countries. On the other hand if there is no deal by the given date or the proposed deal, if any, is rejected by the British Parliament, UK will simply withdraw from the European Union with no transitional arrangement in place.

Over a quarter of retailers worldwide are deploying AI today, an increase of 17 per cent since 2017. These retailers represent 23 per cent of the global retail market by revenue. They feel using AI in customer-facing functions will reduce the number of customer complaints by up to 15 per cent, while 99 per cent expect AI to increase sales by up to 15 per cent.

These are the results of a survey by the Capgemini Research Institute. It finds there is a billion dollar opportunity for those retail companies that are able to scale and expand the scope of their existing deployments. However, just one per cent of use cases by retailers have achieved this level of deployment as on date.

Lack of scalability is likely caused by retailers focusing on more complex, higher-return projects. Deployments to date have also lacked a focus on customer usability. The driving forces behind current AI implementations are cost and ROI while customer experience and known customer pain points are significantly lower priorities.

There is a clear imbalance of organisations prioritising cost, data and ROI when deploying AI, with only a small minority considering customer pain points also. These two factors need to be given equal weighting if long-term AI growth, with all of the benefits it brings, is to be achieved.

"Bolt Threads’ recently entered into a collaboration with Ecovative for growing faux animal leather from mycelium, mushrooms’ underground root structure. They grow the cells with other nutrients in corn stalk beds, compressing the structure into a two-dimensional material, and then tanning it with English breakfast tea instead of caustic chemicals. It takes 10 days to grow Mylo, unlike the years it takes to raise a cow. The leather-like slab is cut into thinner pieces, giving a supple feel. The material is biodegradable. "

Bolt Threads’ recently entered into a collaboration with Ecovative for growing faux animal leather from mycelium, mushrooms’ underground root structure. They grow the cells with other nutrients in corn stalk beds, compressing the structure into a two-dimensional material, and then tanning it with English breakfast tea instead of caustic chemicals. It takes 10 days to grow Mylo, unlike the years it takes to raise a cow. The leather-like slab is cut into thinner pieces, giving a supple feel. The material is biodegradable. Bolt Threads partnered Stella McCartney on a handbag for a Victoria & Albert London exhibition, "Fashioned from Nature" and plans to sell the bags.

Piñatex fiber from Pineapple leaves

A not for profit company Ananas Anam uses Pineapple leaves to make the Pinatex fiber. This fabric is used by Hugo Boss to make sneakers. Piñatex is commercially available and next year, H&M will introduce the material into a collection. The fiber is priced about the same as mid-range leather and is biodegradable. It is first extracted in the Philippines, and then sent to Barcelona, Spain for finishing.

Chicken feathers: Still in academic research stage, Yang’s lab is trying to make protein fibers out of chicken feathers. The structure is the same as wool .

Sustainable businesses for income generation

The new materials aren’t necessarily a replacement for cotton, wool and polyester rather a supplement for them. These companies are generating income for the farms supplying their raw materials, even if the materials would otherwise go to the landfill. It's important for these businesses to be sustainable, not just from a carbon dioxide point of view, but also in terms of payment of salaries and reinvesting profits.

"Mohammad Ali Khokon was recently elected president of Bangladesh Textile Manufacturers Association (BTMA) for a two-year term (2019-2020). As the President of BTMA, Khokon plans to work in the woven and knit sectors by filling demand gaps. Besides pushing the government to announce weaving as a separate sector and provide special incentives for it. BTMA also plans to work in the denim sector. As Bangladesh currently faces scarcity of raw materials, technological inefficiency and skilled manpower, the association has urged the government to take the initiative in growing raw materials and efficient workforces."

Mohammad Ali Khokon was recently elected president of Bangladesh Textile Manufacturers Association (BTMA) for a two-year term (2019-2020). As the President of BTMA, Khokon plans to work in the woven and knit sectors by filling demand gaps. Besides pushing the government to announce weaving as a separate sector and provide special incentives for it. BTMA also plans to work in the denim sector. As Bangladesh currently faces scarcity of raw materials, technological inefficiency and skilled manpower, the association has urged the government to take the initiative in growing raw materials and efficient workforces.

More policy support for trade with Africa

The cotton that BTMA imports from India and China is not even original. It is very difficult to get original cotton from these countries. African countries can be a good alternative for cotton import. If Africa produces more cotton, it will be helpful for Bangladesh. Currently Bangladeshi mills source cotton from countries like India, the United States, and Africa. The country sources around 20.88 per cent of its total cotton demand from African countries. BTMA is urging the government, to give it policy support to import more cotton from Africa.

BTMA also plans to combat the issue of illegal import of Chinese and Indian yarn and fabrics under bond licenses that are illegally sold in the domestic market at low prices. To overcome this situation, the association will inform the matter with NBR.

LNG import to increase expenditure

Bangladesh plans to import LNG from Qatar, Oman, and Switzerland to add to the national gas grid. This move will increase expenditure in the industry and commercial sectors as the cost of electricity generation will be increased. The imported LNG will be three times more expensive than the locally extracted natural gas.

BTMA does not prefer using Mongla and Chattogram ports as transit points to access India’s Northeastern states for trade. It plans to establish another port at Payra for ensuring smooth business operations.