"However, one of the problems in the region compared to Asia-China in particular is merchandising, the response time, getting samples back, highlighted Tony Anzovino, President AAPN and Chief Sourcing and Merchandising officer, Haggar Clothing. Though it has started working on this direction. As per US Commerce Department’s Office of Textiles & Apparel (OTEXA), the Western Hemisphere accounted for 6.5 per cent of the $2.33 trillion in textiles, apparel, leather and accessories imported to the US last year. For apparel alone, the Western Hemisphere accounts for 16 per cent of US imports, whereas Bangladesh, Indonesia and India combine for 15 per cent of those imports."

The recently held 2018 pro:Americas NYC Regional Summit hosted by the American Apparel Producers Network (AAPN), brought an interesting analogy to the fore as seemingly Central American countries have been able to stay away from the tariff drama being imposed by Trump Administration. The reason behind this is the US has a trade surplus with Central America, and because of that it’s making money rather than losing it, stated Mike Todaro, MD, AAPN.

However, one of the problems in the region compared to Asia-China in particular is merchandising, the response time, getting samples back, highlighted Tony Anzovino, President AAPN and Chief Sourcing and Merchandising officer, Haggar Clothing. Though it has started working on this direction. As per US Commerce Department’s Office of Textiles & Apparel (OTEXA), the Western Hemisphere accounted for 6.5 per cent of the $2.33 trillion in textiles, apparel, leather and accessories imported to the US last year. For apparel alone, the Western Hemisphere accounts for 16 per cent of US imports, whereas Bangladesh, Indonesia and India combine for 15 per cent of those imports.

The Western Hemisphere also counts for 57 per cent of men’s and boy’s man-made fibre knit shirts, 54 per cent of cotton knit shirts, 39 per cent of cotton hosiery and 34 per cent of cotton underwear. For the year to date through April, textile and apparel imports from the CAFTA countries increased 2.35 per cent to $2.54 billion worth of goods, according to OTEXA. Honduras is first for the region in apparel, Mexico is second, El Salvador is third, Nicaragua is forth and Guatemala ranks fifth.

According to Anzovino, people are looking for speed, quality and consistency and if the region can supply it at the right price. To have something faster might be a more compliant environment. One key area lacking in the hemisphere, however is wovens, specifically synthetics. You can find everything you need in this hemisphere, but not necessary at the right price. But the region is extremely strong on the knit side, said Anzovino.

Value addition is the key

Hebe Schecter, President, Kaltex America, noted that parent company Grupo Kaltex, Mexican-owned, vertically integrated conglomerate, has grown to be a full-service textile company that produces acrylic fiber, yarn, fabrics, apparel and home textile products. Interaction with customers on a timely basis helps it achieve goal. Men’s custom shirt company Stantt used thousands of body scans, millions of data points and the latest 3D modeling software to create its 99 sizes that allows for anyone to find their perfect fit using three simple measurements --chest, waist and sleeve. The factory uses cutting edge technology and equipment to craft its shirts one at a time. Stantt makes and delivers the shirts in seven days, selling through e-commerce and specialty retailers like Nordstrom and Mitchell’s. And as the Matt Hornbuckle, co-founder & CEO, Stantt, said, by eliminating the waste of excess inventories and errors, they are able to use the highest quality materials and make them at a great value.

"A glaring example of this is the launch of the latest version of AccuMark 3D by Connecticut-based Gerber Technology in partnership with the San Francisco–based startup Avametric +and Israel’s Virtuality. Fashion. And as Mary McFadden, Executive Director -CAD Product Management, Gerber Technology says, Gerber Technology, with this most recent installment has provided a solution that facilitates the process from simple sketches to interaction with consumers. She goes on to add they have good integration of data flow between these systems, as well as the ability to integrate with external systems that customers use because they have many tools they need to use in their process, so having 3-D product offerings makes the offerings more robust and complete."

Although design technology has witnessed tremendous progress over the years, advancement in 3-D platform is yet to match pace. The first half of 2018 witnessed apparel-technology leaders elevate their digital solutions to generate realistic patterns, accurate samples and streamline product lifecycle management (PLM).

A glaring example of this is the launch of the latest version of AccuMark 3D by Connecticut-based Gerber Technology in partnership with the San Francisco–based startup Avametric +and Israel’s Virtuality. Fashion. And as Mary McFadden, Executive Director -CAD Product Management, Gerber Technology says, Gerber Technology, with this most recent installment has provided a solution that facilitates the process from simple sketches to interaction with consumers. She goes on to add they have good integration of data flow between these systems, as well as the ability to integrate with external systems that customers use because they have many tools they need to use in their process, so having 3-D product offerings makes the offerings more robust and complete.

Multiple benefits

The technology enables every person contributing to the apparel-making process to make detailed changes to digital patterns, illustrating in real time how they can achieve a specific style, without the challenges of shipping patterns or samples. By allowing the artwork to actually be in the CAD data, one can eliminate these hard pieces going along the factory floor. It helps in communicating instructions to factories, especially when they don’t speak your language, because of huge language barriers.

These integrated software solutions enable brands to utilise the technology for merchandising and virtual try-on for customers. Rather than doing photo shoots with the samples and the colorways that one needs to populate an e-commerce website, you could use 3-D simulations instead.

Comprehensive solutions

Lectra, the French technology-solutions provider, which recently upgraded its 3-D technology to streamline the Fashion PLM 4.0 platform, also aims to offer a comprehensive system for apparel design. The brand through its Connected Development application and the Connected Design, offers enhanced tools for patternmaking, 3-D sampling and marker making.

Integrating its 3-D platform with a 2-D patternmaking feature was essential for an easy communication between a designer and his team. The 3-D sample can be used early in the design process to make decisions in terms of style lines, the size of the garment or ensure the vision of the designer is clearly communicated and understood by the technical-design team or patternmakers. It can also be used later for fitting purposes, which is a very strong feature for Lectra’s 3-D offering.

Making technology sustainable

Despite the influence of fast fashion on software innovation in the apparel-industry, there is a thrust on sustainable solutions to make the design process more efficient. In addition to fully integrating these fashion design steps into digital platforms, technology providers are developing applications that allow detailed samples to be viewed and altered by professionals in different corners of the world.

Amnon Shalev, Chief Executive, Virtuality.Fashion aimed to develop a product that provided a crisp, digital vision of designs and whose technology allowed fashion brands to bypass 2-D patternmaking, creating a detailed sample in less than 48 hours. Based on a software created for the video-game and movie industries, the applications provide a realistic vision of designs. Illuminating on the technology, Shalev says, there is pressure on designers to introduce new collections faster, more collections in a single season and faster to the market. If you have to do 3-D and go through 2-D, it takes time. With our technology you don’t have to go through 2-D. Presentations can be done very fast for buyers and management.

Apparel-software providers, by investing in innovative upgrades to their own software and joining cutting-edge digital partners, are creating virtual creative spaces and options to help designers reduce waste, cut costs and bring collections to market faster.

Oak Tasar, silk development project has been launched in Uttarakhand. This development project is being supported by the Textile Ministry’s Central Silk Board. It is expected to provide a new dimension to employment of farmers associated with the silk industry. Increasing production of silk in the state can lead to additional income generation for farmers. Apart from a grant of a crore, land will be provided for the Oak Research Center. Like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand will arrange funds for silkworm farmers.

This ambitious project will increase silk production in the state. India produces about 3,3,000 metric tons of silk. The production of mulberry silk in Uttarakhand is now 33 metric tons and the target is to produce 55 metric tons. In Uttarakhand, oak grows naturally in good quantities. The weather is ideal for Manipuri Oak. Uttarakhand can take advantage of the current situation as silk production has decreased in plains. Experts feel in the hills, adequate agricultural land is available and farmers can cultivate silk by raising oak and mulberry plants. Farmers and the silk department will have to make efforts to increase the production of oak and mulberry.

Turkey wants to impose new measures on textile firms importing material from China, alarming leaders of one of the country’s biggest export industries. The textile ministry had been asking for additional documents for textile imports from July but it has been asked to postpone the move until January.

The government plan was aimed partly at tackling Turkey’s widening current account deficit, which reached $47.1 billion last year. The material imported from China was sold to other countries such as Russia and the United States, benefiting Turkey. Turkey imported a quarter of its $10.1 billion textile from China in 2017, more than half of which was cotton fabrics and intermediary goods. The new measures are likely to add costs and cause delays in trade. Turkey’s textile sector is a pillar of its economy. Ready-to-wear clothing accounted for about 18 per cent of Turkey’s $157 billion exports last year.

IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate in Sri Lanka has directed ATG Ceylon to stop union busting at its factories. Recently, workers at ATG belonging to the Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees’ Union (FTZ&GSEU) picketed the British Embassy over labour abuse at the company.

Labour violations have continued at ATG after the union was forced to hold a vote in February 2017 to represent workers, despite already having a mandate to do so. The company has refused to discuss worker issues brought up by the union. Neither has it allowed the union to meet in the factory, even though it is the recognised bargaining agent. Furthermore, 59 workers who celebrated Labour Day on 1 May, after the government decided to postpone the 1 May holiday to 7 May, were put on compulsory leave and their photos were displayed in a notice that claimed they engaged in unlawful strike action.

In another act of victimisation during the company’s 25-year anniversary celebrations in 2017, the company refused to give eight union activists a medal for their five or more years of service, as other workers had received. IFTZ&GSEU has received considerable support from the German ambassador in Sri Lanka, who wrote to the Minister of Labour on 20 June 2018 expressing concerns of the violations of labour rights at the company.

The Woolmark Company has strengthened its brand identity in Vietnam through high-quality natural fibres and wool products. The company has been working in the Vietnamese market for the last five years, witnessing the country’s growing interest in the use of natural fibres and its potential for production of quality wool product. The industry employs more than 2.7 million people in the country, equivalent to 25 per cent of the industrial workforce and is the second largest export earner in the manufacturing sector.

Accounting for 17 per cent of world apparel exports in 2017, Vietnam’s textile exports have steadily grown to $31.1 billion in 2017 from the modest $1.35 billion in 1998, listing the country among the world’s top five textile exporters. However, it is essential for Vietnamese businesses to develop specific strategies to enhance competitiveness and generate breakthroughs. Simultaneously, businesses also need to leverage effective flows of foreign investment, while actively participate in the supply chain to reduce costs and optimise domestic performance.

The textile and garment industry has long been Vietnam’s key economic sector. The industry employs more than 2.7 million people in the country, equivalent to 25 per cent of the industrial workforce and is the second largest export earner in the manufacturing sector.

Milano Unica is exploring innovation, quality and a new vision for the future by creating a restyled, improved and extended Sustainability Area - within the ‘Tendenze’ area. This attracted significant interest in the past edition, with the participation of over 50 entrepreneurs, who presented over 250 textiles and accessories samples selected for the use of sustainable materials and production processes.

This section showcases the proposals of leading entrepreneurs, with a panorama of textiles and accessories that meet the sustainability demand of the market. To facilitate visitors’ decision-making, the textiles and accessories presented in the Sustainability Area have been classified based on categories that reflect the main segments of sustainable innovation. In addition, in this edition, the Sustainability Area table provides visitors with access to more detailed information about the samples through their smartphones and tablets.

Global brands including Arrow, Calvin Klein, H&M, Izod, Cherokee and VF Corporation are increasingly eyeing Kenya to source their apparel as the garment and textile sector rebounds after many years of decline. The Tailors and Textile Workers Union is organising workers and winning good agreements in this growing industry.

The government of Kenya’s Vision 2030 identifies the garment and textile sector as a driver of industrialisation. Currently the sector contributes to 7 per cent of the country’s export earnings. The sector can benefit by expanding its market to free trade areas that it belongs to, including the African Continental Free Trade Area, the East African Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. The country has also signed Economic Partnership Agreements, the European Union African Caribbean and Pacific (Cotonou Agreement) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). About 92 per cent of apparel from Kenya is sold in the US under AGOA.

For the first time, Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) is supporting five local brands to showcase its products at the largest streetware exhibition, "Agenda Show", in California, USA, from June, 28-30 2018. One of the participating brands is the Paradise Youth Club. As per the owner Hendrick Setio, whose products are inspired by the style of the 90s, his participation in the exhibition, which will be represented by 50 countries, can become their opportunity to penetrate the American market.

The other four brands that will showcase in the US are: Elhaus, which focuses on men’s wear and denim; OldBlueCo, the classic denim focus born from American miners; Monstore, which creates clothing oriented to history and combines it with pop art; Popmeetpop a very creative brand with modern denim designs.

Indonesia is targeting America as the main destination for local streetwear brands to expand business. This will allow Indonesian artisans to introduce their local products in the US. The US is also Indonesia`s largest export market for fashion products, with an export value of $4.72 billion.

A large proportion of the manufacturing in the Indian garment industry is for the export market. The garment export industry is mainly concentrated in urban regions around Bangalore in Karnataka, Chennai and Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, and in Gurugram, Faridabad Noida around National Capital Region. There is a significant wage difference among garment workers in different Indian states.

The garment industry uses low wage states as the reason to oppose wage increase in states with higher wages. This is exactly what the garment units in Karnataka are doing. They argue since minimum wages in Karnataka are higher than in other states increasing wages would have an adverse impact on an industry that is already facing tough international competition.

Karnataka’s garment units threaten to shift to Telangana when the issue of wage revision comes up. That means management has the upper hand in determining the minimum wages of workers in the textile industry, spinning industry and the printing and dyeing industry. Determination of the minimum wage is regulated by the Minimum Wages Act. Garment and textile industries in the state argue they are incurring losses and so are unable to implement the Minimum Wages Act.