Textile and apparel imports experienced a continued decline in March, with several traditional suppliers witnessing year-over-year decreases, according to data from the Department of Commerce's Office of Textiles and Apparel.

The overall imports of textiles and apparel reached 7.14 billion square meter equivalents (SME) in March 2023, marking a 23.5 percent increase from February but a 23.8 percent decrease from the same period last year.

Breaking down the numbers, textile imports accounted for 5.23 billion SME, showing a monthly growth of 33.0 percent but a year-on-year decline of 15.7 percent. Meanwhile, apparel imports stood at 1.86 billion SME, reflecting a 2.8 percent increase from February but a significant drop of 40.1 percent compared to the previous year.

The cumulative imports of textiles and apparel for the year until March were reported at 19.7 billion SME, indicating a decline of 24.3 percent compared to the previous year. Textile imports accounted for 13.9 billion SME, experiencing a decrease of 21.5 percent, while apparel imports fell by 30.1 percent to 5.83 billion SME.

Looking at the broader picture for the year ending in March, the total imports of textiles and apparel decreased by 2.9 percent to 99.5 million SME. Textile imports witnessed a marginal decline of 0.7 percent, reaching 70.9 billion SME, while apparel imports experienced a more significant drop of 8.1 percent, totaling 28.6 billion SME.

These statistics highlight the ongoing challenges faced by the textiles and apparel industry in terms of import volumes. The downward trend observed in both monthly and cumulative imports suggests a potential slowdown in consumer demand or changes in sourcing patterns.

Garment workers in downtown Los Angeles (DTLA), who were initially excluded from the development planning process, have finally secured protections and amendments to the DTLA 2040 plan.

The plan, which aims to set the city's development priorities for the next two decades, had raised concerns among garment workers about potential displacement and job losses due to increased residential zoning and the encroachment of housing developments into traditional garment industry areas.

After seven years of being left out of the planning process, garment workers became aware of the plan through allies in the hotel workers' union in 2021. However, recent amendments to the plan have brought relief to an estimated 20,000 downtown garment workers. The changes include increased manufacturing space requirements for new housing developments in the Fashion District, as well as the inclusion of freight elevators and loading docks for manufacturing purposes.

The Los Angeles garment industry, which employs around 40,000 workers and accounts for 83% of the nation's cut-and-sew manufacturing, is a vital sector for the city's economy and the fashion industry as a whole. Furthermore, the industry has shown potential for growth, with many fashion brands responding to the rising demand for sustainable fashion.

The amendments to the DTLA 2040 plan represent a significant victory for the garment industry and its workers, highlighting the importance of considering the needs and preserving the livelihoods of essential industries when formulating development plans.

Chinese consumers have significantly shifted their luxury consumption habits to the domestic market during the three-year-long pandemic, and this trend appears to be irreversible.

Despite the reopening of international borders, local shoppers are now choosing to splurge on luxury goods within their own country. Data compiled by alternative data provider Sandalwood Advisors reveals that in April, 62 percent of luxury spending by Chinese consumers occurred domestically, a significant increase compared to the 41 percent recorded during the same period in 2019.

This shift in consumer behavior is reflected in the robust sales performance of domestic high-end retailers. Industry experts believe that Chinese consumers are reevaluating their lifestyles in the aftermath of the pandemic.

This change in mindset has been reinforced by the increasing number of luxury stores and marketing activations in China, as well as global price adjustments, which have dampened Chinese consumers' enthusiasm for shopping abroad. In 2021, China accounted for 55 percent of all new luxury store openings, with a further 41 percent in 2022, according to a report by global real estate services provider Savills.

Recognizing this shifting consumer landscape, luxury brands such as Hermès are prioritizing their presence in China.

Another factor contributing to the preference for domestic luxury consumption is the importance of service. Luxury brands are responding to this demand by upgrading their retail presence in China.

The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) recently announced the appointment of new office bearers for its prestigious National Expert Committee on Textiles. This move reflects the chamber's commitment to strengthening the textile industry in India and promoting sustainable growth in the sector.

Sanjay Kr. Jain, MD, TT Limited, has been reappointed as the Chairman of the committee. Another notable appointment is that of Ajay Sardana, President & Head Strategy & Business Development-Polyester at Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), who has been appointed as Co-Chairman (North) of the committee.

Furthermore, ManMohan Singh, the accomplished Chief Marketing Officer of Grasim Industries Limited, has been elected as Co-Chairman (West) of the committee.

With a focus on policy matters and sustainable practices, the newly appointed office bearers are well-equipped to address the challenges and opportunities faced by the industry.

Bangladesh's garment industry, a crucial pillar of the country's economy, is currently grappling with a troubling situation due to a significant decrease in the volume of garment exports to major destinations. This decline has raised concerns about the industry's future.

Faruque Hassan, the President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), has highlighted during a press conference, the potential crisis looming over the industry, particularly concerning exports to the United States and the European Union (EU).

While garment export earnings exhibited positive growth until February, both the US and EU experienced a decline in imports. The months of March and April witnessed alarmingly negative growth in garment shipments, and this trend is expected to continue into May.

According to the BGMEA's report, there was a 12.65% year-on-year decline in garment exports to the US in terms of US dollars between November 2022 and April 2023. In terms of quantity, the decline amounted to approximately 25.95%. However, the value per unit of garment items increased by 17.94%. This increase in unit price can be attributed to the rising costs of raw materials and freight charges. As a result, international retailers and brands have been compelled to adjust their pricing strategies.

In contrast, garment exports to the EU increased by 7.10% in terms of US dollars. However, there was a decline of 4.12% in terms of quantity. The value per unit of garment items increased by 11.70%.

To address these challenges, Hassan called upon the government to implement several measures. These included reducing the source tax to 0.5%, lowering corporate tax on subcontracting incomes to 12%, and withdrawing the 10% tax on cash incentives for export earnings. Furthermore, he urged the government to provide a special 10% stimulus for the export of garments made from manmade fibers (MMF) and emphasized the importance of diversifying the types of garment items exported.

Hassan emphasized the high global demand for non-cotton items, as 75% of all garment items sold worldwide are made from non-cotton fibers. Encouraging investment in MMF-based garments could enable Bangladesh to capture a larger share of the global garment market.

Mango, the renowned European fashion brand, is embarking on a significant expansion in the United States in 2023. With a focus on the western and southern regions of the country, Mango plans to open more than fifteen new stores, including its debut in states like Georgia, Texas, and California.

As Mango celebrates the successful first year of its flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue, the company is determined to establish a strong presence in the US market. This endeavor involves the launch of new stores in cities where Mango currently has no presence, such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta, Glendale, and McAllen. Furthermore, the brand aims to enhance its existing presence in states like Florida.

This strategic expansion demonstrates Mango's dedication to expanding its brand and reaching a broader customer base across the United States.

The planned store openings for this year include several locations in the state of Texas. Mango will open stores in prominent shopping malls such as The Shops at La Cantera in San Antonio, Galleria Dallas in Dallas, La Plaza Mall in McAllen, Memorial City Mall and Baybrook Mall in Houston, among others.

Mango's expansion also extends to the state of California, where the brand plans to establish new stores in Glendale Galleria in Glendale and Fashion Valley in San Diego. Additionally, four stores will open in Los Angeles: Brea Mall, Victoria Gardens, Los Cerritos, and Beverly Center, located in Beverly Hills, the exclusive neighborhood frequented by Hollywood stars.

These new stores will exclusively carry the Mango Woman collection, except for the store in the state of Georgia. Located in the Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, this store will have a selling space of 570m2 and will offer products from both the Woman and Man lines.

All of the new stores will showcase Mango's Mediterranean-inspired store concept, New Med, which reflects the brand's spirit and freshness.

Bluestar Alliance, a brand management company based in New York, has announced that one of its affiliates has acquired the wholesale and retail business assets of Dutch fashion brand Scotch & Soda in the United States.

This acquisition allows Scotch & Soda and its products to be sold in a network of retail stores across the country. It follows a previous acquisition by another Bluestar Alliance affiliate, which obtained the worldwide licensing and distribution rights for the Scotch & Soda brand. With this addition, Bluestar Alliance strengthens its position as a leader in the brand management industry, complementing its portfolio of consumer brands that includes Hurley, Bebe, and Tahari.

To oversee and expand the Scotch & Soda brand, Bluestar Alliance has appointed Anthony Lucia as the Global President of its Scotch & Soda USA and Global Business Operations. Lucia brings extensive experience from his tenure at fashion brands such as Hugo Boss, G-Star, and Escada.

Under Lucia's leadership, Scotch & Soda's strategy will focus on maintaining its premium retail distribution, which includes operating physical stores and a successful e-commerce platform. Lucia will oversee a smooth transition across the brand's retail footprint and global operations, optimizing the business for further expansion and profitability.

Bluestar Alliance plans to drive the growth of the Scotch & Soda brand by attracting new consumers and promoting the free spirit of Amsterdam and self-expression.

The company intends to invest in marketing initiatives that enhance brand awareness and foster strong consumer engagement worldwide.

With a global slogan of a better environment for a better tomorrow, environmentalists have kick-started the fashion industry into combatting textile waste and changing the fashion segment into a sustainable and circular economy. The fashion segment is one of the world’s biggest polluters, with around 21 billion tonnes of textiles and materials being dumped in landfills every year and accounting for around 10 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions and it’s time to sit up and take notice.

Kelp for a healthier textile ecosystem

Seaweed bioplastics have always made use of the world’s ocean seaweed-derived polysaccharides alginate, agar, and carrageenan, whose ability to gel into other materials has made them suitable for the development of coatings and films. Although seaweed fabric was discovered during the World War I, it was at a nascent stage when textile manufacturers were experimenting with many different sources of material, and seaweed fabric was made from using mainly brown algae, which is commonly known as Knotted Wrack.

This process uses seaweed to further produce a biopolymer called alginate, which is then combined with other renewable biopolymers to produce a strong and stretchable yarn, which can be knitted by hand or by machine to be used in many kinds of textile manufacturing. Some recent studies were conducted by US-based Keel Labs, which is focused on working on harnessing the natural power of aquatic ecosystems to transform the textile industry. Keel Labs came up with a new flagship material made from seaweed, a yarn called Kelsun which is made from the abundant polymers found in kelp, which has a lower environmental footprint than conventional fibers, currently available in the apparel market.

Kelsun will positively impact the garment segment

This wonder material Kelsun has a production process that does not use any harmful chemicals uses minimal water and does not create toxic by-products that intensify global warming. Kelsun’s production is a drop-in solution for an already existing yarn and textile production infrastructure, which is expected to open the key to many possibilities in the apparel segment.

As seaweed is easily and vertically farmed within the ocean, it sequesters carbon at a rapid rate and is thus a quickly renewable and regenerative organism with a far lower environmental footprint than normal apparel fibers currently available in the market. Kelp forests are easily found in the US along the Eastern Pacific Coast, from Alaska and Canada to the waters of Baja, California, and are mainly composed of rapidly growing large brown algae. Global warming and the pandemic has shown the world that sometimes in life, you need to turn back and follow your footprints to where it all began and the world was clean and unpolluted.

Keel Labs, incepted as AlgiKnit in 2017 was extremely functional in name and in vision as algae was used to make fibres. In 2022, it became officially known as Keel Labs, which currently harnesses the potential of many natural materials to transform the textile industry and the environment. Tessa Callaghan, Fashion Designer and Co-founder, CEO of Keel Labs in a signed article, “My co-founder, Aleks Gosiewski and I founded Keel Labs with a mission to harness the radical potential of our oceans to positively impact the fashion industry and the world. As a collective of scientists, designers, and innovators who are fighting against material waste, we are building a healthy relationship between nature and human ecosystems.” By using seaweed that is both renewable and carbon sequestering, Keel Labs is changing the textile ecosystem and creating a sustainable and circular future.

China’s luxury apparel market is on a seesaw ride with its highs and lows leaving analysts puzzled with what is yet to come by the end of 2023. While some feel profit levels will be low with a post-Covid slow economy that has drastically hit spending, others opine it will soar, up and away into the most profitable segments. The apparel industry in 2023 had started with a U-shaped recovery and the luxury retail segment in particular had an excellent start which was reflected in first-quarter results for most of the bigger premium luxury brands.

Profits soar for some luxury brands

As per PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Chinese luxury market is expected to reach $118.3 billion by 2025 and account for over 25 per cent of the global market. However, it’s mainly the fashion and leather goods of luxury conglomerates that are registering double-digit growth as categories such as cosmetics and mid-segment clothes are yet to recover post-Covid. With limited outbound flights and extended visa wait times, richer Chinese tourists are now spending more on luxury retail in the domestic markets in the first quarter of this year.

The world’s largest luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, recently saw its shares rise to a record high and has become the first European company to surpass $500 billion in market capital with its overall first-quarter revenues rising 17 per cent year-on-year. The company remains hopeful there will be a strong push from mainland China this year not only in fashion and leather but also in jewellery and plans to focus more on fast-developing major Chinese cities like Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Wuhan.

Other luxury retailers such as Hermès, too tasted success during Chinese New Year and the return of the well-heeled Chinese visitors to places like Singapore, Thailand and Australia. This helped them improve sales in most of Asia. Hermes is planning a slow and steady expansion into new cities across China that will help it forge ahead in the luxury segment. Luxury conglomerate Kering too is inching up slowly with its flagship brand. Gucci plans to soon an immersive exhibition in Shanghai, while its other brand Bottega Veneta will have a repeat fall 2023 show collection in Beijing this July.

Post-Covid restrictive economy dampens profits

However, contradictions are rife in the Chinese economy as Bain &Company highlights although the luxury market grew 42 per cent annually between 2019 and 2021, new wave of infections and China’s zero-Covid policy with city-wide lockdowns contracted the market by10 per cent in 2022. Categories with high online penetration, such as luxury beauty had single-digit declines while the premium watch market had drastic sales drop from 20 to 25 per cent. Even fashion and lifestyle products experienced a decline of 15 to 20 per cent, while jewellery and leather goods sales dropped 10 to 15 per cent.

Local competition, geopolitics affect luxury segment

China has the fastest rise in Gen Z population and an increasingly strong national sentiment where well-heeled consumers prefer premium domestic brands such as Anta and Li-Ning over global ones such as Nike and Adidas. This is leading to significant losses in market share. Some luxury brands are estimating a negative impact of -10 to -40 per cent of revenue this year due to the after-effects of the lockdown.

As local competition heats up, many global premium brands are facing high operational costs, totally different service expectations, and challenges to bring top industry talents, all leading to a loss of market share in China. Also, the turbulent current global geopolitics is a big risk to international brands in China with the after-effects of the Ukraine war, increasing tensions in Southeast Asia and China’s ambitions with Hong Kong and Taiwan. Clever retail and marketing strategies of global premium brands and understanding future expectations of Chinese customers should be the focus now.

The athleisure trend continues to dominate the fashion industry in Southeast Asia, as consumers prioritize comfort and functionality in their clothing choices. Athleisure brands have emerged as winners during the pandemic, and the trend is expected to remain very dynamic in the region, with a 9.5% retail value CAGR over the forecast period.

The pandemic has played a significant role in driving the trend, as people have turned to comfortable and functional pieces of clothing such as leggings, tracksuit bottoms, sports bras, and hoodies during lockdowns.

The athleisure trend in Southeast Asia is driven by consumers' increased focus on their health and wellness, with many people taking up regular exercise and making various routine changes to boost their physical and mental well-being. The trend is expected to continue as consumers' desire to lead a healthy lifestyle shows no signs of diminishing.

Hybrid working policies and the greater acceptance of remote working are also contributing to the popularity of athleisure, as people have less need for traditional business attire and formal clothing. This allows consumers to dress in more comfortable and versatile options that can be worn on and off the job.

Southeast Asia offers plenty of opportunities for versatile fashion items, with 40.3% of online consumers in the region willing to pay more for comfortable clothing in 2023. This prioritization of comfort is seen among both males and females, with more and more consumers prioritizing clothing that allows them to move freely and feel their best selves.

As a result, athleisure brands will continue to flourish in the region, and fashion brands in Asia, whether fast fashion or luxury, will continue to bank on athleisure.