Center for Sustainable Business launched its new apparel sustainability framework, developed in collaboration with Reformation, Eileen Fisher and REI. The framework is based on its Return on Sustainability Investment methodology launched with other sectors two years ago. The project was funded by HSBC Bank US’s foundation.

As part of the framework, the Center for Sustainable Business identified eight key strategies for making the apparel industry more sustainable, uncovering more than 60 best practices to address environmental, social, and governance-related issues.

Key strategies outlined included: reducing chemical impact, improving water management, improving energy management, investing in the reduction of material waste, implementing sustainable raw material sourcing, investing in circularity and innovation, investing in employee and supplier well-being, and investing in sustainable brand marketing and communications.

Reformation helped steer the framework’s initial findings on circularity, having engaged in consultative conversations with NYU’s team on its circular strategy, specifically providing data and insight on its resale partnership with ThredUp and fabric waste solution strategies, like its L.A.-based post-production recycling partner OsomTex.

As per Lyst’s “Year in Fashion 2020” review, off-white’s face mask was the hottest item with a 496 per cent increase in searches from January to March, reports Sourcing Journal. Searches for masks increased by 502 per cent during the year as they were rated as the must have accessory.

Birkenstock’s Arizona sandal, known for its double-strap upper and contoured footbeds—saw a 225 percent spike in searches during the second quarter of 2020, a time when consumers looked for easy slip-on footwear for their at-home lifestyles.

At No 3, is Telfar’s signature faux-leather shopping bag the ‘Bushwick Birken’ increased 163 percent week-on-week after congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave the brand a shout-out on Instagram. The bag got another celebrity seal of approval this month from Oprah, landing on the tastemaker and media mogul’s coveted “Favorite Things” list for the holidays.

Nike saw the greatest increase in loungewear searches, Lyst reported. The brand’s most popular item in 2020 was the jogger pant, which searches spiking 213 percent year-on-year.

Crocs continued to defy the fashion gods by being the statement shoe of choice in 2020. Average monthly searches for Crocs total 135,000, and the brand hit its peak in the spring after boasting in January that it was producing the season’s “must-have” silhouette. The EVA foam style receive received several makeovers this year thanks to a myriad of collaborators including Vera Bradley, Peeps and KFC. Justin Bieber is teed up to be the brand’s next creative contributor.

An international group of executives, retailers, creatives and influencers nominated and voted for by their peers, The 2020 Rivet 50 honorees provided a collective outlook on the trials and tribulations that lie ahead for the denim sector, as well as the opportunities within its grasp.

First-time Rivet 50 honoree Dan Feibus, CEO, Vidalia Mills Co, said he expects a structural overcapacity, partially fueled by an industry that has a lot of extra capacity chasing a limited number of orders. According to him, the net impact of COVID-19 on retail will lead to the emergence of a smaller industry

Denim designer Maurice Malone sees a digital evolution in the retail industry. His eponymous brand, Malone is committed to selling direct-to-consumer. He expects to see more small direct-to-consumer businesses with a better understanding of their end-consumer spring up.

James Bartle, Founder and CEO, Outland Denim expects less emphasis on traditional seasons and more capsule collections in the next 18 months—a strategy that he is already putting in place for his own award-winning brand. While Omar Ahmed, CEO, Artistic Milliners says, it will take time for the denim industry to understand the depth of damage caused by the pandemic. With near-term consumption dropping and future forecasts also looking bleak for most, the industry is being forced into an overall consolidation, which will be healthy for the ecosystem in the mid- to long-term, he adds.

Following financial restructuring that allowed it to eliminate $686 million debt, US men’s fashion retailer Tailored Brands has successfully exited from its bankruptcy proceedings. The Houston-based company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, joining a list of brick-and-mortar retailers succumbing to the hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The restructuring plan included a $430 million lending facility. Tailored Brands now operates with a capital structure that includes an exit term loan of $365 million, which it expects will support its ongoing operations and strategic initiatives.

In July, the company announced plans to cut its workforce by 20 per cent and shut as many as 500 stores, in response to the impact of the pandemic. The company provides a personal, convenient, one-of-a-kind shopping experience with compelling products and world-class service. It features leading menswear retailers Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank and Moores Clothing for Men; and family retailer K&G Fashion Superstore.

TÜV Rheinland plans to launch a keynote webinar as a part of its successful series of #AskADetoXpert webinars, titled: Time to Speed up Sustainability of the Fashion, Apparel and Textile Sector on December 10, 2020.

This webinar aims to promote and support the sustainability agendas of a wide range of industry stakeholders. In addition to sharing an analysis of the opinions and economic expectations provided by participants during the event’s registration process, the webinar will explore Potential Outcome Scenarios for the Fashion Industry, examine the “Open Letter” coalition’s 7 Key Action Points, and unpack examples of successful initiatives that are helping to drive sustainability goals in the apparel and textile sector around the world.

Rakesh Vazirani, Head-Sustainability Services, Business Stream Products, TÜV Rheinland Group believes there is an opportunity for the fashion, apparel and textile sector to face current challenges and decide how best to proceed.After creating one of the largest consumer goods markets on the planet, based on highly sophisticated and economically vital value chains, the fashion industry has a duty to act responsibly as it works towards a resilient recovery, he says.

As a member of the ‘Open Letter’ coalition, TÜV Rheinland is determined to leveraging our expertise, infrastructure and wealth of industry knowledge to build back better and more sustainably from this crisis, and ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic helps to speed up the transformation of the sector, says Vazirani.

Launched during the World Water Week virtual conference earlier this year (2020), the Open Letter’s signatories include more than 30 major companies, brands and multinational organisations including TÜV Rheinland, as well as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, ZDHC, Alliance for Water Stewardship, CDP and WWF.

As per data from Omnilytics, Indonesia’s textile and textile products sector bounced back to 2.97 per cent growth in the third quarter of 2020 owing to the rapid shift by retailers and consumers to online marketplaces for textile purchases. As per Industry Ministry figures, the sector had contracted 8.37 per cent in Q2, 2020 due to a decline in domestic consumption and exports in the sector.

The sector raises $12-13 billion and employs more than 1.5 million workers per annum, revealed Statistics Indonesia (BPS ) at an online symposium called ‘Towards Responsible Supply Chain’, organized by the Indonesia Textile Association (API) last month.

The first challenge that the sector faces is to bolster local rayon fiber production to make Indonesia the leader of raw material production. The second challenge is to strengthen local textile and textile production base, by using state-of-the-art machinery and training workers to operate these machineries in keeping with the Industry 4.0 era.

The government is also conducting a sustainable fashion campaign targeting both producers and consumers to demonstrate its support for circular economy.

Launched by Fashion for Good, the Viscose Traceability Project uses blockchain technology from TextileGenesis to trace viscose use in the textile supply chain spanning eight countries. The project is being developed in collaboration with BestSeller, Kering and Zalando. Besides operational support, these companies will provide financial support for the project that aims to verify sustainable viscose fibers along the fashion supply chain.

TextileGenesis will design traceability applications for use across the entire textile value chain, from fiber to finished goods. It will provide blockchain solution and platform to trace the origins of the viscose used in the garments along the supply chains of the two participating brands. These supply chains, consisting of spinners, weavers, knitters, dye-houses and garment makers, span a total of eight countries to reflect the real-world complexities and various supply-chain scenarios to fully test the flexibility and scalability of the platform.

The Viscose Traceability Project builds upon learnings from the 2019 Organic Cotton Traceability Pilot, which investigated the technical feasibility of blockchain and physical tracers using organic cotton as the primary fiber. The project will focus on demonstrating the feasibility of global application of the solution across the viscose supply chain. Its success will be measured against the flexibility of the solution – being able to operate across diverse supply chains; the interoperability of the solution – collecting data from multiple platforms into a single system; and scalability – global implementation across multiple brands, fiber producers and supply chains.

Miles Johnson and ISKO’s Creative Room have launched their second collection together. Known as the Light on the Land 2.0, the collection features responsible R-TWO™ fabrics and a selection of sustainable accessories and details. It includes 32 unique pieces, each of them realized with seasonless designs and sustainably-minded details. All the fabrics used in the collection were carefully selected from ISKO’s R-TWO™ platform. It uses a mixture of reused cotton and recycled fibers with its technique embedding material circularity into the production processes, designing waste out of the system and minimizing impact at scale.

Certified as per Textile Exchange environmental credentials according to the percentage of materials contained, the collection incorporates responsible design principles such as Cadica’s new and innovative trims, made of vegan apple “leather”, and has been developed using ecoconscious finishing techniques. The collection also features many additional sustainable facets such as efficient low-waste pattern cutting and design, efficient sewing methods, removeable rivets for end-of-life and biodegradable thread which can be removed at high heats.

The R-TWO™ fabrics used in the collectin ensure better use of raw materials and resource efficiency. ISKO’s Environmental Product Declarations (EPD®s), available for over 25,000 products, offer a unique opportunity to measure the impact of R-TWO™’s savings in the Lifecycle Assessments (LCAs) framework, where resource savings can be seen in carbon impact, water-use reductions and many other impact KPIs.

Though Chinese Premier Li Kegiang affirms, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) benefits all signatories, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) report claims, the deal is particularly beneficial to China and would help spur exports by 11.4 per cent.

A roadmap for RCEP members

CASS report states, the deal will help drive Chinese economy over the next 10 years, explains Business of Fashion in an article. It will also help China sideline rivals like the US which pulled out of negotiations for another manor regional trade deal known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership or CPTPP.

Over the past 10 years, fashion industry has moved away from China to newer markets offering higher cost benefits. The industry has also diversified into newer areas of operation to shield against tariff increases and supply chain disruptions. However, this has resulted in an extremely lengthy and complicated supply chain that runs through many countries. The supply chain includes countries from where raw materials and textiles are commonly sourced and also those to whom these are shipped. RCEP will help manufacturers identify these countries and provide a roadmap for other member countries that have not signed on to the deal.

The deal will also help international fashion retailers like H&M leverage RCEP’s integrated supply chains and cut costs on low-margin products. It would enable exporters deal with other RCEP members through a single certificate of origin.

Retaining supply chains links within RCEP region

Though China is still the largest apparel exporter in the world, its share in the global market is on a decline. Over the years, the country has been exporting lesser apparels and more fashion textiles. Its textiles are exported to lower-cost markets like Vietnam and Bangladesh where they are further converted into garments.

The RCEP agreement will incentivize global fashion brands having multinational supply chains to retain these links within the RCEP region. This would help brands export textiles to even countries like Vietnam or Cambodia. The country of origin provisions within the deal will ensure equal treatment for products made in all RCEP countries will be treated the same.

Rising tariffs have been encouraging American fashion companies to move their production of US-bound products out of China. Recently denim brand Levi’s was encouraged to reduce its China sourcing to less than 1 per cent and move offshore production to Vietnam and Bangladesh. RCEP also benefits fashion companies that currently work with Chinese suppliers and have subsidiaries in South East Asia. And as Alicia García Herrero, Chief Economist-Asia Pacific, Natixis says, the agreement helps quicken the pace of Chinese outward foreign direct investment into ASEAN.

As per latest ‘The State of Fashion 2021’ by Business of Fashion (BoF) and McKinsey & Company, with the fashion industry going through its worst year, COVID-19 has catalyzed a global economic downturn. This year, fashion profits are expected to decline by a staggering 90 per cent after a meager 4 per cent rise in 2019, says McKinsey’s Global Fashion Index.

Industry to recover at varying speeds in 2021

However, 2021 will act as the bridge between the pre-pandemic reality and a potentially protracted recovery period for the global fashion industry. The industry will recover at various speeds across fashion categories, value segments and geographical markets with some pockets of growth despite continuing economic challenges.

Europe will be the worst-hit amongst all nations with a 22-35 per cent decline in sales. What’s more, sales are not likely to recover before the second quarter of 2022 when travel and tourism returns. Fashion sales in the US will decline 17 to 32 per cent and recover by Q1 2023. On the other hand, China’s sales will decline 7-20 per cent. They will return to pre-crisis levels only by the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021.

Online penetration to accelerate

Even as the fashion industry suffered its worst year on record with almost three quarters of listed companies losing money, online fashion sales doubled from 16 to 29 per cent of total revenues in 2020. Many brands launched their online operations besides embracing innovations like livestreaming, customer service video chat and social shopping during the year. Going forward, online penetration will continue to accelerate and shoppers will demand ever-more sophisticated digital interactions. As per the report, 71 per cent fashion executives will see a 20 per cent growth in online businesses in 2021.

Rising awareness to alter shopping patterns

As consumers become aware of the plight of vulnerable employees in the fashion value chain, they will launch new campaigns to end exploitation and offer more dignity, security and justice to workers throughout the global industry. Around 66 per cent respondents to the BOF survey said, they will stop or significantly reduce shopping at a brand if they found it was not treating employees or supplier employees fairly.

COVID-19 highlighted the need to look at inventory levels by taking a demand-focused approach to their assortment strategy, while boosting flexible in-season reactivity for both new products and replenishment. Around two fifths executives surveyed in the report reiterated their plans to move towards seasonless fashion.

Focus on market redistribution

The pandemic has widened the gap between the best-performing companies and the rest. As some players have already gone bankrupt and others have been kept afloat by government subsidies, merger and acquisition activities are expected to increase as companies maneuver to take market share, unlock new opportunities and expand capabilities. Around 45 per cent expect market share redistribution to be a top theme of 2021.

The report further emphasizes to mitigate future ruptures, fashion players need to form deeper partnerships that bring greater agility and accountability. Around 35 per cent fashion executives emphasized on resilience and partnerships to be the top development themes in 2021.