Fashion and textile production is returning to the US.

What once appeared to be a trend of bringing major manufacturing operations back to the United States, as a stopgap measure to mitigate complications arising from the pandemic economy, is now seen as a wise long term strategy guaranteeing operational viability, resiliency and value.

While high labor costs have long been used to justify offshore production, volatile supply chains, shipping complications and costs, tariffs, perceived sociopolitical instability, and other factors — including the proliferation of automation technologies that necessitate fewer laborers to operate in general — have made reshoring to North America a practical, profitable, and safer proposition.

The economics of bringing production closer to the end consumer — immediately delivery that negates the need for vast and vulnerable supply chains, the ability to react to demand in real time, the eco-friendly aspect of a streamlined process, and the mitigation of troublesome external factors in general — has become attractive.

Manufacturers prefer to base their businesses in the US, even in highly regulated and high-cost regions that would not appear to be logical production sites.One of the greatest attributes of localized, on-demand fashion and textile production models is that the strategy is entirely modular. It can be replicated to mitigate risk, foster operational agility and versatility, and deliver profitability anywhere.

Trousers and shorts were the dominant category in Australia’s total apparel imports during the first half of 2022.They had a 21 per cent share and were followed by jerseys with a 15 per cent share and shirts with a nine per cent share.

These three products together accounted for more than 45 per cent of total apparel imports by Australia. Import of other products were T-shirts (nine per cent), dresses (eight per cent), innerwear (eight per cent), jackets and blazers (five per cent), nightwear (two per cent), baby wear (two per cent) and socks (two per cent). The Australian clothing market is growing by fourper cent a year. The market's largest segment is women’s apparel.

Since 2014, the Australian clothing industry has faced numerous challenges. Cautious spending habits, increasing competition, and rising lease costs are all creating negative impacts on available revenue. When all segments of the clothing industry in Australia are combined, they are responsible for about 2,20,000 jobs. That figure includes modeling and styling employment.

Australia also exports textiles, most of which are unprocessed commodities. These items are then sold back to the industry from European luxury brands which are based in Italy, France, or Great Britain.

Ezio Garciamendez is Kontoor’s senior vice president, chief supply chain officer. He will have responsibility for all aspects of supply chain management including global operations, planning, manufacturing, sourcing, quality, customer service, distribution, logistics and master data governance. He will also oversee all components of the company’s supply chain strategy, including trade-related functions and operations.

He has a track record of innovation in the global supply chain industry and experience in rolling out advanced solutions across the most complex and multifaceted supply chains. He has more than 20 years of experience in the consumer-packaged goods industry. He has held various roles with increasing responsibility within Procter and Gamble by leading highly complex, multi-category, end-to-end global supply chain operations including manufacturing, distribution, procurement, planning, logistics, engineering, and technical services.

Kontoor Brands, an apparel company with a portfolio that includes the world’s most iconic consumer brands, Wrangler and Lee, designs, manufactures and distributes superior high-quality products that look good and fit right, giving people around the world the freedom and confidence to express them selves. This is a purpose-led organization focused on leveraging its global platform, strategic sourcing model and best-in-class supply chain to drive brand growth and deliver long-term value for its stakeholders.

During 2021-22 India’s exports of manmade fibers have grown 82 per cent and manmade fiber blended textiles rose 46 per cent compared to the previous year.

Exports of manmade fibre yarns 72 per cent, while manmade fiber fabrics 30 per cent and manmade fiber made-ups 28 per cent. However, the share of the value-added segments like fabrics and made-ups in total exports has gone down from 63 per cent to 56 per cent.

In the current financial year exports have been slightly stressed in the firstt quarter. However, an encouraging turnaround was seen from August 2022 exports. Further growth of exports of synthetic textiles seems likely. The PLI scheme has been introduced for manmade fiber textiles, the ATUF scheme is being continued and RoDTEP rates have been rationalized. Among the possible future measures are incorporation of more manmade fiber textiles in the PLI 2 scheme, extension of the interest equalization scheme for yarns, implementation of the fiberneutral policy, treatingmanmade fiber textiles at par with natural fibers and treating both merchant exporters and manufacturing exporters as one.

The pandemic paralyzed economies around the world for two years and caused a lasting damage on labor productivity and potential output.

Compression Denim is designed to give women varying levels of support, so they can feel their most confident and sexy at all times.With comfort levels unique to the individual wearer, the collection is designed to give customers the freedom to choose how much they shape their figure.

The Light Compression jean holds in and smooths out the physique. The Super Compression jean enables the wearer to control how much they want to sculpt their waistline with adjustable front buttons. The Mega Compression jean snatches silhouettes with a built-in corset with hook-and-eye closures.

The collection will be available in a variety of Good American’s best-selling silhouettes including the Good Classic, Good Legs, Good Waist, Good Curve Straight, Good Icon, Good Classic Boot, and Good Legs Flare.

With this latest collection, Good American, launched in 2016, is taking another step towards making denim and the fashion industry atlarge even more inclusive. Figure-enhancing skinny jeans were central to Good American’s launch. It now offers a full wardrobe of women’s denim fits spanning bootcut, loose, flare and relaxed fits. In 2020, it introduced Always Fits, a skinny fit, high-rise jean available in five size categories with 100 percent stretchability.

Cisutac is a new European consortium that aims at identifying and eliminating the bottlenecks that hinder circularity in the apparel sector.

Cisutac will start work on technological, industry-specific and socio-economic issues relating to sustainable fashion, concentrating on three areas: repairing, disassembling products and sorting used items to identify those that are recyclable and reusable, with an emphasis on fiber-to-fiber recycling, and circular design. Pilot projects will be carried out in each of these areas. Cisutac will evaluate the creation of semi-automated workstations, assess infrastructure and material flows, and encourage the gradual digitalisation of waste sorting operations. Cisutac also aims to raise awareness, among consumers and the industry as a whole, about circularity issues related to clothes.

Euratex, Inditex, Decathlon and Lenzing are among members of Cisutac. Euratex, the European apparel and textile confederation, will facilitate the circular economy transition, liaise with other projects and initiatives, support the development of training and education material, including master classes, raise awareness in Europe of the environmental impact of textiles and provide input for policy, standardisation and certification to facilitate the transition to the circular economy.

The fashion industry is replacing the take-make-dispose model, which is worn out, with a circular economy for fashion in which clothes are kept at their highest value and designed from the outset to never end up as waste.

Turkish textile and raw materials exports to Morocco increased 30 per cent between January 2022 and August 2022. This is in spite of the fact that Morocco has imposed tariffs on Turkish imports. Turkish textile products, alongside Chinese brands, have flooded the Moroccan fashion sector. The Moroccan textile industry is gradually losing ground to them, particularly in the urban hubs. Morocco had the highest increase in the quantity of imported textiles and raw materials among Turkey’s top export destinations. The others are Italy, Germany, the US, Spain, and France.

The lack of funding as well as limited growth prospects for small and medium-sized Moroccan businesses in the sector represent additional challenges to the development of the local textile industry. Morocco fears for the sustainability of local shops in the light of the Turkish discount store Bim which has rapidly expanded in Morocco over the past few years.

There is a feeling in Morocco that the Morocco-Turkey Free Trade Agreement signed in 2004 has brought more economic benefits to Turkey. So there is a discussion in Morocco of the impact of the free flow of competitive Turkish products to the domestic market.

The Turkish textile and raw materials sector marked seven per cent year-on-year growth by the end of August 2022.

India’s cotton production for 2022 to 2023 will be 15 per cent higher than it was the previous year.

Among the helpful factors are an eight per cent rise in sowing area, favorable weather and good crop conditions. Uncertainty regarding the weather conditions for the cotton crop reduced towards the end of September.

In the first fortnight of the current month, there were concerns about the crop due to forecasts of heavy rains in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Some parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat received sporadic rains in the last week of September but there was no excessive rainfall which could have threatened the crop. North India also witnessed rainfall when the crop was ready for picking. But except for a minor impact in small parts of Haryana, north India faced no major losses. Last year, north India’s cotton crop was severely damaged from diseases like pink ball worm caused by the late monsoon rains. Crop yield reduced in Gujarat and Maharashtra too.

This year, no threats have been predicted for the crop so far. Arrivals in north India comprising Punjab, Haryana, upper Rajasthan and lower Rajasthan are increasing continuously.New cotton prices have witnessed a steep fall in north India despite the late arrivals and a prolonged scarcity before the new crop.

Cotton exports from the US witnessed a steep fall in July 2022 from June 2022.

The new cotton marketing season begins in the country from August and exports had reduced drastically in the last month of the previous year 2021-22. However, the country had exported a large volume of cotton during the earlier months.The country had exported large quantities of cotton till June 2022 due to a scarcity of the natural fiber and skyrocketing prices.Therefore cotton exports dried up in the last month of the previous season.

US cotton exports amounted to $1,162.222 million in May 2022, $1,104.972 million in April 2022, $1,112.802 million in March 2022 and $919.778 million in February 2022.On a quarterly basis, cotton shipment from the US rose to $3.328 billion in the second quarter of this year from $2.820 billion in the first quarter. Exports declined to $1.002 billion in the fourth quarter of last year from $1.254 billion in the third quarter of 2021. Cotton exports amounted to $1.972 billion in the second quarter of last year.

The world’s largest economy earns $6-7 billion on an annual basis from cotton exports. The country had fetched $5.156 billion in 2021, $6.321 billion in 2020, $6.608 billion in 2019 and $7.088 billion in 2018 from cotton shipments.

Adored by millennials, skinny jeans have been trending and holding their pride of place for the longest time. However, rumbles of its popularity on the decline, whilst exaggerated, does hold some truth.

The retail platform Edited recently presented a report that states a sharp fall in men’s skinny jeans where slim-fitted jeans hold on to the number one position. Whilst the demand for skinny jeans hasn’t experienced such a sharp drop in the women’s category, the straight fit has now achieved the number one status although the ladies are still buying full price black, mid-washed and ripped skinnies.

The figures indicate a definite decline – 29% in women’s skinny jeans and a whopping 52% in men’s. In the first half of 2022, blue skinny jeans were the best-sellers with 63% in men’s and 61% women’s, whilst grey was the second most popular colour for men at 11% and black for women at 21%. The report also indicated the different washes preferred by the two genders – men opted for a light wash whereas women chose the mid-wash.

So what’s going on with skinnies? Gen Z flare up

The Zoomers decided that silhouettes needed to change as the craved their own fashion identity. Hence wide-legs and flares are making a comeback. Fashion pundits are saying that skinnies are no longer considered a trend but a staple, joining the ranks of the straight-leg. High street brands have made great slashes to their skinny jeans collections. In the men’s category, these tight trousers held a 48% stake in 2021 but this year, dropped by 27%. Whilst some brands are exploring no-frills skinny jeans as great for travel wear, aviation experts are warning against.

Global denim market

Skinny or not, the global denim market stood at USD 19461.38 million in 2021, and indications are that by 2028, will reach USD 26147.31 with a CAGR of 4.31% during the forecast period. Retail experts attribute this growth based on consumer segmentation of style-types as well as demographic, mass and premium labels, and channels of distribution as e-commerce is gaining steady grounds and becoming a leveler for most mass brands.

Denim’s environmental stamp is a concern

Denim’s environmental footprint is a concern area. As all denims are manufactured from cotton fibres or blends with a high percentage of cotton, this fabric is a large consumer of water as well as chemicals. Many innovative attempts are underway to substitute cotton with fibres that are greener in their production. Hemp is being hailed as a popular alternative and Germany and the Netherlands are leading the way on hemp textiles and are recommending the use of rotor spinning instead of twilling. However, hemp can only go main stream as the cotton substitute of choice if it can also exhibit the toughness and durability of cotton as its key characteristic.

As the denim retail comes out of a pandemic-related setback compounded by the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict and the economic upheavals in the western world, it does show the resilience associated with the core fabric – here to stay and grow as denim jeans keep reinventing through styles, washes and innovative blends.