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.

As per a Women’s Wear Daily report, Global Fashion Agenda plans to kickstart another project to drive forward circularity in Bangladesh’s garment industry.

The goal of this project, which runs until the end of 2021, is to find a scalable transition to a circular fashion system in Bangladesh, says Holly Syrett, Senior Sustainability Manager. It involves manufacturers like Bangladesh-based Tarasima Apparels., brands like Bestseller and recyclers like Swedish chemical recycling firm Renewcel. They hope to capture and direct post-production fashion waste and put it back into the production of new fashion products, alongside finding a marketplace solution to deadstock fabrics and overstock garments in Bangladesh. Eventually, the learnings may be rolled out to garment sectors in Vietnam and Indonesia, too.

Partners like Reverse Resources, a software solution for fashion production waste to brands sourcing in Bangladesh, hope to achieve this by creating waste data visibility in real-time for garment factories.

Recycler Renewcell will work to coordinate and organize sourcing with mills and traders (or waste-handlers) in Bangladesh while overseeing the quality of feedstock, as Jenny Fredricsdotter, circular business manager at Renewcell shared. The recycler purchases loads of waste by the container, which is then transported by sea to its plant in Sweden.

A new report by the Grand View Research estimates the global sustainable athleisure market will expand at a CAGR of 5.0 per cent from 2020 to 2027. The market is expected to reach $117.4 billion by 2027. Growth is likely to be driven by the growing popularity of sustainable clothing and activewear made using environmentally safe practices among the millennial population across the world.

The report says, manufacturers are launching new products with durable and high-quality material, which can be used in various activities, including yoga, cycling, running, mountain climbing, snowboarding, skiing, sailing, and other sporting activities, In 2019, the market accounted for nearly 64.0 per cent share of the overall revenue.

Of this, the offline segment accounted for 72.3 per cent share of the overall revenue with North America emerging as the largest revenue generator with a share of 34.1 per cent in 2019. Manufacturers focused on product innovation and new launches to stay abreast of the competition

According to the report, North America emerged as the largest regional segment for sustainable athleisure in 2019. The market is driven by the increasing demand for stylish and comfortable sportswear and the rising number of outdoor and fitness activities, such as camping and sports exhibitions, in the region. Moreover, the growing popularity of fashionable and comfortable clothing, such as puffer vests, is expected to create growth opportunities for the market over the forecast period.

Turkey-based Kipas will participate in the €6.7 million European Union-funded New Cotton Project, involving brands Adidas and H&M. Within this project, Kipas will manufacture denim fabrics based on cellulose-based fibers of Infinited Fiber Company of Finland, made from post-consumer textile waste that has been collected, sorted and regenerated.

Adidas and H&M will establish take-back programs to collect the clothing that is produced, to determine the next phase in their lifecycle. Clothing that can no longer be worn will be returned to Infinited, for regeneration into new fibers, further contributing to a circular economy in which textiles never go to waste, but instead are reused, recycled or turned into new garments.

The project aims to prove that circular, sustainable fashion can be achieved and even bigger circular initiatives can be launched by the industry in future. A Monforts customer, Kipas is currently installing its third Monforts Montex stenter in Kahramanmaras. The company is also installing a third Monfortex compressive shrinkage system in a combined configuration dedicated to denim production at its Kahramanmaras site in Turkey. This follows the successful installation and commissioning of the second Montex and Monfortex lines at the Kahramanmaras plant in 2018, which Kipas vice chairman of the Board Ahmet Oksuz said had immediately exceeded expectations.

The latest Montex stenter now being installed at Kipas is a 12-chamber unit with a working width of 2 metres featuring all of the latest automation features. The Monfortex unit, also with a working width of 2 metres, is in a ‘double rubber’ configuration, comprising two compressive shrinkage units and two felt calenders in line. This allows the heat setting of elastane fibres and the residual shrinkage of the denim to be carried out simultaneously, for a significant increase in production speeds.

South African retail stalwarts Woolworths Holdings and The Foschini Group have signed an agreement to source 65 per cent of their required apparels from local manufacturers in next 10 years to reduce dependency on China. The worldwide lockdown has hit South African industry and the country is now focusing on reviving its apparel industry to boost economic growth. However, the fall of apparel industry has led to scarcity of skills and raw materials and lot of investments are needed to boost the revival of the industry.

The increasing investments by Woolworths Holdings and The Foschini Group in local manufacturing is a step in the right direction and will encourage many more such firms to come forward and help revive country’s economy.

Mario Boselli, President, Italy-China Foundation believes, China is an important market for Italian fashion houses. China is one of the few markets where things are going well for Italian fashion companies and they are taking necessary steps to keep things that way. Nicola Guerini, Director, General, Milan Fashion Institute, believes the success of Italian fashion products and other Italian non-fashion brands in China gives companies a strong base to build on.

The importance of China's market is amplified by the growth of the Chinese economy which has managed to emerge unscathed form the coronavirus pandemic.

As a study from GlobalData indicates, China is set to emerge as the world's largest market for high-end fashion. Some markets in China are already seeing a return in stores of 80 to 100 percent pre-COVID levels. Before the pandemic, a Chinese consumer might have bought a product while traveling in Milan or Rome or Paris, and that would have been the end of the transaction. Now, they know the brands and they buy them from a local store in their home city. That can create a relationship because the store can tell them when new products are available, or when there are sales or special events, said Guerini

Boselli opines, Italian companies will do well as long as demand from Chinese customers remains high.

Though the National Retail Federation forecasted growth of 3.6-5.2 per cent in apparel sales during November and December, whether this will be sufficient to offset a downturn in in-person spending in the US remains to be seen. As per Adobe Analytics predictions online sales on Black Friday were to hit a record this year with store closures likely to ease in December.

As per a Business of Fashion report, though most retailers will be able to reopen, they will face certain restrictions in operation hours. Consumers too may not feel confident going to stores as retailers have persuading shoppers to spend as much online as they would in store for months

Many retailers kicked off Black Friday sales early in the hopes of extending the traditional festive shopping frenzy. They also doubled down on e-commerce offering flexible delivery options like curb-side pickups or rewards for consumers who buy early to avoid the Christmas logistics crunch.

Bangladesh government plans to ease the rules on use of duty-free imported fabrics in making high-end apparels to boost export earnings as manufacturers end up wasting more fabrics while producing high-fashioned apparel. In 1998, the commerce ministry had set the waste ratio for garments between 7 to 9 per cent. Even at that time, local manufacturers and exporters had protested against this waste limit as being too little considering the amount of material used for a finished product. Both manufacturers and exporters have urged the government to increase the limit to 30 per cent or more.

Even experts have agreed with exporters demand. Md Abdul Kashem, Vice-Chancellor, Bangladesh University of Textile opines, the demand made by local garment manufacturers is not invalid as waste levels have increased over the years due to complexities in production. The percentage of waste generated varies from factory to factory because of the use of modern technologies, skilled workforce, efficient use of raw materials and better quality control, he added.

Hence, the permitted waste ratio for fabrics should be updated in view of the practical situation as buyers seek products of various designs, says Md Shawkat Hossain, Commissioner, CBC. A Matin Chowdhury, Former President, Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, adds 40 per cent waste is found in a test involving some factories with the best production practices. According to him, the percentage of waste increased because local garment manufacturers have been shifting to high-end garment items so that they can get better prices from retailers and brands.

The New Circular Fashion Report estimates, the potential value of fashion’s circular economy to be $5 trillion. The report has been compiled by a group of industry and academics including PwC, sustainable consultancy Anthesis, Rödl & Partner law firm, Startupbootcamp, ESSEC Business School, Wageningen University & Research and circular fashion blockchain provider Lablaco.

The report terms the concept of a circular fashion industry to be a fast-growing movement to reuse and recycle all materials, eliminating waste and pollution and regenerating the environment in a “circular model”. This rethink of the fundamentals of how the industry operates is gaining traction among sustainable fashion brands, it says.

According to the report, the fashion industry is facing heavy pressure to reduce carbon emissions and waste, not least from a new generation of consumers who demand more environmental accountability. This has given added impetus to the argument for circularity.

The report argues for a product-centric, rather than consumer-centric approach, and digitizing it. It aims to make fashion traceable, transparent and more sustainable for businesses, consumers — and the planet.

The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and IDH have awarded Israel-based agricultural tech start-up Agritask with the first price at the Better Cotton Innovation Award. Indian agricultural tech-company CropIn Technology Solutions was awarded second the second prize. Both these companies will receive cash prizes of €100,000 and €35,000 respectively.

Agritask offers a holistic agronomic platform that enables agricultural stakeholders, including farmers, to capture and make use of a range of data in a highly flexible manner. The Agritask mobile app is customizable, allowing farmers to adopt digital solutions intuitively in a way that works for them.

While CropIn’s solution is a digital farm management solution that enables complete digitization of farming processes. The platform empowers data-driven decision-making and provides complete visibility of people, processes and performance on a near real-time basis. It enables farmers to efficiently manage farming practices, while also ensuring they are adhering to compliance and certification requirements.

Initiated by BCI and IDH, the Better Cotton Innovation Challenge was launched by Dalberg Advisors in November 2019 to find new and innovative ideas to scale more sustainable cotton production. The challenge aimed to highlight innovations in customized training on more sustainable farming practice and innovations to reduce the time and cost of data collection to enable more efficient BCI licensing processes.