The Levi Strauss Foundation has committed $1 million to a Rapid Response Fund for the third year in a row. The fund supports organisations and initiatives that protect highly vulnerable communities across the United States and the world. This includes projects helping immigrants, refugees, the transgender community and religious minorities. The project supports organizations that challenge the Muslim ban, protect asylum seekers and refugees, and restore voting rights to individuals in marginalised communities.

In the United States, organisations receiving help include: Al Otro Lado, American Immigration Council, Define American, Live Free, National Immigration Law Center, Transgender Law Center, Undocublack, and United We Dream. In addition, the Levi Strauss Foundation will ensure support goes to Ascend Collaborative and International Refugee Assistance Project, both of which are based outside the US.

Levi Strauss is taking the opportunity as a newly publicly traded company to breathe fresh life into its brands and approach to business. The new chapter the company is writing is being driven by changes in retail-consumer relationship and the push to expand its reach to new customers in new ways. A key strategy is to become a leading world-class omnichannel retailer. Another vital strategy is to diversify the business by expanding more into tops and women’s under-penetrated markets.

France wants brands to stop destroying unsold clothes and luxury goods. Legislation would be enacted to that end. Kering-- the parent company of luxury brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga – has been asked to lead a global movement in order to reduce the environmental footprint that the fashion industry produces. Many fashion companies burn items that don’t sell after discounts or they bury them in landfills.

Canada is making similar efforts. In 2014, Canada was the waste champion per capita among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, with the equivalent of nearly a ton of waste produced per capita. With only 0.5 per cent of the world’s population, Canada produces two per cent of the volume of waste generated worldwide.

It takes 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton T-shirt – the same amount a human drinks in 2.5 years. The water used every year in the world to make textile dyes is enough to fill 1.6 million Olympic swimming pools. More than $500 billion is lost globally every year due to clothing underutilisation and the lack of recycling. The overall benefit to the world economy could be about $192 billion in 2030 if the fashion industry were to implement more sustainable measures.

The event will have two trade fairs. The first trade fair from February 27 to March 1, 2020, is dedicated to garment processing technologies including sewing, embroidery, fabrics and their accessories. The second from March 5 to 8, 2020, is dedicated to textile processing technologies including weaving, spinning, knitting, and dyeing machinery technologies and spare parts. The brightest minds of the textile technologies business will meet to demonstrate the latest industrial know-how, discuss up-to-date tendencies and set the agenda for the future. The show will launch innovative technologies as drivers of prosperity for the textile sector on local, regional and international scales.

More than 40,000 trade visitors, delegates and buyers from all over the African continent are expected to attend the event. Over 1200 exhibitors from more than 40 countries are expected. The event grants advanced quality context, provides extensive competition scope, non-stop business frameworks, broad media coverage and cross-industry knowledge transfer.

Bustling, energetic and wide-ranging, Stitch & Tex is a premium multi-format event with a distinct commercial and business identity, where cutting-edge technologies, products, services and turnkey solutions are provided by global strategic players and technology makers to serve the ever-growing evolving textile markets of Africa.

Filatex is expanding its manufacturing capacity. The aim is to add to polymerisation capacity, polyester partially oriented yarn, and draw texturised yarn capacity. This addition of capacity would help the company to cater to domestic and overseas customers and uplift the topline. A better bottom line is also expected due to lower operating costs and energy efficient operations.

Filatex, which entered manufacturing with mono filament yarn in 1994, is an established player in the Indian polyester filament yarn market. Filatex has integrated operations which are of economy of scale, with a diversified product mix, state-of-the-art technology as well as a vast domestic and global customer base. The company is always looking for opportunities to optimise the product mix and value addition to meet customers’ needs. Since it has been in the business of polyester filament yarn for several decades now, it always tries to understand market trends in terms of customer preferences, cost scenarios and investment opportunities in the market.

The company, which exports manmade yarn to 34 countries, also has in the pipeline a fabric plant to make fabrics from the yarn it produces. Its yarn is used in the manufacture of carpets, rugs, tapes, ribbons and zippers.

As a result of Adidas’ partnership with Parley for the Oceans five million pairs of shoes were created using recycled ocean plastic in 2018. In 2019, Adidas is upping the pace of change. The company will produce a landmark 11 million pairs of shoes using upcycled marine plastic waste, intercepting vast amounts of plastic from entering the oceans. This year, the brand is bringing together its community of Adidas runners, brand ambassadors, employees, store partners, store staff, and even consumers to make a difference and contribute to reducing marine plastic pollution by participating on the on-ground and digital runs. In 2016, Adidas created the first performance products with recycled ocean plastics. Through their partnership, Adidas and Parley have intercepted vast amounts of plastic waste from marine environments and coastal communities.

In India, Adidas has been associated with initiatives to tackle the problem of marine litter. These include cleaning Mumbai beaches, conserving mangroves, action workshops to stop litter and segregate plastic waste and most importantly the ideology of a circular economy. The marine plastic crisis has become critically urgent. Every minute, the equivalent of a dump truck of plastic waste enters the world’s oceans and by 2050 there may be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans.

Hidden supply chains are the terra incognitas of the apparel industry. They exist outside factory walls and are unlicensed, unregulated and rife with child labor and other human rights abuses. Orders that start at a traditional factory might end up being subcontracted to one smaller production unit, then another, before ultimately ending up inside the homes in communities that specialize in things like beading and tassel making. Once that work leaves the factory, it’s hidden from view. Workers involved in production aren’t protected under corporate codes of conduct, factory audits and even national law.

Forced labor exists in every country, in every supply chain. Predominantly women and girls from historically oppressed ethnic communities work exclusively in supply chains for export of apparels to the United States and the European Union. Acknowledging the shadows in the supply chain is the first step. The second is investing in transparency. Excuses from brands, from suppliers, even from consumers should be done with. This is 2019, and with the tremendous technological evolution over the last 10 years, it ought to be easy to say if a piece of clothing is actually made by child labor or not.

The new NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendera Modi has retained, Smriti Zubin Irani as the textile minister of India. Irani took oath as a minister with cabinet rank along with Prime Minister and other ministers at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Irani will also head the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

In the previous NDA government, Irani was initially appointed as the Minister of Human Resources and Development, and later shifted as the cabinet minister of textiles. A television actor turned politician, Irani began her political career by joining the BJP in 2003.

Clothing designs that seem impractical yet are visually alluring continue to go viral on social media. More and more US brands are jumping on the trend of clothing that is slightly impractical, extremely divisive, yet strangely alluring at the same time. These designs seem to exist less for the sake of practicality and more for the sake of an eye-catching photo shoot that spreads quickly on social media. The trend can be traced back to the 1970s and ’80s when designers would create shocking ensembles in the hopes of ending up in influential fashion magazines. Then — and now — the point of producing shocking and impractical designs was not to sell the actual piece itself. The point was to get more photographers shooting the designer, and magazine editors writing and talking about them. Now, the point is to get more followers and customers talking about the brand, with the goal of increasing shares and reposts to spread the word and gain more attention.

Going on Instagram is effective for quick brand recognition, but it doesn’t always lead to long-term impact. At some point, people will start to see through the viral marketing tactics and crave authenticity. Consumers will tire of the impractical designs.

PVH Corp’s first quarter revenue rose 1.8 per cent. PVH Corp has projected a 10 cent cut in its full-year adjusted profit per share. The company, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, grapples with tariffs and slowing retail growth, exacerbated by weak spending from overseas shoppers in the face of a strong US dollar. Tariffs on Chinese imports are a concern, as PVH Corp sources a majority of its apparel, footwear and accessories from the Asian country.

PVH Corp is in a powerful position to deliver a sustainable trajectory of long-term growth and stockholder value creation. The American clothing company experienced broad-based strength across its businesses globally and its performance underscored the power of its diversified business model and the continued momentum in its global designer lifestyle brands.

Escalating trade tensions between China and the US have emerged as a new headache for US-based retailers, with a warning that additional tariffs would thin their earnings and margins. Earlier this month, the US escalated the trade war by raising tariffs on 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent from 10 per cent. This was in addition to the 25 per cent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports already in place.

Informa Markets, the force behind some of the biggest trade shows, will organise a pop up event DestinationMiami for the Miami Swim Week in July 2019. To be a part of its women’s merchandise trade show Coterie, DestinationMiami will provide an immersive, multilevel, showroom-style experience for contemporary and designer brands to showcase their resort and travel collections at the Faena Bazaar in the Atlantic Hotel in Miami Beach, Fla.

To be held from July 13-16, 2019 DestinationMiami will feature 70 hand-selected brands including Adriana Degreas, Anemone Swim, Sara Cristina, Stellar, Suki Cohen, March 11 and Mercedes Salazar. DestinationMiami is the first of a series of focused showroom atmospheres that will be an extension of the current Coterie portfolio. Retailers attending the show will be personally guided through each collection and talk to designers and label representatives.