Chinese and many Asia-Pacific consumers proved key to higher-end spending in Europe’s major retail destinations in the fourth quarter of 2018.

While Chinese consumers are spending more within China, they remain key for international sales and are helping to fuel strong sales for luxury fashion brands in cities such as London, Paris and Milan. Consumers got more for their money due to the continuous strengthening of currencies across the APAC region. Vietnam rose to second highest on the list of international retail spenders per transaction, after Hong Kong in first place. Vietnam’s upper-middle class is spending 87 per cent more on international travel annually compared with the regular middle class.

The international appeal of Europe’s market has started to make a slow but positive recovery in the last quarter as underlying currency strength across emerging Asia-Pacific markets has boosted sales. The bounce-back of APAC currencies compared with the previous quarter, combined with the ever-growing population share and income of the region’s middle class, has resulted in increased travel and retail activity among its consumers. International shoppers are increasingly becoming a key source of value to the European retail market, with these consumers spending an average of 3.7 times that of domestic shoppers.

"The biggest challenge is over stocked market. There are too many new products being introduced and it’s difficult to predict what shoppers will want next month. According to Enrico Ziglio, Founder and Chief Executive of London-based women’s wear labels Sister Jane and Ghospell, womenswear shoppers constantly seek novelty"

The fast-moving women’s wear market is attracting prominent brands/retailers who are employing all tricks in the trade to maintain their exclusivity in this crowded and fast-moving market. One sentiment that dominates the market of late is challenging as difficulties including price-sensitive shoppers and Brexit anxieties are particularly felt in this cramped and competitive world.

Novelty leads to overstocking

The biggest challenge is over stocked market. There are too many new products being introduced and it’s difficult to predict what shoppers will want next month. According to Enrico Ziglio, Founder and Chief Executive of London-based women’s wear labels Sister Jane and Ghospell, womenswear shoppers constantly seek novelty. Consumers in this segment make their purchases only after feeling strongly connected to these brands. They seek new, exciting brands that cater to their unique styles and values, and offer them something that no one else has.”

Flexible approach leads to growth

Market research agency Mintel suggests, the UK women’s wear market is likely to grow 14 per cent between 2018 and 2022 to £33.5bn. The secret to success in this market is a flexible approach by the retailers. As Olivia Cantillon, founder of women’s wear etailer Own the Look, notes, retailers should offer its customers as many opportunities to make a purchase as possible. Shoppers want every touch point they have with a brand or retailer to be worth shopping. They aim to purchase through the social channels.

Two opposing trends are influencing consumer behavior. Affordably priced, trend-driven products are being sought as can be noted from the ongoing success of the Boohoo Group, whose revenue increased by 15 per cent, 74 per cent and 95 per cent at Boohoo, Nasty Gal and PrettyLittleThing respectively in the four months to 31 December. But customers are opting for higher-quality items even if they are expensively priced. 

Buyers becoming increasingly aware

Emerging trends like sustainability and decluttering denote the increasing awareness of the shoppers about their purchases. Buyers are opting for authentic designs such as the slip dresses that can worth without anything underneath in the summer and paired with chunky knits or roll necks in the colder months. Customers are buying these even at a  premium price. Animal prints across leopard, snake and zebra, continues to be popular.  The craze for leopard print has expanded to include a whole safari of animals, including snake and zebra.

Renewed interest in accessories

For spring, the color yellow and the 1970s key trends rule. Neon and synthetic yellow tones have also made a comeback this season with a psychedelic print direction, as the 70s continue to be a source of inspiration. Shoppers are also opting for a sportier look for autumn 19 season. 

There is a revived interest in accessories as these help womenswear brands and retailers to drive average transaction values. The trend for embellished hair clips, velvet head bands and hair scarves is likely to last throughout this year. Brands that intend to make a mark in the women’s wear need to give customers a reason to shop with them above all others. They should seek to make fashion more of a part of customer’s lifestyles and really reflect who they are as a person. 

"Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles attracts leading local and international brands. The last edition held in August 2018 featured leading fabric brands such as Enzo Degli Angiuoni Spa from Italy, Jab Anstoetz from Germany and Prestigious Textiles from the UK, domestic big names such as Beijing Yada and Beijing Euroart together with whole-home exhibitors like Coomo Living, Mirtos, Murray, Casaido and Lezai.  This year’s show will showcase a wide range of home textile items that match consumers’ high expectations."

The Chinese textile industry is being driven by ‘consumption upgrade’ and diversified market demand. With over 1,000 exhibitors and around 40,000 visitors under the same roof, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles capitalises on the unprecedented growth of the Chinese middle and upper classes. The show, to be held from August 28 to 31, 2019, presents more quality suppliers, contract business exhibitors and finished products for visitors. Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn edition will be organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) ; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Home Textile Association (CHTA). 

Wide range to meet consumer expectations

Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles attracts leading local and international brands. The last edition held in August 2018 featured leading fabric brands such as Enzo Degli Angiuoni Spa from Italy, Jab Anstoetz from Germany and Prestigious Textiles from the UK, domestic big names such as Beijing Yada and Beijing Euroart together with whole-home exhibitors like Coomo Living, Mirtos, Murray, Casaido and Lezai.  This year’s show will showcase a wide range of home textile items that match consumers’ high expectations.

Increased emphasis on contract business

The 2018 edition of Intertextile Shanghai focused on contract business with around 16 per cent of visitors reporting interest in the contract business products. This year too these exhibitors will be highlighted to facilitate buyers’ sourcing process. There will also be a diverse range of events including a forum and display area that will help fairgoers to understand different contract textile products and the derived business opportunities.

More finished products to cater to demand

Asia’s leading trade platform, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles offers a comprehensive range of home textiles and accessories. Recent editions have focused on abundant decoration fabrics and finished products. As per the fair’s visitor statistics, interest towards finished home textile products has increased by around 10 per cent in the past four years. With growing demand, more suppliers such as Naturtex, Jaspa Herington, Silkland and Weihai HengTai Woolen Blanket have decided to showcase their finished products. Visitors can thus expect to source more finished products ranging from bedding products and carpets & rugs to finished curtains, etc.

The resale apparel business in the US is booming. Secondhand is starting to capture the attention of mainstream shoppers. Once people start buying secondhand, they buy more of it over time. When the consumer has the experience of buying a brand dress for 20 dollars versus 300 dollars, they can’t imagine going back there and paying full prices.

Resale in the US has grown 21 times faster than the retail apparel market over the past three years. In an environment where traditional retailers continue to struggle to adapt to changing consumer tastes, companies like Rent The Runway, The RealReal and Poshmark are capitalizing on the idea that consumers are constantly looking for affordability and variety.

According to ThredUP, an online resale shopping platform, 56 million women purchased secondhand products in 2018, up from 44 million women in 2017. Resale platforms, also called consignment sellers, are seeing a high level of consumer engagement. In addition brands have started to realize that consignment players are helping extend the discovery, reach, and appeal of their brands. An item with a strong resale value is seen as strengthening the brand as a whole. The apparel industry is the second largest industrial polluter. The resale market is an excellent way to create a circular economy and reduce the environmental impact.

While US textile manufacturers and the apparel and retail industries have expressed overall support for the newly reached US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA or NAFTA 2.0), textile producers and the apparel sector  hold divergent views on certain provisions. 

The USMCA will continue to adopt the “yarn-forward” rules of origin. The USMCA will also newly require sewing thread, coated fabric, narrow elastic strips, and pocketing fabric used in apparel and other finished products to be made in a USMCA country to qualify for duty-free access to the United States.

The US apparel industry, on the other hand, opposes these rules and argues that apparel should be considered of North American origin under a more flexible regional “cut and sew” standard, which would provide maximum flexibility for sourcing, including the use of foreign-made yarns and fabrics.

USMCA would continue a program that allows duty-free access for limited quantities of wool, cotton, and man-made fiber apparel made with yarn or fabric produced or obtained from outside the NAFTA region, including yarns and fabrics from China and other Asian suppliers.

Lectra has opened an innovation lab in France. This will aim at capturing emerging trends, anticipating evolutions and enhancing Lectra’s future technological solutions. The breakthrough innovations resulting from this work are aimed at the fashion, automotive and furniture markets. The first innovations resulting from these collaborations will serve the fashion industry. The teams in the innovation lab will work in collaboration with organizations in their ecosystem: start-ups, research centers, customers and Lectra employees. Everyone is invited to create a visual model during a design sprint or participate in an idea generation workshop. A strong principle is to rethink the entire value chain of this industry—brands, manufacturers, distributors—as it relates at each stage to the final consumer. For brands, key aspects of creation or product development will be reinvented through solutions based on innovative technologies. And for manufacturers, an augmented reality tool has been developed to support cutter maintenance.

Lectra’s offer empowers brands and manufacturers from design to production, providing them with the market respect and peace of mind they deserve. Founded in 1973, today Lectra has 32 subsidiaries across the globe, serving customers in over 100 countries. The company believes innovation, particularly disruptive innovation, implies a real cultural transformation within the company and that one cannot simply will it into existence.

A unique initiative called Blue Lab, created by the NGO Drip by Drip, aims at developing alternative textile solutions with the lowest possible water footprint, in collaboration with a network of participants. The connection between fashion consumption and water resources is a key fact. Among the key partners, Lenzing provides the fibers, Tearfil supplies yarns, Blue Ben creates the garments, Montebelo works closely with brands, organizations and manufacturers to create responsible fashion products and Agroho is a non-profit organization that is working for marginalized communities in Bangladesh.

This fabric collection has been developed using the following key smart fibers: Tencel Lyocell, Modal, hemp and Roica V550, the sustainable premium stretch fiber from Asahi Kasei, a cradle to cradle certified gold level for material health product and ingredients certified yarn evaluated throughout the supply chain for lower impact on human and environmental health.

This is a range of five amazing water-efficient innovations, whose production is using between 443 liters per kg and 965 liters per kg, while the amount of water needed to produce one kg of conventional cotton fabric ranges from 7,000 to 29,000 liters per kg. The water savings is up to 90 per cent achieved starting from the cultivation of raw materials as well as in the fabric dyeing process.

Textile Coating and Laminating (TCL) was held in Germany, March 14 to 15, 2019. This is an event concerned with innovations and trends in textile coating and laminating. The presentations given over the two-day conference highlighted the drive for individual, cost-effective and sustainable products while reducing consumption of water, chemicals and energy. New concepts and techniques were described to achieve these aims, which sparked informative discussions during the forum sessions. There were ample networking opportunities for all participants. For the first time at a TCL conference, developments in smart and functional textiles had its own session with discussions on graphene and 2D materials enabling wearable and textile electronics; printing and coating technologies to develop smart textiles; advanced applications of phase-change materials and new mechanism for delivering thermo regulation.

The global textile coatings market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.9 per cent from 2017 to 2025. Of all the segments, the polyurethane and polyvinylchloride sub-segments held the leading position in the global textile coatings market in 2016. Another segment involving the manufacture and use of full surface coasting technology showcases a high demand than other technologies. From the end users’ perspective, the upholstery fabric and industrial clothing segments held the top position on the leaderboard with respect to utilization and demand.

Egypt has attracted the attention of many world textile and garment enterprises. The country’s textile and garment industry has a good foundation. The total number of employees in Egypt’s textile and clothing industry is 1.5 million. Textiles and tailoring account for 15 per cent of Egypt’s non-oil and natural gas exports and contribute three per cent to GDP. Egypt has comparatively rich advantages in cotton raw materials, extremely preferential trade policies and low production factor costs, which provide a good basis for further development of the textile and garment industry.

The Mingya Textile City Project is the first textile and apparel free zone in Egypt. The region has a large population of young people, suitable for the development of labor-intensive industries. The plan is to focus on the development of advanced textile cities in the upper Egyptian region, and to build the necessary infrastructure for textile cities. With this vision, Mingya Textile City will become one of the important platforms for overseas textile and apparel enterprises to settle in Egypt. The country offers a favorable investment policy and environment for overseas textile and apparel enterprises. In addition Egypt’s exports to Europe and the United States enjoy preferential benefits.

The Chinese textile industry adheres to the general tone of work, striving for stability and progress, actively deepening structural reform in the supply side, vigorously promoting high-quality development, and striving to resolve various external risks. The sector’s total profit increased eight per cent over the previous year, 1.1 percentage points faster year on year. Completion of fixed asset investment in the whole industry increased by five per cent year on year, a slight slowdown of 0.2 percentage points from the previous year.

In 2018, retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats and needles above a designated size increased eight per cent, and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than that of 2017. Throughout the year, economic operation of the textile industry was normal, generally consistent with external environment and its own development stage. The growth level of main operational indicators was in line with expectations; the business climate was relatively stable; and the characteristics of high-quality development gradually appeared.

China’s export volumes of textiles and garments increased 3.5 percent in 2018. Growth rate increased two per cent over previous year. Revenue of textile enterprises grew 2.9 per cent; growth rate slowed by 1.3 percentage points from the previous year.