As per a new report by online personal styling service Stitch Fix, US Consumers’ spending on apparel and footwear exceeded pre-pandemic levels in every month of 2021.

As per a Daily Star report, the pandemic greatly accelerated the shift toward online shopping. E-commerce grew to account for 36 per cent of total apparel and footwear sales in 2020, versus 26 per cent in 2019, it said.

Apparel export to the American markets from Bangladesh grew 45.91 per cent year-on-year to $4.23 billion in the July-December period.

Export of goods and footwear made of leather to the US markets also increased thanks to high demand from retailers and brands. The export growth was mainly driven by three factors -- the US-China trade tension, strength in production of both basic garment items and those in the middle range of price and quality, and competitive prices.

The Ha-Meem group exported $550 million worth of garment items in 2021 of which 95 per cent went to the US markets. This year some $100 million-worth more garment items are expected to be shipped to the US markets.

Similarly, the Noman Group, another leading garment exporter, has also been receiving more work orders from the US-based retailers and brands this year compared to last year.

Western retailers and brands have been heading over to Bangladesh with plenty of work orders in an attempt to diversify sources and reduce overdependence on a single source.

Bangladesh’s leather and leather goods and footwear export have witnessed growth of over 18 per cent year-on-year in the July-December period. MdShahidullahAzim, Managing Director, Classic Fashion, said garment exports to the US markets at the end of the year may cross $8 billion as the growth was very high.

Faruque Hassan, President, BGMEA added, the confidence of Bangladeshi apparel items has improved a lot following the strengthening of workplace safety and continuation of product supply even during the pandemic's peak. Local manufacturers Aare also very strong in the production of garment items, he added.

The Lycra Company’s largest manufacturing site located in Foshan, China has earned a score in the upper quartile for its third-party audited Higg Facility Environmental Modeule (Higg FEM).

Higg FEM is a sustainability assessment tool that The LYCRA Company is using to determine the Foshan site’s environmental impact, standardize how its environmental performance is measured year over year and identify, prioritize and scale enhancements.

Foshan’sHigg FEM score is based on the percentage of completed and verified self-assessment questions related to its environmental management systems, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, water use, wastewater, air emissions, waste management and chemical management. The Foshan site completed the full module and had their responses confirmed by an independent verifier.

Drawn to its young, wealthy urban residents, many high-fashion brands are looking to set up new stores, pop-ups and shows in Texas. A report in Glossy says, in 2019, more than 12,000 people under 35 years making more than $100,000 a year moved to Texas. Balmain is hosting its only Barbie-themed pop-up with Texas-based Neiman Marcus in Dallas this month, Gucci opened its first store in Austin in May 2021, and Jonathan Simkhai opened its first Texas retail experiment on January 19.

For Jonathan Simkhai, Founder of the eponymous brand, Texas is the third-largest e-commerce market, behind New York and Los Angeles. The entrepreneur will open the brand’s first pop-up store at Dallas’ Highland Park Village He also hopes to open a permanent store in Texas soon.

A March 2020 reading of the state revenue index, a measure of the state’s economy compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, showed Texas quick recovery from the pandemic is helping it attract retailers. Between April 2020-21, retail traffic in the city jumped from 13,000 monthly visitors to the shopping center to 78,000. Meanwhile, monthly visitors to the Shops at Southlake in Grapevine, TX jumped from 94,000 to 240,000 in the same time period.

Thanks to its “business as usual” feeling, Texas shoppers are more open to attending in-person events, compared to consumers in cities like New York, with more restrictions on store capacity, says Simkhai

Commercial real estate prices in Dallas are at all-time highs. In terms of the most commercial real estate transactions in the country last quarter, Houston and Dallas were the No.1 and No. 3, respectively.

To be held from February 7 to 09 at the Parc des Expositions de Paris de Paris-Le Bourget, Texworld Evolution Paris will provide visitors an opportunity to discover the Trends Forum imagined and designed by the art directors of Texworld Paris, Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud. Displayed at several points in the exhibition, the new forum will highlight expressive lines born out of these two years of crisis. It will interrogate the new forms of ‘living together,’ the barriers between communities, cultures and materials by exploring the power of these interfaces in creative terms: the junction between digital and tangible, natural and synthetic, hard and soft. These associations, which give a particular place to materials and fibers, will be explored through four major themes.

Border: This theme gives clothing materials their rightful place. It will encompass a large tonal palette ranging from graphite to arctic blue, but always in rather muted and ‘earthy’ aspects.

Alliance: This ethereal and spiritual creative range will showcase palettes of blue and green. The materials (carved embroidery) and the fiber (fibrous protrusion) in this theme will be are expressed in tones - transparent or opaque - in a spirit where nature often shines through.

Connections: This theme will include synthetic and fluorescent materials. It will mix fluorescent angora with knitted (recycled!) plastics.

Surface: This theme will be the point of contact and exchange between virtual and real, between earth and space, through a palette of blues and greens that can be imagined as flat surfaces" in the style of "flat design". The mixtures (crystalline membrane) and contrasts (antic collage) that confront the materials are not forbidden.

Visitors will be able to discover these major themes through all material samples and finished products selected by the show's artistic directors to illustrate concretely each of the creative universes of Spring/Summer 2023 fashion.

The consolidated net profit of textile firm Trident jumped by 88.22 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 211.09 crore during the fourth quarter ended December 2021. The company had posted a profit of Rs 112.15 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

Trident’s consolidated revenue from operations grew by 51.94 per cent YoY at Rs 1,980.01 crore as against Rs 1,303.15 crore posted in the same quarter a year ago. The company’s EBITDA grew by 143 per cent to Rs 406.06 crore against Rs 166.96 crore posted last year. Its total expenses surged to Rs 1,673.88 crore in the third quarter as compared to Rs 1,157.73 crore.

The company’s net debt increased to Rs 1,484.89 crore as compared to Rs 1,045.39 crore as of September 30, 2021. Its revenue in the textile segment incrased to Rs 17,05.93 crore in Q3 FY22 compared to Rs 1,107.77 crore in Q3 FY21. Revenues in the paper segment surged to Rs 2,51.95 crore compared to Rs 1,82.41 crore in Q3 FY21.

Rajinder Gupta, Chairman, Trident Group says, the company will continue to create value and maintain Trident͛'s excellence-centric mindset to achieve even stronger and better results in the coming years.

Omicron has led to Italian brands facing tough times. As per a Glossy report, brands in Italy have been facing not just delivery delays but also factory shutdowns. Tibi’s Italian factory shut down for over 10 days across December and January, informs Amy Smilovic, Creative Director. Lingerie brand Cosabella faced significant delivery delays with shipments arriving two later than the scheduled date.

If these delays and shutdowns continue into February and March, brands like Tibi and Cosabella will not be able to deliver their spring/summer orders. Last year, Cosabella received orders meant for January at the end of March. This year, his team anticipated the possibilities of delays in transition to the new year, even before Omicron became a concern. Cosabella bought excess raw materials in November, anticipating they may become harder or slower to get in January. The company also produced excess basics and core product around the same time, to solve for any dry periods when product runs low.

Brands including Jimmy Choo, Aquazzura and Sarah Flint that manufacture in Italy increased prices over the summer, to make up for new supply chain costs during periods when delays slowed the process to a halt.

The Pakistan textile sector has demanded either an immediate ban on cotton yarn exports or a fixed export quota to limit shipments in the face of the commodity’s shortage in the domestic market. As per a Tribune report, Shahzad Azam Khan, Central Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA) has urged the government to eliminate all types of duties and taxes on the import of industrial raw materials not manufactured in the country.

The textile industry will be forced to shut down several units if the government fails to resolves these events, he added. Khan also requested the government to clear tax refunds of billions of rupees to ensure availability of raw material at reasonable rates to improve exports and avoid the imposition of taxes through the mini-budget.

In order to let domestic fabric and apparel manufacturers stay competitive, members of Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) have sought special export incentives for fabric and apparel makers back home. India’s textile and clothing manufacturers have been losing in competition to international counterparts in Bangladesh and China owning 70 per cent rise in yarn prices and high export demand. To support MSME exports, PDEXCIL members urged the government to provide providing intensives in the form of subsidy due to increased cost of yarn, logistics and raw materials over the past one year.

Bhart Chhajer, Former Chairman, PDEXCIL estimates, India’s yarn exports to China doubled in value terms and so have those to Bangladesh. Yarn exports to China increased over the past nine months especially after the US and the UK imposed a ban on procuring cotton from China’s Xin Jiang province, as a result of which Indian yarn makers gained in terms of order volumes.

While calling this a boon for domestic yarn makers, Chhajer says, the industry is not getting enough realization. Secondly, surging cotton prices have also boosted yrarn prices, increasing inputs costs and making Indian products less competitive in the international market.

Twenty strategic projects worth Rs 30 crore in the specialty fibers and geo-textiles were cleared by the India’s Ministry of Textiles under its National Technical Textiles Mission. Of these, 16 projects are in specialty fibers including five projects in healthcare, four in industrial and protective and three projects each in energy storage and textile waste recycling, and one project in agriculture, apart from four projects in geo-textiles (infrastructure).

The projects were cleared during a meeting held by Piyush Goyal, Textile Minister, who emphasized on the connection of the industry and academia for the growth of research and development in technical textiles in India. Goyal also stressed upon the importance of building convergence with academicians, scientists and researchers.

He highlighted, the industry should focus on the internationally high value-added products and building a structure of brainstorming around problem statements. In addition, inter-ministerial synergy is required for attracting mega research projects in the country, he added.

Previously, the Ministry of Textiles cleared 11 research projects worth Rs 78.60 crore on March 26, 2021.

To inspire innovations in the textile, garment and fashion industry, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, Cematex has launched a new initiative to support startups and selected young enterprises. Cematex will provide these enterprises innovative solutions for the textile and garment industry with a grant to exhibit at the Start-Up Valley during ITMA 2023. The Cematex Start-Up Grant will cover the rental costs of a special design stand and fittings, as well as entitlements such as business matching

Ernesto Maurer, President Cematex says, the Start-Up Valley will complement the ITMA Research & Innovation Lab. In addition to exhibiting at ITMA 2023, Start-Up Valley exhibitors can also take part in various onsite activities, including speaking at the Innovator Xchange and participating in the ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award and Innovation Video Showcase.

To be eligible for the grant, start-ups must have a product or service that is within ITMA 2023’s exhibit profile. The company should have been incorporated for more than 8 years, and has either generated revenue for at least a year or raised capital from investors or grants from other incubator programs.

A key selection criterion is the environmental, economic and/or disruptive impact of the innovation, solution or product. Other criteria include the scalability of the innovation and its relevance to ITMA’s theme: Transforming the World of Textiles, and the four trending topics, namely advanced materials, automation and digital future, sustainability and circularity, and innovative technologies. Interested start-ups can apply for the Cematex grant by June 30, 2022. Winners will be announced by October 28, 2022. ITMA 2023 will be held at Fiera Milano Rho, Milan, from June 8 to 14, 2023. The exhibitor will include a dedicated chapter on textile reinforcement structures for composites.