Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week will commence from September 06, 2021 with a strikingly varied array of events both virtual and live, a hyper-hybrid season with Germany poised to enter a new political era this month.

As per a Fashion Network, the upcoming season of the fashion week will include panel talks; fashion film premieres; dynamic salons; and a series of live shows. Much of it centered at Kraftwerk, the renovated former power station located in the central Mitte district. The country’s iconic automaker will open the season with a parade to promote young talent, as part of its Fashion Talents program set up by Mercedes-Benz.

The second edition of the Fashion Open Studio will be held under the acronym FOS x MBFW. In cooperation with Fashion Revolution Germany, the initiative promotes innovative design talent and provides transparent insight into the design and manufacturing processes of brands.

Another key element is the Berliner Salon, curated and hosted by a grand dame of the local fashion scene, Christiane Arp. The noted former editor-in-chief of Vogue Germany, Arp will also host a 'Firesidechat' on the final evening in the legendary Borchardt brasserie, a preferred dining experience of both insider politicians and cool fashionistas.

Formalwear sales of London-based multinational retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) in its brick-and-mortar stores slumped by 72 per cent in the year to April 2021 while its online sales declined by 15 per cent. M&S also sold only 2 million men’s suits in the year to July, compared to 4.3 million suits sold in the same period back in 2017.

On the contrary, sales of causalwear, rose by an impressive 61 per cent during the period. The brand has therefore limited its sale of men’s suit to only 110 per cent of its large stores.

The brand is trying to help shoppers in buying men’s suits and has also launched digital video consultations for the benefit of customers. More on this, Wes Taylor, Director, M&S menswear, affirms, the brand aims to be go-to for a great suit whatever the occasion.

M&S was founded in 1884 and generated revenue of £10,181.9 million in 2020.

Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart plans to open a technology center in New York as it aims to be a top player in the global eyewear market.

As per a Fashion Network report, Lenskart recently closed a $220 million (Rs 1,463.6 crore) funding round at a valuation of $2.5 billion to fuel its global expansion plans and forayed into the Singapore and the Middle East market.

The company plans to build a highly specialized technical team across product, design, and consumer research in the US.

Peyush Bansal CEO and Co-founder, Lenskart says, the company plans to launch a wide catalogue of over 2000 product styles to the US market, especially for new-age consumption patterns. The tech center will enable the company’s growth in the country.”

In India, Lenskart plans to continue to expand its brick-and-mortar store network alongside its e-commerce business and open 300 new stores this year.

Founded in 2010 by Bansal, Khurana, Amit Chaudhary, and Sumeet Kapahi, Lenskart is an omnichannel retailer and manufacturer of eyewear accessories.

Indonesia’s textile exports declined considerably during H1 FY2021 on an annual basis (Y-o-Y). Data from the Industry and Trade Office of the Province of Bali shows, during the first half of 2021, the value of Indonesia’s textile exports decreased by 47.93 percent Y-o-Y in meters.

Ni Wayan Lestari, Head-Foreign Trade, Bali Province Industry and Trade Office believes, this decline to be a result of the falling foreign demand. This decrease in demand was also followed by an increase in ship loading prices due to the scarcity of export containers, reports Indo Textiles

Meanwhile, nationally, the textile and textile product industry is still in a difficult condition. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded a 4.54 per cent Y-o-Y decline in textile and apparel exports during Q2 FY 2021 minus 4.54 percent yoy.

US-based retail technology company First Insight, Inc has released a highly detailed COVID-19 timeline infographic which depicts how consumer sentiment and the retail sector were affected by the spread of the pandemic.

As per Apparel Resources, the infographic was released as a part of First Insight’s ongoing series of consumer studies – “The Impact of Coronavirus on Consumer Purchase Decisions and Behaviors.”

This infographic shows in detail how various external events directly affected the American public’s overall likelihood and interest in returning to normal day-to-day activities, as well as the impact of the pandemic on retail.

According to First Insight, the infographic studies more than 11,000 respondents. The study was launched in February 2020 and the data collected through August 2021, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise due to the delta variant.

The findings are based on the results of US consumer studies of targeted samples of more than 500 or 1,000 respondents per survey, balanced by gender, geography and generation.

Swedish textile innovation brand Coloreel has bagged the prestigious Encouragement for Action award in the category for Fashion Innovation for its ground-breaking instant thread coloring technology for creative and sustainable embroideries.

Established by the Stockholm Fashion District, the award honors companies for their groundbreaking innovations and contribution to a more sustainable fashion industry. Coloreel uses the technology to both preserve the craftsmanship of embroidery and take embroidery to the next level. The unique solution makes previously complicated designs accessible, including gradients, textures and other stunning effects. Using only a single thread and needle means that it also significantly improves quality and efficiency, enabling immediate start up and faster delivery. In short, Coloreel empowers creativity and enhances quality and efficiency, making the ordinary extraordinary. In the future, the technology can also be used for sewing, knitting, weaving , etc.

Coloreel is also part of the movement to reduce waste and move the textile industry towards more sustainable production. By coloring the thread directly, there is no wastewater, hence no water pollution. And, using a single reel of thread and needle also means minimized thread waste and minimized microfiber pollution.

A leading Italian multinational group and a fashion retailer, The Benetton Group has adopted the unified commerce and in-store POS solutions offered by Cegid - a leading French company in cloud management solutions for the retail industry.

As per Apparel Resources, the retailer will use these solutions to support its United Colors of Benetton brands, Undercolors of Benetton and Sisley, in their development,

The collaboration between the two companies began in 2019 with four pilot stores and increased to 29 stores in 2020.

After successfully completing these projects, the Benetton Group has now decided to adopt and deploy Cegid’s solution for its entire network across 1,358 stores located in 23 countries.

The project will digitize the Group’s stores, equip sales staff with efficient tools and enable customers an effortless and state-of-the-art omnichannel in-store shopping experience using cloud platform of Cegid that’s dedicated to unified commerce and points of sale.

Bangladesh's export earnings grew by 14 per cent year-on-year in August this year following a more than 11 per cent slump a month ago.

Riding on apparel shipments, the country raked in $3.38 billion. However, the export earnings are still 8.84 per cent short of the monthly target of $3.71 billion, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

In July and August combined, the earnings declined by 0.31 per cent year-on-year, which was $6.87 billion in the same period last year and it remained 7.84 per cent below the export target of $7.44 billion for the period, said the EPB.

The readymade garment sector recorded an 11.56 per cent growth year-on-year last month with exports worth $2.75 billion, up from $2.46 billion last year. But the apparel sector's shipment slightly decreased by 1.27 per cent year-on-year to $5.64 billion in July and August in 2021.

Mohiuddin Rubel, Director, gladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said the growth in August was the result of shipments that had piled up due to factory closure on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha in July.

On the back of high yarn prices, knitwear exports grew by17.19 per cent growth, while woven garments exports increased by 4.48 per cent rise in August.

Hurt by a slowdown in its slowdown in its online as people shop more at physical stores, American Eagle Outfitters Inc its missed quarterly revenues estimates for Q2FY21. The company’s consolidated revenue from its physical stores increased by 73 per cent from a year earlier in the second quarter ended July 31.

The company's Aerie brand, which sells work-from-home favorites lingerie and lounge wear, posted a 34 per cent rise in revenue to $336 million, while American Eagle label sales jumped 35 per cent to $846 million.

Total net revenue jumped to $1.19 billion from $883.5 million a year earlier, missing analysts' average estimate of $1.23 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES.

Major retailers including Target Corp and Gap Inc have reported a slowdown in digital sales in their latest quarterly reports, although they remain higher compared with pre-pandemic levels.

World’s third largest importer of textiles and apparels (T&A), Japan’s imports in the category grew by 1.2 per cent CAGR from $35.37 billion in 2015 to $37.14 billion in 2019. Meanwhile, exports during the four-year period declined 0.3 per cent from $7.84 per cent in 2015 to $7.74 billion in 2019, as per the latest report Wazir Advisors.

Titled ‘Japan-The Key Asian Market of Textile and Apparel,’ under the Global Market Watch section of The Textile Magazine, the report reveals, China is the largest exporter of textiles and apparels to Japan with a 56 per cent share and export value worth $20.7. The second largest exporter is Vietnam with a market share of 14 per cent. It is followed by Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar shares of 4 per cent, 3 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

Apparel dominates Japan’s T&A imports

Apparel dominates Japan’s total T&A imports with 75 per cent share. The second largest imported category by Japan is other textiles encompassing home textiles, other non-cotton and non-MMF based textile materials, cotton textiles, and carpets with a share of 10 per cent, 9 per cent, 4 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. Cotton and manmade fibers items like jerseys, pullovers, cardigans, waistcoats, etc dominate Japan T&A imports.

India’s share in Japan’s total textile and apparel imports has remained constant at 1 per cent over the last five years. From 2015-2019, India’s T&A exports to Japan grew by 3 per cent to 0.49 billion in 2019. The most exported category from India is apparels with a 57 per cent share followed by cotton textiles, others, man-made textiles and carpets having a share of 21 per cent, 10 per cent, 7 per cent, and 5 per cent respectively.

New scheme to promote India’s MMF exports

Despite its low population, Japan remains the world’s third largest apparel importer. It has also emerged as a huge apparel market for India with exports of both cotton and MMF-based garments. Currently, India exports only cotton-based jerseys, T-shirts, shirts, jackets and dresses to Japan. However, it also has a huge opportunity to boost MMF exports to the country. The government’s recently launched Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI Scheme) will promote the production and export of MMF-based apparel from India. Alongwith with duty-free access to the Japanese market, the scheme will help catalyze India’s MMF-based garment exports to Japan.