A a new report from Textiles Intelligence ‘Compression wear and shapewear: supporting health and fitness’, reveals market for shapewear is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 4 per cent to to reach $1.1 billion.

Growth will be due in part to the increase in popularity of shapewear, particularly among young women, teenagers and men. For many of these consumers, physical appearance has taken on greater importance as a result of pressures associated with social media and a selfie culture.

Garments with body shaping properties have been shown to make such consumers feel more positive about their physical appearance. For example, a recent survey found that three out of every four women who participated in the survey reported that they felt much more confident when wearing shapewear.

The growth of the global shapewear market will also be due in part to the increasing popularity of shapewear among pop culture icons and celebrities. Product improvements and innovations will also spur the growth of the global shapewear market. Shapewear has been recently transformed by the use of seamless technologies. In cases where shapewear was once considered to be restrictive and unpleasant, it is now considered to be flattering, stylish and comfortable.

Bestseller has chosen six organisations to set up the Brand-Pulje community. These include Brand Taekwondo Club, Bondegarden Brande, Urban Street Zone, Brande Theatre Company, Verdenmiddag and Brande Street Art. In order to make its support of the Brande community more systematic, Bestseller has introduced a yearly window – from May 1 to June 1 – to apply for local sponsorships.

Applications will be judged on the impact they will have on Brande and surrounding towns, and whether the initiative will inspire pride amongst Bestseller colleagues.

Brande-pulje’ aims to support the projects and initiatives that will be most significant for both the local community and for Bestseller. By creating a sponsorship pool, which accepts applications once a year, the company will have the best chance to choose the right projects.

The 7th edition of Techtextil India 2019 will witness participation by over 160 exhibitors including international stakeholders like Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and China/Taiwan. Techtextil India is the leading international trade fair for technical textile and non-woven offering complete solutions of the entire value chain of 12 application areas from Agrotech to Sporttech which address all visitors’ target groups. Attracting investors from all over the country, the show will prove to be a lucrative platform for the international companies that will facilitate growth by enabling businesses and professionals to build trade relations, evaluate market trends and share technical expertise.

The show will open an array of opportunities during its schedule from November 20 – 22, 2019 at Bombay Exhibition Center, Mumbai. The conference will attract speakers and delegates representing the entire cross-section and stakeholders at a common platform, including the leading machinery manufacturers, raw material suppliers, fabric suppliers, the end-product manufacturers, consultants, startups/new entrepreneurs, investors, research and development companies, testing, and certification authorities and industry associations, major textile institutions, etc.

The show will also host the Techtextil India Symposium which is the premier forum for the technical textiles industry (including nonwovens and composites) bringing together top-level speakers, technical specialists and highly qualified professionals across the industry.

In 2018, PVH’s revenue was up eight per cent. The fashion giant is on the lookout for new brands, or a portfolio of brands, that it can layer on to its operating platform. PVH has done three major acquisitions: Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Warnaco, which owns the Calvin Klein Jeans and Underwear licenses. Currently, it has paid all the debts associated with these acquisitions.

US-based PVH Corp is the owner among others of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. The group has cut production of goods made in China for the US market. Three or four years ago, about 35 per cent of its production for the US was sourced from China. Next year, it is looking at something that’s closer to 10 per cent. PVH may raise the prices of certain products to compensate for inflationary pressures.

PVH’s business is strongly anchored in the US, where in 2018 it generated 46 per cent of its sales, but the group is reorganising itself in the US market. Tommy Hilfiger has been working to boost its appeal in China, engineering double-digit growth in the country in 2018. Asia accounts for 12 per cent of the group’s sales.

Bangladesh is looking forward to signing a Free Trade Area (FTA) with the US. Bangladesh hopes to benefit from the FTA. Readymade garment products made in Bangladesh currently attract a 15 per cent duty on an average in order to enter the US market. Because Bangladesh only imports capital machinery from the US, whose duty are comparatively low, by signing an FTA, the benefits which Bangladesh will be gaining will be obviously more.

Bangladesh has failed to get back the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) facility from the US. GSP was suspended for Bangladesh in 2013 during the Rana Plaza collapse. After that, various human rights and safety issues have become a barrier in the relationship between Bangladesh and the USA. Bangladesh was confident significant progress had been made regarding workplace safety and workers’ rights. It tried convincing US decision makers that any previous worries should no longer prevent new trading ventures being created. The US remains Bangladesh’s largest export market. Bangladesh's exports to the US have doubled in the last ten years.

GSP is a US trade initiative designed to stimulate growth in emerging economies. This is achieved by offering duty free exports. Over the years, a number of countries have been suspended from GSP as they have failed to maintain GSP requirements. In most cases, countries regain their status once they take steps to address the issues.

ATE has tied up with Card-Monroe Corp, (CMC), USA to market tufting machines in India. Located in Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA), CMC has been manufacturing and supplying tufting machines to the global carpet industry for over 35 years, expanding their installed base to 37 countries. The company manufactures state-of-the-art tufting machines of all types, allowing their customers to choose a machine that meets their exact needs. Its R&D department is focused on improving its machines’ carpet designing capabilities, quality, run-ability, and productivity.

A team of qualified service engineers are available worldwide for set-ups and services of new and existing tufting machines. A full-fledged training centre allows customers to learn about the optimal operation and maintenance of CMC tufting machines.

ATE has over 80 years of experience in the Indian textile industry and is a domain expert in the manufacturing of a wide range of textiles, providing end-to-end solutions. The company is uniquely positioned to support and supply all the equipment needed for carpet manufacturing; right from BCF yarn production line from Truetzschler, carpet yarn heat setting line from Power Heat Set, digital printing from Zimmer, carpet back coating from Yamuna, carpet shearing from XetmaVollenweider, carpet confection lines from Matthys Group, and robotic tufting from EFAB. With this partnership, ATE brings yet another innovative technology to the Indian carpet manufacturing industry, which will help carpet manufacturers gain a competitive edge.

Karnataka’s new textile and garment policy has identified five thrust sectors: spinning, weaving, integrated units, processing, and technical textiles.

The policy will provide a stimulus to the textile industry to project Karnataka as the garment capital of India and achieve higher and sustainable growth in the textile value chain. A centre of excellence for textile and technical textiles will be established during the policy period. The budget outlay will be utilised to provide capital subsidy, interest subsidy, power subsidy, wage subsidy, skill development support, stamp duty reimbursement, ESI and EPF subsidy, and infrastructure development. The policy will also give importance to units investing in rapier looms, air jet looms, and electronic jacquard.

To boost conversion of cotton production into yarn preparation, special focus would be given to units investing in spinning mill manufacturing higher count and compact yarn. North Karnataka produces nearly 40 lakh bales of cotton a year. However, spinning mills consume only ten per cent of the cotton grown and the rest is sold to spinning mills of neighboring states. The new policy envisages a capital subsidy to modernise spinning mills with the latest spindle technologies to achieve lower energy production; encourage units to use non-conventional sources of power by providing concessional rates; and skill development support to develop need-based skills for spinning.

Global Fashion Agenda hosted an event in Copenhagen to explore how local municipalities can be more involved in circular fashion systems. The event gathered a diverse group of participants – ranging from waste collectors to fashion companies to local municipalities – who discussed the collaborative solutions needed to reach future sustainability goals.

One of the core topics discussed was how regulators in the EU are introducing new legislation on clothing waste and recycling. One directive requires EU member states to set up schemes by 2025 that ensure textiles are collected as a separate waste stream. Moving forward, local municipalities will play a pertinent role in the transition to a circular fashion. The lack of markets for recycled materials has proven to be a hurdle for companies that have set goals of only using recycled or sustainably sourced materials by a certain date. One suggestion called for investments in the markets for recycled materials in order to make waste collection economically viable and incentivise private textile collectors. Designers were urged to create circular designs and stakeholders within the value chain were reminded to take the recycling processes into account.

One presentation showed how using textile waste for non-woven materials such as insulation and acoustic panels in the construction industry allows other industries to benefit from recycled textiles.

One of India’s premier sourcing events, Apparel Sourcing Week (ASW), recently opened its online visitor registration and the response has been outstanding. In less than a week of going live, over 500 visitors have registered to visit the show. Expectations are really high form the upcoming edition as the show is bigger and also has many new features to keep the visitors engaged. The second edition of the 3-day event – to be hosted in Bengaluru from February 20 to 22, 2020, will be in line with the vision to become the ‘Go-To Sourcing Platform’ for retailers and brands looking for apparel manufacturers from the Asian region. While the previous edition boasted of more than 3,000 visitors attending the show for a period of 2 days, ASW 2020 remains confident about hosting even more visitors, keeping in view the vastness of the upcoming show and the interest being generated well in advance.ASW 2020 will not only open the doors to around 100 manufacturers from India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and China, but will also have a specially designed accessory and fabric section, featuring around 50 innovative companies.

The enthusiasm is heating up for ASW 2020 because not only the exhibitor expanse been increased, but also the visitation of the event will be beyond Indian and international retailers/brands working in the market to include buyers from traditional markets like USA and Europe, as also the non-traditional markets like China, Japan and Australia, where we believe it leads the future.The second edition’s potpourri will give visitors access to 6 seminars, 6 workshops and 8 open house discussions on new and current topics amongst a reputed panel of experts. In addition, there will be 4 vendor sessions – 2 each from global retailers and Indian retailers. To support larger buyer visitation, an international buyer’s program has especially been created to invite and host 200 international buyer delegates who will be accorded special privileges and will be made to visit all the manufacturers.

Significantly, these buyers and visitors from across categories will be attending India’s biggest sourcing event, become part of its US $ 45 billion market.CEOs; designers; sourcing heads and sourcing teams of Indian and international retailers and brands from the UK, Europe, Australia, and Japan; buying houses in the Southeast Asian countries, sourcing for global brands and retailers; wholesalers and importers from across the world looking at importing products from Southeast Asian countries; manufacturing firms looking at collaborations with other manufacturers are invited to register for ASW ’20.Since the entry to the fair is by invitation only, we would require the visitors to complete the registration process which will give an access code to a login that will unlock a host of facilities including seminar slots, workshop slots, networking dinner, fashion show, and awards, among other things.

"As per Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh RMG exports have grown 10.55 per cent in FY 19 to contribute 84.2 per cent to the country’s total exports of $40.53 billion. In the last five years, the country’s RMG exports added $10 billion growing on average 2 billion each year. Though this growth rate is impressive it still falls short of $50 billion target set by the government by 2021."

As per Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh RMG exports have grown 10.55 per cent in FY 19 to contribute 84.2 per cent to the country’s total exports of $40.53 billion. In the last five years, the country’s RMG exports added $10 billion growing on average 2 billion each year. Though this growth rate is impressive it still falls short of $50 billion target set by the government by 2021.

In the beginning of the year, the government had projected a single digit growth. However, it later revised this to double digits. If the sector grows at an average rate of 10 per cent in the upcoming two fiscal years, the total RMG exports will be worth $37.54 billion in 2019-20 and $41.29 billion in 2020-21.

Price fall, internal chaos affecting competitiveness

Bangladesh’s RMG exports to the EU increased 10.58 per cent to about $19.62 billion in FY 18. Exports to the US grew 2.85 per cent while to Canada it went up 1.78 per cent. This growth was mainly driven by factors like movement of buyers to other RMG destinations like Vietnam and India and increased facilities to the RMG sector in several Asian nations. However, gradual fall in prices in importing nations and internal chaos are affecting competitiveness of RMG exporters especially in the US and Canada because Bangladesh does not have any trade benefit there like GSP in EU.

Exports to non-traditional markets grow

Bangladesh’s garment exports to non-traditional markets rose to $4.67 billion from $4.24 billion growing at around 10 per cent year-on-year in the current fiscal due to positive government policies awarding 4 per cent cash incentives on export to non-traditional markets. Also, due to the duty-free market access in Japan and China. The emerging markets include: Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey. EPB and BGMEA data shows, exports to these markets in the current fiscal year grew by 36.21 percent year-on-year to $2.90 billion

Infrastructure, labor, innovation need attention

Though an 11.49 per cent RMG’s export growth is very encouraging; there are some challenges for achieving the target by 2021. These include: poor infrastructure, inadequate supply of energy, lack of skilled manpower, bureaucratic issue and low product diversification and lack of co-operative industrialisation. Bangladesh needs to pay attention on specific areas like factory remediation, infrastructure development, labor productivity, innovation, train up and counseling the worker to sustain the growth.

Focus on top export destinations

Another key challenge for garment manufacturers is to maintain a shorter lead time within Fast Trend Fashion. If Bangladesh is not able to maintain a strict lead time, buyers are likely to move to alternative destinations like Vietnam. The new imposed gas tariff is also another big challenge that the sector faces as it increases the production cost further. To achieve its export target by 2021, Bangladesh needs to focus on the top export destinations like the US which is still the largest single country RMG export destination for Bangladesh by contributing 17 per cent of its garments exports. RMG manufacturers also need to focus on an investment for ‘Branding RMG’ to make positive images of RMG industry of Bangladesh.

Market, product diversification to sustain growth

Industrialists will have to focus on diversified high value added production and technical textiles like agro- tech, geo-tech, medi-tech, sportswear, suit and swimming wear etc. with innovative modern technology and equipment, proceeding to automate each stage.

Though the positive growth of RMG exports creates hope for better days in the upcoming future, depending only on this industry can be a dangerous phenomenon for Bangladesh economy. To sustain growth, the country needs to adopt strategies to diversify not just its products but also the market which will help it to offer more solutions to the industry needs.