Home Textiles Sourcing Expo will be held in the US from July 22 to 24, 2019 alongside Texworld USA and Apparel Sourcing USA. The show will showcase home products in over nine categories, including bed, bath, table linen, floor coverings, window, fabrics, kitchen linen, walls, as well as design and technology. Textile industry experts will share facts about the soft home textiles business in America. The expo will feature a wide variety of exhibitors and countries, including China, Korea, Turkey, Hong Kong, and India. This year’s show also welcomes Poland and Turkmenistan for the first time.

The Expo will address some hard questions of how to remain sustainable in the textile supply chain and how to prepare companies to adapt. Panelists will share insights on consumer hot-button issues, how consumers are integrating sustainable products into healthy lifestyles, how leading suppliers are addressing the changes, and much more. Leaders from Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) will share their perspective on validation of organic claims while meeting corporate social responsibility goals. Attendees can learn about US regulations for organic textile labelng and how to use GOTS to substantiate organic claims and retain customers’ trust.

A technical textile conference and exhibition will be held in New Delhi, July 12, 2019. The one-day conference and exhibition on “Opportunities In High Growth Segments of Technical Textiles” is being jointly organized by ITTA with North India Section of The Textile Institute (NISTI). The objective of the conference and exhibition is to create awareness among delegates on the latest product innovations, foster knowledge and ideas for new investments, enhance the knowledge base and initiate the process of product development, creating a B2B and B2G platform for the technical textile industry, create opportunities for the industry to showcase its products and capabilities and showcase new technical textile products by Indian manufacturers and generate business. The event intends to highlight knowledge about the latest global innovations in new technology and product development in high potential segments of technical textiles through nonwovens, weaving, knitting and processing technologies, and to benefit all the stakeholders.

Conference topics will include latest product innovations in different technical textile segments with a major focus on the Meditech, Protech, Mobiltech and structural composites. Besides, there will be an emphasis on innovations in technology, machinery, functional finishing chemicals, novel technologies developed for commercialization by R&D institutions, avenues for investment in technical textiles and panel discussion.

Technical textile products are being put to use by an ever-increasing number of end users in diversified industries such as agriculture, construction, roads, railways, health care, transportation, packaging, sports, environmental protection, protective wear and more. These have an immense scope and potential in India.

H. Stoll AG & Co. KG will present its latest innovations and developments within the fields of fashion, technology, technical textiles and knit wear at ITMA Barcelona 2019. The company will showcase its new knitelligence® machine generation at the event. Furthermore it will showcase a production process -knitelligence® and STOLL-knitrobotic®.

The new knitelligence® machine generation is tailored to the specific needs of the digital world. It facilitates work through process automation, more transparency, shorter response times, shorter production cycles, and higher productivity. Based on knitelligence® and the latest innovation, STOLL-knitrobotic® is a fully automated production process which allows visitors to take home a finished knitwear piece with an individualised motif as a souvenir.

The new STOLL Trend Collection exemplifies and impressively demonstrates the variety of materials that the STOLL technology supports. In addition to the commercially available yarns, STOLL also works with unusual yarns for the knitting industry that represent a solution to a major challenge of flat knitting technology. These yarns include used plastic bags, silver foil, and jute bags that have been utilized to knit luxury products – the inspiration here being the concept of up-cycling.

In the sector of Technical Textiles, STOLL will showcase demanding technical applications on the CMS 530 ki W in the gauge E7.2. Other technical applications to be presented by STOLL at the exhibition will include TT home, TT med, TT mobility, TT e-tex and TT sport.

In field of knit and wear STOLL will present the ADF 830-24 ki W knit and wear and CMS 830 ki knit and wear. The ADF 830-24 ki W knit and wear offers greater flexibility in coloring and patterning – providing greater productivity. This ADF offers the entire spectrum of technology and functionality in the knit and wear range.

The second machine in the knitwear sector is the CMS 830 ki knitwear machine. This is a high-performance, basic machine with an excellent price-performance ratio. In addition to standard techniques, it offers demanding patterns such as the French shoulder. One of its features include the enhancement of the intarsia capability. The CMS 830 ki knit and wear offers the gauge E9.2. This machine is the economical entry-level machine for flexible use, both for conventional production and knit and wear divisions.

There has been a rise in garment exports from Bangladesh to India. Before GST, Indian importers had to pay a countervailing duty of about five percent to seven percent, which drove up the costs of these garments. With GST having subsumed this duty, apparel from Bangladesh has become cheaper for Indian importers by five per cent to seven per cent. Also, Bangladesh has the advantage of having lower minimum wages than those in India. This has the effect of reducing the cost of production and making clothing cheaper. Another factor which makes Bangladesh competitive is the fact that it enjoys duty free imports of fabrics and garments from China. The availability of cheaper fabric, too, brings down manufacturing costs. Lastly, India has a lot of small production units and factories. So if retailers want to procure 1,00,000 pieces, they’ll have to source them from several Indian garment producers, whereas they can procure the same easily in Bangladesh by placing the order to one or two firms.

The US and the EU together comprise 65 per cent of the market for Indian apparel exporters. There’s also a lot of potential that can be tapped in Japan, Australia, South America and the Middle East.

Hyosung has developed Creora ActiFit spandex. Multi-sport apparel made with Creora ActiFit spandex gives athletes the confidence they need to focus on their sport and not be bothered by what they are wearing. The spandex provides long-lasting durability, UV and chlorine resistance, and superior recovery required of cycling, swimming, triathlon and adventure racing apparel where athletes can encounter numerous environmental surroundings – whether it be salt water, intense sun or a rocky crag.

Previously, there were clear lines between ready-to-wear, sportswear and outdoor wear, but now there are no boundaries among them. People want both fashion and function. This trend has led outdoor brands to make fashionable outerwear designed for commuters and fashion brands to add function to daily wear – and even luxury-fashion apparel. It also led Hyosung to create its new Creora ActiFit spandex.

Hyosung is a Korean fiber and yarn company. Hyosung is the largest elastane producer in the world and first developed its own process for manufacturing spandex in 1992. Creora is a brand belonging to Hyosung. Hyosung offers a broad range of high quality, competitively-priced fiber technologies throughout the global apparel value chain. The spandex range includes Creora dyeable spandex, Creora black spandex and Creora fresh spandex.

For the first quarter, Guess’ revenues were up three per cent compared to the previous-year quarter. Sales in Americas were the strongest of the geographic areas, with retail revenues climbing three per cent and retail comps including e-commerce up four per cent during the quarter. Revenues in Europe inched up 2.2 per cent, but Asia only saw sales growth of 1.4 per cent. In the long term, China is still considered a revenue growth area even though business has been slow there. Guess has stores in 34 of the top 60 cities in China, and 90 per cent are directly operated.

Retail sales including e-commerce decreased 15 per cent. The company’s e-commerce sales make up 12 per cent of its revenues. Guess is taking action to mitigate potential tariffs, from cost sharing with its suppliers to shifting sourcing to other countries. The company is raising prices if the product can deliver and offsetting cost increases with other cost-saving initiatives. Denim will be a focal point in this summer’s marketing campaign, and there will be more denim in the stores this summer and fall. The brand has a number of key products including denim, accessories, and men’s. To better serve the customer, the company is creating two design teams to manage its contemporary label Marciano.

Exporters in Pakistan want to be paid their sales tax claims in 60 days. They say their money is used as part of a tax revenue collection effort. Consultations with exporters are ongoing on all issues including taxation, tariffs and gas and power pricing. Inputs are being solicited from all stakeholders and a decision will be taken in the coming days.

Pakistan may have a reduced sales tax rate of 7.5 per cent — instead of the standard rate of 17 per cent — across the textile value chain, starting from the spinning sector. The abolition of the zero-rating regime also affects four other industries —surgical instruments, sports goods, carpets and leather goods. Small and medium sized exporters fear the discontinuation of the zero-rating facility will ruin them.

Pakistan is under immense pressure from the International Monetary Fund to remove tax exemptions to increase revenues. The Fund wants Pakistan to withdraw the facility in the forthcoming budget as part of the deal. Both the IMF and Pakistan are of the view that the facility has been misused by the industry to steal sales tax on their domestic sales. The Fund also wants incentives to exporters to be withdrawn and focus be given on boosting exports through the market-driven exchange rate.

Digitization has entered the supply chain of the fashion sector.

This opens the door to new metrics, the simplification of processes and greater coordination with the rest of the actors. Digitization implies the incorporation of new systems in factories. Digitizing the supply chain implies accelerating personalization, traceability and transparency. One major digital challenge is traceability: the union of all points of an ultra-fragmented value chain. Traceability involves migrating to more flat and digitized chains that allow distribution groups to have control. Each of the links in the chain has to give value to suppliers, manufacturers, traders, purchasing agents and logistics. The data will not only help make internal measurements but also to unite different actors of the value chain.

Access to data and its management allows the relationship between the consumer, the brand and suppliers to be much narrower and more individualized. The idea is for brands to adapt their products to users who are looking for more and more specific information. Technology ensures macro to become micro without repercussion on speed or cost.

One of the technological pillars of this new model is the application of programming interfaces, systems connectors that exchange the information of a company with its suppliers.

Consumers the world over plan to switch brands if another brand acts more environmentally.

But the fashion industry is still far from sustainable. Fashion companies are not implementing sustainable solutions fast enough to counterbalance the negative environmental and social impacts of the rapidly growing fashion industry. Companies in the first quartile slowed in their trajectory this year due to increased challenges in scaling up proven measures into deeper tiers of their supply chains, in inventing and scaling transformative technologies and in achieving tangible results from collaborative initiatives. The required resources, capabilities, funding and advanced technologies in the aforementioned areas are not yet fully established.

Nevertheless, efforts are visible. Companies are investing in supplier relationships, supply chain traceability, an improved material mix and changes to their business model towards circularity. In the third performance quartile he largest year-on-year improvements were mainly driven by small mid-price and medium-entry-price players by adopting sustainable strategy development and governance, by setting targets in energy, chemicals and water savings, and by aligning association affiliations.

The fashion industry must overcome its roadblocks to achieve more substantial improvements that lead to a systemic change. Solving the challenges of scaling and innovating disruptive technologies is a necessity for future progress.

Bangladesh’s sweater manufacturers are switching over to an automated production system. The main purpose is to grab the growing demand for value-added items. Also because complexities over worker payments are being faced by the knits segment and automation is taking place. An automated jacquard machine is not only able to produce diversified and fashionable products, it can also fabricate critical designs, not possible with the manual ones. Though automation results in job loss, it increases productivity, helps produce more designed-based sweaters with embroidery and value-addition. While a manual machine costs $300 to $700 dollars, an automated jacquard machine ranges between $2,000 to $30,000. While a manual machine needs one operator and can produce a maximum of five pieces a day, an automatic machine, operated by a single operator, can produce about 30 pieces a day.

Bangladesh has about 786 sweater factories, employing around 7,00,000 workers. Sweaters are among the top five readymade garment exports of Bangladesh. Jerseys, pullovers, cardigans and waistcoats are the major items shipped to the European Union, the US and Canada. France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain and Poland are the major EU markets while Japan and Russia are the potential non-traditional markets for sweaters.