The US-based lifestyle clothing and accessories retailer, American Eagle, intends to launch 60 to 75 stores in 2019 to promote its Aerie lingerie brand. The retailer presently operates 1,055 outlets comprising standalone and side-by-side locations. It reportedly earned $431 million in the last quarter, an increase of 1 per cent from previous year’s earnings. Its total net sales too jumped 1 per cent to $1.24 billion.

American Eagle and Aerie will continue giving a consistent performance through their combination of product innovation and great merchandise with an enhanced customer experience across channels.

Cotton On Group in partnership with CARE Australia has developed a bespoke program aiming to develop the skills of female garment workers, with the goal of advancing their careers. The two-year pilot project will involve 2,200 garment factory workers, particularly women, in key supplier factories in Bangladesh. Through this program, the companies will undergo a unique training carried out in consultation with garment workers and factory owners. The training extends to supporting the management and line supervisors of the participating factories to shape their role in creating an enabling environment for women workers.

The project aims to increase the number of women garment workers in leadership roles in the participating factories. This initiative across three garment factories in Bangladesh will contribute to CARE’s global goal to improve the working lives of eight million women in Asia by 2021.

The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) will hold a fashion forecast seminar in Tirupur on March 27, 2019. The seminar will focus on fashion forecasting for micro and small knitwear units and on key influences for the upcoming season as well as the emergence of macro trend themes. Trending colors, silhouettes, textiles, graphics, and prints for women, men, and children will also be covered at the event with a strong focus on products.

Unlike large apparel companies who have their own fashion studios and expertise to analyse future trends, micro and small units cannot afford the infrastructure. The seminar will help them get an idea of color, styles and trends. The event is open to fashion designers, brand promoters, consultants, and students.

Incorporated in 1978, AEPC is the official body of apparel exporters in India that provides assistance to Indian exporters as well as importers/ international buyers who choose India as their preferred sourcing destination for garments. AEPC has worked tirelessly in integrating the entire industry - starting from training the workforce and supplying a steady stream of manpower to the industry; identifying the best countries to source machinery and other infrastructure and brokering several path breaking deals for its members and finally helping exporters to showcase their best at home fairs as well as international fairs.

Yarn Expo will be held in China, March 12 to 14, 2019. The event will feature 468 exhibitors from 12 countries and regions, including new exhibitors from Egypt and France. Together with leading suppliers from Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, the US, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, they will showcase products from around the world.

The broad range of products on offer includes natural cotton, linen and wool, as well as extensive options for fancy yarn, functional fibers and other specialty yarns – meaning, buyers from all backgrounds can meet their sourcing needs at Yarn Expo. The fair has developed a strong reputation for gathering high-quality suppliers. It’s this access to reputable upstream suppliers that attracts visitors who want to place orders for stand-out products.

The show will also offer a springboard for exhibitors to capture the potential of the China market. Cotton Council International will showcase its global network of Cotton USA yarn licensees at the fair, creating opportunities for domestic visitors to source US cotton. CCI can link Chinese manufacturers with spinners anywhere in the world. CCI offers access to its sustainable Cotton USA licensed spinners.

The fair will be held along with four concurrent events, including Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics.

Levis Strauss has produced hemp denim. The spring/summer collection includes a new denim blend which is made with hemp that has been altered to feel just like cotton. Hemp requires far less water and land in the growing phase and has roughly half the carbon footprint of conventionally grown cotton. The coarse feel of hemp prevented it from being widely adopted in the apparel industry. But now the US jean giant has been employing a process specially developed by fiber technology specialists that softens the hemp, giving it a look and feel that is almost indistinguishable from cotton.

The garments in the collection comprise jeans and a trucker jacket made with a 70/30 cotton to cottonise the hemp blend. The hemp was sourced from a rain-fed hemp crop thus reducing the water used in fiber cultivation by roughly 30 per cent. In addition to this, the collection features single-fiber board shorts that are made with fully recyclable nylon with materials such as fabric, eyelets, core and stitching also made from nylon which can be further recycled and re-made into other nylon garments.

Also Levi’s Wellthread X Outerknown collection also includes a T-shirt made from recycled jeans and a western shirt made with a cotton/hemp blend.

Nigeria has banned forex for textile importers. The aim is to help bolster the local textile industry. The ban may lead to a reduction in burden on foreign reserves and a reduction in forex demand. That is the major benefit to the country as consumers will pay higher prices for products they had hitherto paid less for.

The Nigerian textile industry is a potential major revenue earner and a major employer of labor considering the local availability of the major raw material, cotton, and the chemicals needed for production, mainly by-products of petroleum.

However, there are challenges in the form of poor infrastructure, mainly power. Also, imports from Asian countries have taken over the market. The feeling is forex restriction for textile imports will not have much effect as importers will continue to import textiles by sourcing for forex through secondary forex markets and through privately arranged international money transfers. The restriction may rather increase the price of imported textile materials and the price burden has to be borne by ultimate consumers. Further forex restriction is not seen as a ban on textile materials but a not-valid-for-export regime, which is not likely to protect local textile manufacturers.

Apparel manufacturers in India are switching a percentage of their production to organic following gradual rise in consumer demand. The United States and Europe are major markets for organic apparels for Indian textile manufacturers. Textile units are gradually increasing their production of organic and sustainable products with eyes set on both overseas and local niche market. Every year they are increasing the procurement of organic cotton from farmers to meet increasing demand.

According to apparel manufacturers, India is a niche market for organic clothes but countries like Europe and US are rapidly switching to organic, especially in women and kidswear. However, despite increasing demand in overseas market, resistance by brands in increasing prices for organic products is hitting margins of manufacturers.

Industry experts says, cost of manufacturing organic apparels is about 5 per cent higher than normal due to higher cost of procurement, certification and other charges. They said high competition from other manufacturing countries and negligible scope to hike prices in international market is hitting profitability of textile mills.

India plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on nearly 30 products imported from the US. These products include walnuts, chickpeas and chemical goods. The move will impose an additional tariff burden of $290 million on US imports. These tariffs were initially planned to be enforced last year after the US increased duties on steel and aluminium imports .

While the removal of trade benefits under the GSP programme was predicted to hurt nearly $5.6 billion worth of Indian exports, India‘s commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan has stated that the damage would be minimal, impacting only few of the trade benefits. India’s tariffs on the US could go into effect from April 1, 2019.

India may be able to export 50 lakh cotton bales. As of today Indian cotton quality wise rate is ruling from Rs 40,000 to Rs 42,000 per candy for 27 mm to 29 mm cotton. At this rate Indian cotton is the cheapest cotton available in the world due to which there is a good demand for Indian cotton from across the world. Since the past many years India has been a net cotton exporting country.

This year, cotton sowing in India was done in around 123 lakh hectares. But rainfall has not been satisfactory. States like Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra have had a rain deficit. Hence, this year there will be no third and fourth pickings in most of these cotton growing states. Maharashtra and Telangana advised farmers to remove cotton plants by December 31 to avoid pink ball worm problems. Because there will be no third, fourth or fifth pickings in India, there will be a big drop in Indian cotton crop figures this year.

Against this year’s crop size of 328 lakh bales up to February 28, 2019, 213.42 lakh bales of cotton have arrived in the market, which is 65 per cent of the total crop size.

International Garment Fair Association will organise Source Zone 2019 coinciding with 63rd IIGF from July 01 to 16, 2019 at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida.  The event will consolidate garment exporters to source inputs like fabric, trimming amd embellishments, which are important components for enhancing the value addition in garments, directly from the manufacturers. The event aims to bring together garment manufacturers and suppliers of apparel fabrics, trimming, and embellishment all under one roof.

International Garment Fair Association along with AEPC and three major garment exporters' associations;  The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), Garment Exporters and Manufacturers Association (GEMA), and Garment Exporters Association of Rajasthan (GEAR) has been organising India International Garment Fair (IIGF) since 1988.  It is a specialised bi-annual fair – one organised during January for Autumn/Winter & second one in the month of July for Spring/Summer season every year. IIGF is globally recognised as one of the leading fairs for the Indian garment export industry.