The 10th Intex India, the premier international textiles sourcing show of South Asia, will be held in Hall 3GF, Pragati Maidan New Delhi from December 8 to 10, 2022. This year, alongside the exhibition, Intex India will hosted RBSM which is jointly organised by FICCI Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry under the aegis of Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.

Since 2015, Intex India has connected 35,000+ buyers from 15+ countries to 1350+ textile suppliers and has empowered industry players to explore new business opportunities and expand business globally making Intex India the annual calendar event for South Asia’s textile & apparel industry.

The Indian economy is a bright spot in the world with a GDP estimated to grow 6.5% in 2022-23 as per the World Bank and to grow 6-7% in 2023-24. This bodes well for a country where 60% of GDP is fuelled by private consumption. The booming Indian textile & apparel industry is fuelled by India’s 800+ million youth aged between 13 to 35 years who are driving industry growth making India the 6th-largest fashion marketplace in the world. Demand is expected to propel India’s $54 billion apparel & fashion retail industry to $118 billion by 2028 and fuel the domestic textile & apparel market to touch $220 billion by FY26 from $106 billion in FY20.

To keep accelerating the positive growth in the textiles and apparel industry in India for domestic and export markets, Intex India will showcase 100+ Indian and international textile suppliers of Fibres, Yarns, Apparel Fabrics, Denim Fabrics, Clothing Accessories, Dyes & Chemicals, Software & ERP Solutions, Colour & Textile Trends Studio and other allied and support services for the textile and apparel industryfrom Belarus, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Italy, USA, South Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & others. The show fulfils the growing demand for innovative, fashion and sustainable textiles inIndia.

Mayank Tiwari, Founder & CEO of ReshaMandi, the official online sourcing partner of Intex India 2022 said, “Intex India is South Asia region's leading and most successful international textiles sourcing show. ReshaMandi, as India's first digital platform for the natural fibre supply chain from farm to retail, is proud to be the online sourcing partner for this expo. We invite you to come and explore ReshaMandi's sustainable offerings in yarns, fabrics, apparel, home and living and lifestyle accessories and look forward to seeing you at the 10th Intex India in Delhi from 8th to 10th December, 2022."

Arti Bhagat, Executive Director of Worldex India and organiser of Intex India said, “It has been a wonderful journey so far. Since 2015, we have organised 9 successful shows across the most relevant South Asian textile markets of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and now looking forward to the 10th edition in New Delhi, India. As an organiser, we are determined to bring a fresh wave of opportunities for manufacturers and buyers from domestic as well as international markets to connect with each other on this platform.”

This year, Intex India would also be organising the renowned Interactive Business Forum (IBF) Seminar Series and ‘Trendz Now’ – the colour, fabric and fashion forecast showcase by Italtex Italy and Pantone / X-Rite Asia Pacific Limited alongside Intex India, thus creating a premium B2B and world-class international textile sourcing platform. Also, there are buyers’ delegations attending from major cities across India as well as overseas buyers from 18+ countries and regions will be attending the show for their textile sourcing requirements and exploring new business opportunities in India through our international trade platform.

Cotton is the most used natural fiber. Cotton originates from the Arabic word quton, meaning fancy fabric. This is a staple fiber made up of short fibers twisted together to form yarn.Cotton is present in our everyday life, from clothes to coffee strainers, and more recently in masks to control the spread of Covid.

Currently, approximately half of all textiles require cotton fibers.The earliest production of cotton was around 5000 BC in India, and today around 25 million tons of cotton are produced each year.

Currently, five countries make up around 75 per cent of global cotton production, with China being the world’s biggest producer. The country is responsible for over 23 per cent of global production, with approximately 89 million cotton farmers and part-time workers.

Cotton’s importance cannot be understated, as it is the primary input for the Chinese textile industry along with many other nations’ textile industries.The United States is the leading global exporter of cotton, exporting three-fourths of its crop with China as the top buyer.

Despite its importance for the global economy, cotton production faces significant sustainability challenges. Cotton is one of the largest users of water among all agricultural commodities, and production often involves applying pesticides that threaten soil and water quality.

Orissa is inviting investors for textile and apparel.

The aim is to facilitate setting up of apparel units, parks, skill development centers and more. Investors can get a capital grant of 20 per cent for projects costing up to Rs 20 crores and interest-free loans up to ten percent with a maximum limit of Rs 10 crores.

For attracting investment in the textile and apparel industry, the state has ensured ready availability of developed land with adequate infrastructure in several textile parks, skilled manpower by setting up centers of excellence along with the creation of new mega parks, lowering the cost of production and logistics and encouraging new entrants through startups. For meeting the manpower demand, the state has planned to set up various institutes to create trained and certified workers. A World Skills Center recently opened in partnership with Asian Development Bank and the Institute of Technical Education Services, Singapore, will help in creating more skilled manpower.

A Petroleum, Chemical, and Petrochemical Investment Region is aimed at attracting investment in the chemical and petrochemicals sector. An upcoming technical textile park will provide state-of-the-art facilities and best-in-class facilitation and will be close to two major ports like Paradip and Dhamra.

The fast fashion market is growing at four per cent a year.

Fast fashion is an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers. Fast fashion is clothing designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantage of trends.

Fast fashion has three main components from the consumer’s perspective. It’s cheap, it’s trendy and it’s disposable. The fast fashion industry plays a huge role in the global economy. It employs 300 million people around the world.The increasing adoption of affordable clothes by the rising youth population is driving the market’s revenue. Other factors are a growing youth population and the expansion of emerging economies. The growing demand for trendy and stylish clothing coupled with the rising per capita disposable income of consumers is the major factor driving the market growth. The increasing innovations in supply chain management are driving the market growth.

Women hold the largest share of the fast fashion market. North America is the fastest growing region in the fast fashion market. The growing demand for stylish and original clothing drives the region’s market growth. The US is the largest market supporting the growth of fast fashion. Asia Pacific also presents lucrative prospects.

In 2014, when Mark Zukerberg acquired the virtual reality platform Oculus for Facebook, no one knew what would follow. Leap forward by seven years and October 28, 2021 saw Facebook Metaverse launched. This virtual platform was the opening up of Pandora’s Box, in a good way. The myriad possibilities of creativity that presented itself on this virtual world seemed to know no bounds.

Metaverse, new way forward for fashion

The avant-garde fashion retail leaders recognized the Metaverse for its worth. As Gucci’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer Robert Triefus states in the just released ‘The State of Fashion 2023’ McKinsey & Company and The Business of Fashion states there are more and more ‘second worlds’ where people can express themselves but brands have probably not yet understood the value attached to such individuals who want to express themselves outside the box. That’s where a virtual world with virtual products comes to play.

Triefus states, Gucci was quick on the uptake of Metaverse as a platform to engage with its customers – Gucci Garden was created within the Roblox gaming Metaverse and experience 19 million visitors. Other fashion retail marketers witnessed Gucci’s success story and are eyeing the $176 billion gaming industry with over three billion players worldwide as the perfect platform for building their communities and keeping them constantly engaged. The commitment to gaming by gamers is becoming increasingly their real world and the pandemic-lockdown was when this phenomenon surged right through the roof. American fashion retailer Ralph Lauren jumped in with South Korean social network app Zepeto and created a virtual fashion collection for users to dress their personal avatars in exclusive apparel and appearance altering skins.

Digital fashion retail just begins

For many fashionistas, digital fashion is just an organic extension of applying social media filters like they do on their Snapchat and Instagram accounts according to Simon Windsor, Cofounder and Joint Managing Director, Dimension Studio, an agency that worked with Balenciaga on its video game. Windsor reinforces with Metaverse, fashion retail is at its tipping point as it leads the way fashion will be interpreted and accepted. Fashion retail has understood just how big a game changer the Metaverse is going to be. AI and AR have already been used to showcase 360 degree views of products on many online sites of fashion retail brands to present their seasonal collections and avatars of models have strutted virtual catwalks in all 3D glory.

NFTs will become the ultimate bespoke item

Meanwhile, the McKinsey-BOF report also states Nonfungible tokens, popularly known as NFTs has seen a huge surge of interest, one of the most sought after virtual assets. These unique crypto assets are blockchain authenticated and verified before purchase. NFTs are bought, sold and exchanged on the Metaverse, and often with cryptocurrency.

Beeple, the digital artist on Metaverse (his real name is Mike Winklemann) sold an NFT at a Christie’s online auction for a record-breaking $69.3 million. Marketing experts feel that NFTs are revolutionary. Karinna Nobbs, Co-chief Executive and Chief Experience Officer of NFT marketplace The Dematerialised explains NFTs are bigger than the Internet. They will apparently change the way we view digital ownership, creative structures, creative economy and also how we view money. A bold statement indeed which fashion retail has heeded well. Fashion brands can create their NFTs that are not only authenticated but also serve as exclusive collectibles in their own right. For its 200th anniversary, Louis Vuitton roped in Beeple who designed Louis Vuitton collectible NFTs on a video gaming platform owned by the brand. As demand for NFTs grow, the world of fashion retail is plunging into the Metaverse to ride this wave of hype of digital ownership of exclusive pieces.

Social shopping isn’t exactly new as an e-commerce technology which uses shared social network of friends and contacts. It replicates an individual’s shopping experience of being with friends or those who influence their choices – suggestions, recommendations, validations – all real world influences, now online. For fashion retail, this technology has been very empowering as these come with metrics required to capture impressions, engagements, reach and sale, all at a go. Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest among others continue to engage users with relatable content, making them spend hours scrolling through their feed. And as the just released ‘The State of Fashion 2023’ McKinsey & Company and The Business of Fashion report suggests, this network of social platforms is where fashion retail can directly engage on a personal way, even more than their physical stores. In a joint survey conducted by Magento and Hootsuite, almost 6 in 10 consumers claimed that one-quarter of their online shopping is influenced by Facebook and YouTube.

The report highlights, nearly 90 per cent of APAC’s population surfing through mobile commerce, brands and retailers jumped in to what is now called Social Commerce. According to eMarketer, the US social ecommerce market skyrocketed by almost 38 per cent to $26.77 billion in 2020 and is expected to surpass $50 billion annually by 2023. Fashion retail couldn’t have found a better platform.

Instagram emerges best social commerce platforms for fashion retail

Instagram is indeed the ideal platform for fashion retail’s social commerce. This visual-rich app ticks all the right visual boxes which is why 70 per cent of online shoppers globally rely on Instagram for product discovery and it helps that Instagram has over a billion active users. Instagram Live Shopping launched in 2020 leverages influencers recommending products live and in real time.

All-time favorite Facebook had 3.45 billion active monthly users as per statistics at the end of 2021. Launched in 2020, Facebook Shops actually helped small and medium size businesses to relocate from brick and mortar to online shop fronts for greater outreach and traffic. This fully-customizable feature has been a boon to many small fashion retailers.

Relatively new player Tik Tok was initially met with a certain amount of disdain from fashion retail, as they felt this was not their image platform. Well, that’s history now as more and more brands are jumping into the Tik Tik bandwagon. The catch phrase “Tik Tok made me buy it” sealed the deal for brands, particularly those of fashion retail. Tik Tok’s USP lies in making unknown entities that include brands go viral overnight. Quick to seize the day, Tik Tok started offering shoppable posts, livestream shopping capabilities and opportunities for influencer marketing. Brands also have the option to build a shoppable storefront within TikTok through the Shopping tab. TikTok users can now add the shopping tab to their business profiles, where they can sync their static product catalog and allow customers to make purchases straight from the app. Augmented-reality filters popularly known as catalogue-powered shopping lenses introduced by Snapchat makes for an extremely up close and personal shopping experience online.

Paradigm shift for fashion retail

Forget carefully designed physical stores with their real world limitations – fashion is now truly exploratory through the help of social commerce. In fact such is the power of social commerce that engagements with consumers and influencers are beginning to influence collections and trends for the next collections. What is revolutionizing about social commerce is its power to provide bespoke engagement, make shopping seamless and of course, loads of fun.

Textile exporters in Pakistan are still waiting for their Christmas orders. A buying freeze abroad has hit all segments, from apparel, denim and knits to home textiles.

As a rule of thumb, international markets move six months in advance. Hence, Christmas orders are placed in June-July and delivered three months before the start of the season. But demand has been slow due to the global economic environment this year.The recession has spread everywhere, from Europe and UK to Australia and South Africa, and warehouses, shelves and stockrooms are full of inventories enough to last till March 2023.

Because of excess stocks, the benefits of the rupee devaluation are not kicking in either. Since retailers do not want to purchase, the lower prices make no difference and there are no orders for the Christmas season. Mills have to work at half capacity as retailers abroad struggle to clear out shelves and are having sales.

Manufacturers in Pakistan are working at 50 per cent capacity and are hoping for some positive movement after March 2023. The American economy operates on credit and mortgages. As the Federal Reserve hikes up its rates, the cost of credit pinches the wallets of the average consumer in America, making him less likely to spend.During the pandemic, the economy had come to a standstill. The usual avenues of spending, such as leisure, travel and clubbing, were forbidden, so people spent money on decorating their houses, which also fed the super cycle success of Pakistan’s textile exports.Now, the reverse has happened. They have places to go, but less spending money, so Pakistan’s exports are taking the hit.

Pakistan opened up after the pandemic faster than did competitors such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka and India and as a result was bombarded with orders. Textile manufacturers in Pakistan enhanced capacities when orders were pouring in and so they are feeling the pinch strongly now. They hope that when the Christmas season is over, and the inventories have run out, textile orders will renew.

Pak, not the only one, other Asian countries to suffer

Pakistan is not alone in suffering from a loss in demand in the second half of 2022.

Vietnam’s textile and clothing exports dropped 32per cent year on year in September 2022 and garment manufacturers are working at not more than 70 per cent capacity. India is affected too. The United States is a major textile market for India, accounting for half of India’s home textile exports and 28per cent of apparel exports. In October 2022, India’s textile exports plummeted 41 per cent year on year.Sri Lanka’s textile exporters are facing a 30 per cent drop in orders in the coming months.

Due to the energy crisis in Europe it has been receiving requests for thicker winter clothing to cope with the cold since the use of in-house heaters has been reduced.

So that is a market in which Hayleys sees an opportunity. Hayleys Fabrics, based in Sri Lanka, produces around 17,326 metric tons of fabrics a year.

Europe is in an energy crisis with the reduction of gas supplies from Russia. Gas prices have skyrocketed in the EU, which has impacted the price of electricity produced in gas-fired power plants and affected electricity prices overall.Due to the energy crisis, the European Union has taken measures to reduce electricity use by ten per cent. With energy consumption being reduced, the EU has warned member countries to be prepared to withstand a harder winter season where the energy consumption usually goes high.

Hayleys is also focused on designing and manufacturing high tech sportswear, in particular, more water absorbing and heat resisting clothes.

Hayleys Fabrics commenced operations in 1993 and specialises in the synthetic range of knitted fabric suitable for active wear, lingerie and casual/lounge wear in addition to its regular cotton range. Rotary printing, sublimation printing, sueding and brushing fabric, and many chemical finishes are some of its value-added technical capabilities to ensure a complete range which is capable of meeting customer or brand requirements.

Eurojersey has partnered with Cifra in introducing a revolutionary new feature to the beachwear world. Hi-tech crochet combines the performance and uniqueness of WKS technology with the unmistakable style of Sensitive Fabrics. The swimwear has been designed on two layers, the first, soft and enveloping on the skin, thanks to the qualities of Sensitive Fabrics, the second, a seamless 3D jacquard fabric. This is a combination that gives depth and two-dimensionality to the garment, almost a work of art in perfect balance between solids and voids, between highlights and transparencies, between harmonies and contrasts.

Eurojersey, based in Italy, is in the field of warp-knitted technical fabrics and owns the Sensitive Fabrics patent. Sensitive Fabrics are endowed with excellent technical and aesthetic properties. Comfortable and perfectly smooth, thanks to an ultra-flat surface, resistant to frequent washing and endowed with a remarkable elastic memory, they provide the perfect fabric ground for the most innovative manufacturing technologies, by artfully combining functionality and tailoring.

Eurojersey reuses 30 million liters of water in its manufacturing process.The company has reduced its consumption of methane gas by 3,50,000 cubic meters. Cifra is a company in warp knit seamless technology.Cifra is accelerating on environmental best practices for advanced and sustainable sportswear. Every single process is certified in the entire value chain as well as the yarns used.

H&M will cut some 1500 jobs. This has been made necessary because of weaker profits. Costs of inputs are rising and consumers are buying less. Added pressure is also due to the fashion retailer’s exit from Russia after it declared war on Ukraine.

Europe is the hub for big business, where brands like H&M used to earn their big bucks. However, the war between Ukraine and Russia recorded high inflation and energy prices. This weighed down on customers, and people started cutting back to prepare themselves to face a tougher fiscal future. Russia has a population of more than 140 million, and exiting from such a huge market has resulted in a profit crash for the Sweden-based company by 89 per cent.

In 2021, H&M in Russia had ushered in its highest profit since 2009. However, in the pretax period between June 2022 and August 2022, profits fell. From no sales in the Russian market to high inflation, H&M has borne losses from everywhere. A stronger dollar has also resulted in a significant increase in the purchase of raw goods.

Overall these factors had a substantial negative impact on profits for the quarter.The Swedish fashion retailer employs roughly 1,55,000 people.