The winners of the 32nd batch of India’s most credible talent discovery program for upcoming designers – GenNext–will showcase their collections at the upcoming joint FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week scheduled in October this year.

As per an Apparel Resources report, the applicants were required to submit a video montage of their ensembles to complement their presentation, post which shortlisted applicants presented their collections digitally to an expert jury comprising TarunTahiliani, PriyaTanna, AashtiBhartia, Director of Ogaan; SumatiMattu, Head of Innovations at Lakmé; GenNext Mentor Sabina Chopra and Head of RISE Fashion &Lifestyle,JaspreetChandok.

The ‘INIFID’s GenNext’ program has been recognized for identifying and providing young and talented designers an opportunity to enhance their skills and take centrestage in the fashion industry. So far, GenNext has established more than 200 plus designers in the country.

US clothing company American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) has launched AE77, a new sustainably crafted premium denim label for men and women. As per a Spin Off report, the label offers timeless denim pieces and includes a repair and recycle concept. The collection leads with nine fits, advanced fits are made with vintage details and fabrics including selvedge denim.

AE77 also offers dresses and tops with feminine touches of lace, pintuck and ruffles as well as tops made of recycled cashmere, made in LA knits, Japanese flannel shirts, and vintage fleece. The label meets AEO’s highest water requirements, exceeding requirements for water recycling, water management, and wastewater. It uses sustainable techniques and machinery as well as green chemistry in jeans production to reduce or eliminate hazardous substances commonly used in the washing of denim. The fabrics are made from sustainable raw materials to all extents possible, including organic, recycled, or sustainably sourced through the Better Cotton Initiative.

The label will debut its first store in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, with an e-commerce site to follow on October 15 and a second store by year end.

Online fashion retailer Boohoo plans to sign the new International Accord Agreement for Health and Safety announced in August to make retailers liable for legal action in case their factories in Bangladesh do not meet labor safety standards. The agreement has already been signed by the company's European rivals H&M and Inditex-owned Zara. It replaced the earlier Bangladesh Accord, which was struck in the aftermath of a building collapse in 2013 that killed more than 1,100 garment workers in the south Asian country.

The news comes a year after Boohoo accepted all recommendations of an independent review that found major failings in its supply chain in England after newspaper allegations about working conditions and low pay in factories in the Leicester area. The fast fashion giant has made moves to improve problems its supply chain in recent months and to make itself more transparent to consumers Boohoo recently published a list of international factories detailing around 1,100 factories, following instruction from an independent review produced by Alison Levitt QC. It hit headlines for all the wrong reasons last year after media reports said factory workers in Leicester were being underpaid and not protected against Covid-19.

Boohoo appointed Alison Levitt QC to look into the supply chain allegations, who found they were substantially true, despite an initial denial from the firm.

Indorama Ventures plans to increase prices of its products from October 1, 2021. As per a Textile Network report, like many companies, Indorama’s textile subsidiary, the Indorama Mobility Group has been confronted significant inflation since the beginning of the year. In particular, the rise in inflation has been notable in gas prices that have tripled in the past few months in Europe while increasing 50 per cent in the US. Pices of CO2 emissions and compliance cost: prices for CO2 certificates in Europe have almost doubled, touching €60 per ton up from €30 per ton at the end of last year, while regulations continue to expand the need for CO2 compensation.

Prices of chemicals and additives have increased 5 per cent while standard packaging materials have gone up over 30 per cent. Despite having a local manufacturing footprint Indorama is not fully affected by global freight issues, regional logistic costs are also increasing up to 20 per cent.

A recent survey by the Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) indicates, around 40 textile and apparel companies in Tamil Nadu plan to launch IPOs to list their shares in Indian equity markets. Off 257 member companies surveyed by the federation, 16 per cent said, they are keen for IPO; 30 per cent hoped to double sales in 3 years’ with a 25 per cent CAGR, while 18 per cent said, they will double their current sales in 4 years with a 20 per cent CAGR.

Around 36 per cent entrepreneurs hoped to double their yarn sales in 5 years’ time with 15per cent CAGR. The survey also highlighted that Tamil Nadu’s textile and apparel industry bets on growth with a focus on value addition.

Prabhu Dhamodharan, Convenor, ITF, Coimbatore informed that in total, 76 per cent of the surveyed firms mentioned about doubling the current site of business in 3 to 5 years with new capex cycle.

Within the sub segments of textile manufacturing, home textiles, weaving and apparel segments are showing better momentum in terms of growth. This trend will help Tamil Nadu textile sector to further strengthen the value-added product manufacturing, he added

France's fast fashion retailer Kering has decided to stop using animal fur for all of its brands, in the fashion industry's latest response to concerns over animal treatment and the environment.

For many years, Kering has sought to take the lead in sustainability, guided by a vision of luxury that is inseparable from the very highest environmental and social values and standards, says François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO. The group has always demonstrated its willingness to improve animal welfare practices within its own supply chain and the luxury sector in general.

its decision to stop using fur in all collections will be effective from the Fall 2022 collections onwards.

The UK’s Fibre Extrusion Technology (FET) will introduce its new lab-scale spunbond system at the forthcoming INDEX 2020 nonwovens exhibition taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 19-22.

The new spunbond range provides unprecedented opportunities for the scaled development of new nonwoven fabrics based on a wide range of fibres and polymers, including bicomponents.

The market availability of this new technology is particularly timely, given the industry’s current preoccupation with the development of new substrates based on biopolymers, sustainable resins or recycled fibres.

FET has already supplied one of these new spunbond lines to University of Leeds in the UK, and a second, in combination with a metlblown line, to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany.

The new spunbond technology is unique in providing the ability to process a wide range of polymers, including those normally not considered appropriate for the spunbond process, at the scale required to fully explore material combinations and bring new products to market, says Richard Slack, Managing Director, FET.

Steve Russell, Professor of Textile Materials and Technology at University of Leeds, agrees, the new spunbond line from FET forms part of a wider investment in facilities to support fundamental, academic research on future manufacturing, where the focus is on studying the small-scale processing of unconventional polymers and additive mixes to form spunbond fabrics with multifunctional properties.

World Textile Information Network (WTiN) is hosting a live summit at its virtual Innovate 2021 event.

Sponsored by Epson, the event takes place during WTiN Innovate – Textile Innovation Week – which runs from October 25-29, 2021.

The first day of the event will kick off with a keynote speech from Dirk Vantyghem, Director General, Euratex. The keynote will address the ‘EU textiles strategy - a new framework for the European textile & apparel industry’ Following this, there will be panel sessions on ‘The state of skills in the apparel industry in 2021’ and ‘The Impact of Covid-19: Accelerating digitalisation and sustainable production in textile manufacturing’.

The next keynote speech will come from Ian Cronin, Community Curator, World Economic Forum. He will present ‘Circular economy – digital systems to authenticate fashion goods, fight counterfeiting and unlock the resale market’. A panel session, chaired by the American Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), will then look at the smart textile and apparel industry. Entitled, ‘From lab to commercialisation of smart textile products’ the session will look at approaches to making textiles ‘smart’ and the importance of cross-disciplinary partnerships.

The second day of the event will open with a keynote from XuYingxin, Vice President of the Chinese National Textile & Apparel Council (CNTAC). ‘Supply chain resilience in the textile & apparel value chain’ will be the next keynote on the second day of the event, presented by Joshua Hinkel, Partner, Bain & Company. It will discuss how changes in the business environment have altered demands on supply chains and the essential need for traceability and transparency in the supply chain.

The final day of the Summit will begin with a panel from Leeds City Region (LCR) on ‘Textiles 2030: Leeds City Region and India – Driving textile sustainability’. The session will explore how key organisations and businesses in India and LCR are working together to drive global textile sustainability.

The new production linked incentive (PLI) scheme will expand the size of technical textile industry in India to $5billion in the next 3-5 years, says Shailesh Mehta, Managing Director, Texel Industries. Under PLI the government will offer incentives of around Rs 7,000 crore to man-made fibres and around Rs 4,000 crore to technical textiles. This will make India’s technical textiles globally competitive by creating economies of scale and ensuring efficiencies. The government has also launched a National Technical Textiles Mission in the past for promoting R&D efforts in the sector.

The announcement will cover around 10 product categories in the technical textile category. An incentive of 3 to 11 per cent of the annual incremental revenues' for five years will be provided to existing as well as proposed investments in the sector. Established in 1989, Texel Industries is the pioneer of tarpaulins and geomembranes in India. The company manufactures a wide range of geosynthetic textile products which includes tarpaulins and geomembranes. The company is investing Rs 29.92 crore in setting up a 10,080 MT facility for geosynthetics products at Kheda, Gujarat. This will double installed capacity to more than 19,000 MT per annum. Texcel Industries is also adding six new products to its mix to include metal wrap, lumber wrap, roof tile underlay, geotextiles, floating pond covers and a product to replace billboard flex. These products will contribute significantly to the growth of not only sales but profits of the company.

Scheduled from November 23-26, 2021, the 20th International Exhibition on Textile Industry (ShanghaiTex 2021), will be held in hybrid mode. As per a Textile Value Chain report, the trade show will combine online exhibition with physical events in Pullman Shanghai Skyway Hotel and focus on five innovations in textile machinery, equipment manufacturers, yarn suppliers, apparel fabric suppliers, clothing suppliers, designers of Shanghai Fashion Week, academic experts and explore government policies at a macro-level and analyze future trends.

Branded ‘Textech Inno Week,’ the edition will offer a new cross-platform experience of textile, technology and innovations. The online events will include procurement, new technology releases, online exhibitor interviews, business appointment, business matching, etc., allowing industry players to stay closely connected via internet despite the time and geographical constraints.

Meanwhile, offline exhibition zones will host international conferences, forums, business matching activities, featured theme zones and other concurrent event. The event will focus on five innovative themes including Cross-platform Experience, Innovative Technology, New Materials, Revolutionary Designs, E-commerce Business.