Once a booming sector, the fast fashion industry is losing favor due to rising environmental consciousness amongst consumers and a growing preference for secondhand apparels. The industry is facing delivery delays due to the complex supply chains, adding to the woes of the retailers. British online retailer Asos reported a 12 percentage points decline in profit margins this year though revenues grew by 20 per cent. It expects higher freight costs and increased investment in customer experiences to lower annual profit by over 49 per cent.

Asos’ profits are also being impacted by doubling of transit times from Asia to the US, says Matt Friend, Chief Financial Officer. Besides, the company faces a deteriorating transit times in the European market. Other apparel brands in Vietnam are also facing factory closures, making it challenging for fast fashion retailers to sell out-of-season stock.

Secondhand apparel market to grow 11 times faster

Fast fashion also suffers from the growing number of environmentally-conscious consumers. A report by the National Retail Federation and IBM shows, almost 57 per cent of consumers plan to focus on the environmental impact of their shopping habits and change shopping habits accordingly. Around 77 per cent consumers urge brands to be sustainable and environmentally responsible.

Against this, fast fashion brands are often accused of overproduction and throwing used garments away. As per recent estimates, US dumps around 11 million tonnes of clothing every year.

This is encouraging more consumers to opt for secondhand apparels. A ThredUP report shows, the market for secondhand apparels is expected to grow 11 times faster than the broader retail clothing sector over the next five years and reach $77 billion by 2025. The resale market will be twice as big as fast fashion by 2030, says James Reinhart, CEO.

Ready to change

Best known for serving fast fashion across the world, Sweden-based H&M is bracing itself for the changing winds. Owner of around 70 per cent of secondhand shop Sellpy, the brand is also collaborating with Sellpy on a new warehouse in Poland, as well as distribution and quality control efforts for garments and handling orders.

Victoria Beckham has teamed up with the Woolmark Company to launch her first end-to-end traceable collection.

As per Fashion Network, the Victoria Beckham x The Woolmark Company uses Merino wool and features pieces for both women and kids.

The tonal collection is built around polo and crewneck sweaters, V-neck cardigans, and gift sets of scarves and headwear, with design details including colour blocking, intarsia and contrast stripes.

Design elements aside, as mentioned, sustainability is a key focus with Woolmark saying “the environmental impact has been considered throughout the design process, from sourcing materials to the development, manufacturing, production and packaging of each piece”.

That reflects the increasing emphasis placed by consumers on eco and ethical materials and production methods in the luxury products they buy, and it will be interesting to see the response to this new offer, as well as whether Beckham will produce more such collections.

The collection is made in Pescara, Italy, from 100% renewable and biodegradable Merino wool. The non-mulesed Merino wool used in the line is fully traceable to just five Australian woolgrowers.

British fashion house Burberry has named Jonathan Akeroyd as its new chief executive officer from next April. Akeroyd currently serves as the CEO of Milan-based Gianni Versace.

The 165-year-old group, Burberry had since June been searching for a replacement for Gobbetti, who had sought to elevate Burberry in the luxury sector during his four years at the helm.

He Known for its trench coats and trademark plaid, Burberry said, British national Akeroyd has accelerated growth at Italy's famous fashion house during his five year tenure there.

Gerry Murphy, Chairman, added, keroyd was the right choice to build on the British brand's creative heritage.

Burberry is a British luxury fashion house headquartered in London, England. It currently designs and distributes ready to wear including trench coats, leather goods, fashion accessories, eyewear, fragrances and cosmetics,

Established in 1856, Burberry originally focused on the development of outdoor attire, the house has moved into the high fashion market, developing gabardine, and products made exclusively for the brand.

The Lenzing Group is expanding its sustainable offering for the denim industry with the introduction of matte Tencel™ branded lyocell fibers. The new fiber type is specially designed to scatter light and permanently diminish sheen in denim applications, further enabling versatility of indigo-dyed denim fabrics.

The introduction of matte Tencel™ Lyocell fibers increases versatility in denim designs whilst reducing the ecological footprint of the resulting fabric and garment. Made with a resource efficient closed-loop production process, the new fiber type maintains all the comfort benefits of standard TENCEL™ Lyocell fibers to bring next-to-skin smoothness while giving dark indigo dye fabrics a deep and lusterless appearance.

In collaboration with global mill partners, Advance Denim (China), Artistic Fabric Mills (Pakistan), Arvind Limited (India), Kipas Denim (Turkey), KG Denim Limited (India), Panther Denim/ Tat Fung (China) and TextilSantanderina (Spain), Lenzingplans to launch the new matte TENCEL™ branded lyocell fibers at the Kingpins Digital Show.

As per a market research and competitive intelligence providerFactMR, the global baby disposable diaper market is anticipated to reach over$60 billion by 2031, progressing at a CAGR of 4 per cent over the period.

The market for super-absorbent baby disposable diapers expected to reach around $15 billion valuation by 2031. Ultra-absorbent baby disposable diapers projected to record above 2 per cent CAGR over next 10 years. The European market is expected to hold over 40 per cent share. Market in South Korea is expected to reach valuation of $7 billion by 2031.Market in Japan is expected to record 1.8 per cent CAGR over forecast period of 2021- 2031.

Diaper manufacturers are focusing on producing baby disposable diapers that are less harmful to the environment. Market participants are attempting to achieve this through various sales and marketing strategies, as well as mergers and collaborations with other players in the industry.

Rudolf Hub1922 has launched Offuel, the very first range of future-oriented chemical auxiliaries for denim processing based on alternatives to crude oil.

The Rudolf Hub1922 Offuel range is made of 11 finishing auxiliaries. All the 11 chemical agents are either existing, selected solutions, or brand new RUDOLF’s technologies.

Available, renewable raw materials are the common denominator throughout the Rudolf Hub1922 Offuel range and those renewable sources do not compete with human and/or animal nutrition, nor they compete with the production of any fuel. Rucogen® Upcycle RNB is the crown jewel within group #5. It’s a dispersing agent, specific for denim washing, based on chemically recycled, PET plastic waste. It’s about the upcycling of post-consumer, disposable PET plastic bottles into valuable textile chemistry.

The Rudolf Hub1922 Offuel range is a complete toolbox of chemical auxiliaries for wet denim processing. The range is an instrument for wide creativity. All its products were cleared by bluesign® -which makes them also ZDHC Gateway Level 3 - and all are compliant with the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®.

Rudolf GmbH is based in Geretsried, Bavaria, in 1922. It is specialized in innovative and high-quality chemical products, predominantly textile auxiliaries, products for textile care as well as construction chemicals.

Global fashion brand United Colors of Benetton plans to increase apparel sourcing from Bangladesh. As per Fashion Network, the company will collaborate with Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) suppliers in Bangladesh to build their capacities in manufacturing apparel products that have higher market demand.

The RMG industry in Bangladesh has diversified focus on non-cotton and other high-end material segments, said Monica Joshi, Head-Operations, Benetton Asia-Pacific at a recent meeting with BGMEA. On the occasion, Faruque Hassan, President assured Benetton of complete support to expand its suppliers’ base and sourcing volume in Bangladesh.

Hassan further said, an increase in yarn, chemicals and other raw materials prices has pushed up production costs in garment manufacturing. The industry needs to stabilize prices and empathize with supply chain partners to make the supply chain sustainable.

In a joint paper sent last week, eleven European countries—Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden—urged the European Commission to formulate a strategy to implement ambitious measures to crack down on waste in the textiles industry.

The countries urged the commission to introduce an ambitious and comprehensive strategy covering the entire value chain.

They said, this will help Europe achieve its climate ambitions and make its textile industry more competitive and sustainable.

Annually, European citizens consume 26 kg of textiles, out of which 11 kg are discarded due to ‘fast fashion’ trends. The strategy will make sustainable textiles the norm and open the way to a cleaner and healthy future.

The joint paper was proposed after the Netherlands invited EU countries in June to discuss sustainability in textiles. It was sent to European Commission leaders, including Environment Commissioner VirginijusSinkevicius and EU Climate Chief FransTimmermans. The letter called for clear, ambitious targets for textile collection, reuse, and recycling.

The countries urged the Commission to explore materials having textile-to-textile recycled content requirements, which would boost recycling rates. They also called for more research in decipher ways to encourage the longer use of clothes and prevent the destruction of unsold garments, which some shops end up doing.

The signatories also urged for a mandatory label to curb Greenwashing amongst brands.

Revenues of Uniqlo-owner Fast Retailing surged by 6.2 per cent to £13.72 billion in the year that ended 31 August 2021.

As per the Apparel Resources, the company’s operating profit also surged by 66.7 per cent to £1.6 billion during the period. It attributed this majorly to Uniqlo operations.

Uniqlo International’s year-on-year revenues rose by 10.2 per cent to post £5.9 billion, while its operating profit jumped by 121.4 per cent to £714 million.

The brand’s online sales grew by 20 per cent in the said period.Region-wise, it posted record performance in China all through the year, while sales improved in Europe and North America since May 2021 following easing of restrictions.

However, there was fall in revenues and profits from south Asia and southeast Asia regions owing to continuous increase in COVID-19 cases. The brand has over 2,200 stores in 25 markets including Japan.

Digital textile printing technology leader, Kornit Digital will organize Kornit Fashion Week Los Angeles + Industry 4.0 Event from November 02 to 05, 2021 in Los Angeles, California (US).

As per Apparel Resources, the exhibition will celebrate innovations in fashion technology and showcase Kornit’s visionary alternative model for creating environmentally-responsible fashion that unleashes endless creativity, driven by real-time demand, eliminating waste while transcending supply chain challenges – the future of fashion, delivered by digital.

Demonstrating Kornit’s far-reaching capabilities for maximizing creativity while minimizing carbon footprint, the event will include a fashion runway presentation incorporating 22 visionary fashion designers, in 17 individual shows spanning all four days of the event.

Each designer will launched new collections produced with end-to-end digital means, in a fraction of the time normally required, sustainably and with exponentially more design freedom. These include designs by ViviBellaish, threeASFOUR, Guvanch NYC, Naot, Asher Levine, and others from Los Angeles, New York, Tel Aviv, Paris, etc.