As per a report by Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, Pakistan’s cotton production declined by 2.8 million bales till December 15. The country produced 5 million bales during the first 15 days of this month which is 35.67 per cent less as compared to more than 7 million bales produced till December 15 last year. The purchase of cotton bales by local textile mills’ declined by 35.06 per cent to 4.1 million bales during this period. The ginners had the stock of more than 800,000 bales which is 35.06 percent less as compared to the last year stock of more than 1.2 million bales.

Punjab produced 2.9 million cotton bales during this period which is 1.4 million bales less as compared to the last year’s production of 4.4 million bales. In Sindh 2.8 million bales were produced which is 1.3 million bales less than the last years production.

Naseem Usman, Chairman, Karachi Cotton Brokers Forum, said as this year Pakistan's textile sector is running on full capacity, demand for cotton may reach more than 10 million bales. He estimated Pakistan to produce 6 million bales and import 7 million bales worth $6 billion to fulfill the demands of the local industry.

Experts hoped the pandemic would rebuild fashion into a more impartial and ethical industry. However, their vision failed as retailers refused to honor commitments as global shutdown tightened economies. As per a Fashionata report, billions of dollars vanished from the supply chain within a few days. Secondhand clothing market faced increased COVID-19 risk as crowds flocked and the government failed to provide any support. Labor abuses became rampant with Californian laborers being exposed to COVID-19 in factories and denied legal protection against wage theft. Sustainable brands like Everlane and Reformation were criticized for racism and union-busting.

However, advocates didn't take all this lying down. They launched the #PayUp campaign to pressurize retailers to pay for their cancelled orders. Employees helped expose racism in their companies while workers continued to push for new legislation to protect their wages.

Consumers opt for local products, upcycling

The pandemic altered shopping behavior with consumers tightening their shopping budgets. There has been a sharp decline in consumer spending leading to the shutdown of many retailers. Also, consumers have been shopping for more local products, which help reduce carbon emissions from shipping. Brands are rolling out sustainability initiatives like upcycling irrespective of cost additions. Once abandoned as impractical, upcycling became a new way of functioning for brands like Coach, Miu Miu and Maison Margelia who started incorporating vintage or overstock fabrics into their designs. Though brands will continue to create new fabrics, their fascination for upcycled fabrics will not disappear completely. Even bigger brands may launch upcyled collections in future.

New ways of showcasing collections

As per the Guardian, half of global aviation emissions are caused by 1 per cent people who, on average, take three long-haul flights a year or one short-haul flight per month. Fashion professions are known to attend a couple of international fashion weeks a year along with a few press trips and Instagrammable vacations. Though the pandemic has currently, halted air-travel, it is ultimately bound to resume. The crisis has forced the industry to discover new ways to present collections or shoot editorials that don’t require them to fly frequently. Even conferences are being arranged on Zoom while collections are being showcased through mini video films. Designers are also using virtual reality to create visual experiences of their clothes.

Fashion to get inclusive in 2021

The US government plans to promote sustainable fashion by launching inclusive collections by Blacks, Browns and other indigenous people. Sustainable fashion will definitely not go away. However, it may change its shape with the industry aligning with its environmental limits in 2021.

Global diversified supplier of industrial and custom fabrics and textile components with military, tactical, medical, commercial and apparel expertise, MMI Textiles Inc plans to open 30,000-sq-ft production facility in North Carolina.

The new facility in Lenoir, NC will be focused on manufacturing and printing narrow fabrics, including a full line of mil-spec webbing and binding tape products. The main driver behind the new operation is MMI’s CTEdge® Printed Narrow Fabrics that use patented technology to give the border of webbing and binding tape a more concealed edge, because it is woven with different color threads that allow it to blend into the materials behind it. This product line has seen momentous growth over the last few years with sales on a global scale and multiple international distributors.

MMI will hire new staff and acquire new equipment in Lenoir to ensure better control of the manufacturing process for this line. The new facility will house both MMI Textiles’ new manufacturing facility and Mikan’s print facility under one roof. Mikan is one of the country’s most respected and innovative leaders in the textile printing industry.

The new MMI Textiles manufacturing and print facility will be integrated under one roof to ensure efficiencies and consistencies that are better aligned with the MMI Textile brand promise of unmatched service and innovation. All sales and customer service transactions will continue to be handled through existing channels.

Scheduled on January 15-19, the Milan Fashion Week will feature 37 brands, reports Fashion Network.

Of these, five labels will stage genuine physical catwalk shows, and seven new names - presenting their menswear (and womenswear too for some) collections for the Fall/Winter 2021-22 will showcase their collections digitally

Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and Etro will stage physical shows. K-Way and Korean label Solid Homme by designer Woo Young Mi, both showing for the first time in Milan, are the other two names on the physical show list.

The other debut labels on the Milanese calendar are Italy-based Moldovan designer Dina Leu, who won the menswear prize at this year’s Who’s On Next competition; emerging label Vaderetro, created in 2019 by designer duo Hanna Boyer and Antonio D'Andrea; Dalpaos, by talented emerging designer Nicola D’Alpaos; New Delhi-based Indian designer and entrepreneur Dhruv Kapoor; and Tokyo James, the label by Nigerian-born British designer Ineyie Tokyo James.

All the top Italian fashion names are of course on the calendar, like Ermenegildo Zegna, which will stage the fashion week's opening event on Friday January 15, followed by Les Hommes. Prada, Tod’s and MSGM will follow suit on Sunday January 17. Some labels are mulling whether to take part in the January fashion week or in the February one, presenting their men’s and women’s collections together.

As in July, the Italian Fashion Chamber (CNMI) will deploy a website dedicated to the event with plenty of content. Besides featuring the official calendar and the labels’ video presentations, the site will also give access to pages with various conferences and interviews. Each participating label will also have its own digital showroom on the site.

Kontoor has expanded its brand Wrangler on Alibaba Group’s Tmall e-commerce site in China.

Wrangler celebrated the launch with an activation at Innersect, a multi-day consumer streetwear event in Shanghai. The event choice is indicative of where Kontoor sees opportunity for Wrangler in China: among tech and pop-culture-savvy young consumers.

Kontoor plans to expand the product selection in Spring 2021 and launch additional consumer activations.

Since becoming an independent, publicly traded company in May last year, Kontoor has identified China as a key area of focus for its international expansion strategy. The company’s other heritage brand, Lee, has been in the region for 25 years, according to Bloomberg.

Last fall, Scott Baxter, President and CEO, Kontoor Brands had said that Wrangler’s debut in China was on track for Q1 2020. However, the launch was postponed shortly after COVID-19 began to spread around the world.

Denim manufacturer Isko has launched Light on the Land 2.0, its new capsule designed by Miles Johnson, former design director at Levi Strauss & Co. and senior creative director of product design and development at Patagonia, Inc. The first round of this collection was launched in September 2020 and now it is followed by this second release.

As per Sportswear International, the collection incorporates responsible design principles such as Cadica’s innovative trims, made of vegan apple “leather,” and has been developed using eco-conscious finishing techniques. The collection also features other sustainable facets such as efficient low-waste pattern cutting and design, efficient sewing methods, removable rivets for end-of-life and biodegradable thread that can be removed with high heat.

Due to the present global health emergency, the collection was entirely developed through remote working and creative solutions to ensure the safety and health of all parties involved. To this end, everyone working at this project was kept safe thanks to Isko Vital+ reusable and eco-friendly organic cotton face covers.

American fashion retailer JC Penney, which emerged from bankruptcy earlier this month, plans to close down 15 more stores by the end of March next year.

The retailer was recently acquired by Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management, Inc., after it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.

The fresh closure of 15 stores is a part of the store optimization strategy that the retailer had started in June with financial revamping.

Notably, the liquidation sales of these stores will start later in December and will close to the public in March 2021.

JCPenney’s store optimization strategy aims to help the retailer achieve growth that’s both profitable and sustainable.

The renowned fashion retailer had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in May 2020 and ever since has been the most talked about fashion retailer till it was bought by mall owners earlier this month.

The spring edition of Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics will be held in a hybrid format from March 10 - 12, 2021. To be held at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai), the fair will serve as a reliable sourcing platform, both in-person and virtually, for the textile industry to connect and recover.

Intertextile’s country and regional pavilions and dedicated product zones will offer a comprehensive range of products to help buyers meet their specific souring needs. The fair will take place as China’s textile market continues to show signs of quick recovery from the effects of the pandemic. With industrial output continuing to remain strong, Chinese consumer confidence is also starting to rebound. According to a McKinsey study, net optimism of consumers is now at 54 per cent, the highest compared to respondents from other countries. This recovery in the economy and consumer demand was also observed by exhibitors from the 2020 Autumn edition, who expressed how the fair provided a much-need trading platform for making up lost business.

Fashion for Good plans to extend its presence in South Asia through a partnership with Birla Cellulose.

The organization has launched the South Asia Innovation Program and has since witnessed the graduation of nine first batch start-ups, as well as the addition of its latest regional partner, Birla Cellulose – part of the Aditya Birla Group.

Fashion for Good has worked thoroughly with important supply chain companies and identified the critical challenges modeled to the circular transformation in the region; the absence of knowledge around circular solutions, the lack of capacity to work with innovations, the lack of funds to invest in new technologies, and the limited engagement from major fashion brands throughout the year.

Inspecting over 300 innovators from the region, the South Asia Innovation Program launched early this year with its first selection of nine innovators and welcomed an extra nine into its second batch in July.

Aiming to scale these technologies through initiating opportunities with industry players, the Program has orchestrated over 16 pilots and tests over the past 12 months.

As per a survey by the Transparency International Bangladesh, the stimulus package announced by the government has failed to reach over 42 per cent of garment workers despite being one of the poorest segments of the population and hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic

The TIB study—RMG sector in Covid-19 crisis: governance challenges and way forward—was carried out between May and November, reports the Daily Star.

The total allocation of the stimulus packages for the garment sector was Tk 62,879 crore, out of which Tk 59,090 crore came as a soft loan from the government and Tk 3,789 crore as financial assistance from development agencies, brands, the European Union and countries such as Germany.

Of the sum, 16 per cent was meant for paying salaries and wages to the workers. So far, Tk 9,000 crore has been disbursed as the wages and allowances, the TIB said.

A majority of the micro, small and medium-sized factories are engaged in subcontracting, he said.

A significant delay in the disbursement of fund to the micro, small and medium enterprises is the main reason for the 42 per cent workers not being able to benefit from the assistance, Iftekharuzzaman said.

So far, banks and other financial institutions could disburse only 29 per cent of the Tk 20,000 crore allocated for the cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises (CMSMEs).