Earlier planned for June 2 to 6, this year, ITM International Textile Machinery Exhibition and HIGHTEX International Technical Textiles and Nonwoven Exhibition have been rescheduled to June 22-26, 2021, The exhibitions are held every two years in partnership with Tüyap Tüm Fuarcılık Inc. and Teknik Fuarcılık Inc., and in cooperation with TEMSAD.

Preparations for the exhibitions continue at full steam to bring together hundreds of manufacturers and global investors who develop leading technologies in their fields. To be held at the Istanbul Tuyap Fair Convention and Congress Center next year, the exhibitions will feature textile investors from all over the world.

ITM 2021 and HIGHTEX 2021 Exhibitions will be held in 12 halls spanning 120.000 sq m. It will host 1,250 international exhibitors who will set new records in the field with its visitors and exhibitors. Some of the world’s leading textile technology companies will showcase their newest models and latest developments in production technologies of technical textiles and nonwovens in these trade shows.

Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) has appealed to Union textile, commerce and finance ministries to remove antidumping duty on viscose fiber. The federation says, this will create a level playing field for the entire viscose value chain and help a big section of MSMEs in their growth. In post-COVID environment, world’s largest consuming markets like the US are favoring India as a preferred alternate destination for textile and apparel sourcing. In addition, many countries like Vietnam are also looking to source more fabrics from India. Hence, Indian companies need to focus on these products to increase the country’s exports, says ITF.

Presently, polyester fibers are available in India at international prices due to structural changes brought out in previous budget that removed anti-dumping duty on PTA. However, due to anti-dumping duty protection at fiber stage, viscose fiber prices in India are much higher than international prices with a difference of around Rs 20 to 23 per kg. Moreover, Indian spinners also face huge injury due to multi-fold jump in cheap Chinese yarn imports. The import of VSF spun yarn increased to 56,262 tonne in 2019-20 due to the import of cheaper Chinese yarn in the market.

Countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia have gained exponential share in the global MMF based textile and clothing exports, as these countries have access to fiber at international prices, which makes them competitive globally even without having their own source of raw material.

Textile mills and fabric manufacturers in India have sought the removal of anti-dumping duty on viscose staple fiber to make the textile industry internationally competitive.

Ashwin Chandran, Chairman, Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) said textile manufacturers, who use viscose staple fiber, supply products to niche markets where there is a huge demand for viscose fabric. Removing anti-dumping duty on these viscose fibers will align domestic prices align with the global prices, he added.

Powerloom weavers are dependent on imported viscose spun yarn to compete in the international market. However, almost four lakh spindles in India with a production capacity worth Rs 1,000 crore, lost the opportunity to tap this import potential due to the availability of high viscose fibers in the domestic market. As M Senthil Kumar, Former Chairman, Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council points out, viscose fabric is in high demand in the fashion with many leading brands seeking viscose products in the last four-five years. Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) says , countries such as Vietnam are looking to source more fabrics from India, especially man-made fiber and blended fabrics.

Estimates by Bain & Company shows, by the middle of this decade global luxury spending by Chinese nationals will increase to 50 per cent from 35 per cent in 2019. Top fashion brand Louis Vuitton reported a 65 per cent increase in China sales in the second quarter, compared to the same period of 2019. The company’s Paris-listed stock declined by just 4 per cent this year, while shares in rival handbag maker Hermès increased by upto 8 per cent.

According to Bernstein Research, young Chinese consumers whose incomes are bolstered by their parents’ savings are a major source of growth for luxury brands. They are like Japan’s “parasite singles” who lived rent-free in the family home during the 1990s and spent a big chunk of their wages on designer baubles.

Japan’s luxury boom wasn’t ended by slower growth but by demographics. As the population aged, spendthrift young shoppers weren’t replaced in adequate numbers to keep demand high. Today, the Japan accounts for just 10 per cent of global luxury sales.

As per Statistica Indonesia(BPS), the pandemic has aggravated issues related to competitiveness in the Indonesian textile and garment industry which contracted by 14.23 per cent year on year (YoY) in the second quarter of this year as domestic and global demand slowed, compared to an annualized growth rate of 20.71 percent in the corresponding period in 2019

The textile industry contracted more than the manufacturing industry, which shrank by 6.19 per cent YoY in the second quarter of this year. Redma Gita Wirawasta, Researcher, Indonesian Textile Institute (Indotex) believes the country’s textile industry to be less competitive than those of other nations primarily because of high energy and logistics costs, low productivity, multilayered value-added tax regime from the upstream to the downstream and low-tech machinery.

According to Faisal Basri, Economist, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), continued use of outdated machinery corresponded with the investment data, which showed that the majority of investment funds had been channeled towards developing new buildings and not to upgrading machinery and equipment

Investment in machinery and equipment fell by 12.87 per cent YoY in the second quarter as the pandemic caused the Indonesian economy to contract for the first time since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. The economy contracted by 5.32 per cent in the second quarter as household consumption and investment declined in the fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.

In addition, the health crisis also caused household spending on clothing, footwear and garment maintenance services to decline at an annual rate of 5.31 per cent.

Nguo Yetu, an apparel company from the Kenyan export processing zone (EPZ) plans to engage Kenyans working abroad, including the United States to expand its distribution footprint. With 300 employees, the company plans to enter partnerships with foreign companies in strategic markets.

The company plans to take advantage of trade agreements like African Growth Opportunity Act, which guarantees entry for Kenyan apparel into the US market duty free and quota free, said Sheila Muirara, CEO. The main objective is to create opportunities for Kenyans as well as project Kenya as a hub for manufacturing globally, added Muirara.

Economic Survey estimates Kenyan textiles and apparels exporters to the United States under AGOA to have earned a combined Sh46 billion in 2019. According to data from the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), 24 companies operate at the EPZs and employ 49,000 Kenyans last year.

Introduced in February this year by Californian Senate, the SB1399 bill will be presented on the Assembly floor next week. The bill aims to eliminate the piece rate system and ensure multilateral accountability to prevent wage theft through layers of subcontracting. Known as the Garment Worker Protection Act, this bill explicitly authorizes the Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement to conduct workplace-wide investigations and issue citations on behalf of all the workers.

The bill benefits the workers and companies follow the rules, said Matthew DeCarolis, Co-sponsor and Staff Attorney, Bet Tzedek Legal Services. It builds upon Assembly Bill 633, which was written in 1999. AB 633 created a Garment Restitution Fund that supported workers who had their wages stolen.

Passing SB 1399 would be a major victory for garment workers and they believe that these problems can be solved is if workers’ experience, stories and knowledge are heard.

Human rights campaigners are urging US authorities to ban all imports of cotton from the Chinese province of Xingjiang after allegations of widespread forced labor. The campaigners have filed two identical petitions with US Custom and Border Protection, citing substantial evidence that the Uighur community and other minority groups are being forced to work in the region’s cotton fields.

Rahima Mahmut, Spokeswoman, World Uighur Congress, one of the campaign groups spearheading the petitions, hopes the economic impact of a ban could cause Beijing to rethink its prison labor policy. Since 2017, more than a million Uighur Muslims have been moved to high-security de-extremification camps, where they are forced to produce industrial and agricultural goods for export, campaign groups maintain.

In April, Global Legal Action Network (Glan), co-sponsor of one of the petitions, submitted a 57-page petition to HM Revenue & Customs in the UK requesting a similar ban. In a separate attempt to pressurize the UK government, the World Uighur Congress plans to launch a nationwide campaign later this month.

The campaign will call for a public boycott of any products produced by Uighur forced labor or by companies facilitating Uighur suppression. It will also call on companies importing cotton and other goods from Xinjiang to investigate their supply chains.

In July, a coalition of more than 180 campaign groups issued a similar call to action urging high-street brands to guarantee that their supply chains are not directly or indirectly linked to abuses of Uighurs or other persecuted minorities in China.

The Better Cotton Initiative, which runs a sustainable certification system for cotton producers, reported earlier in the year that it was concerned about reports of forced labor in China and has commissioned a third-party investigation into the claims.

The latter half of the 20th century brought about a revolution in the fashion industry with the rise of big, well known brands, high streets and shopping malls, and the emergence of the middle class. As per Trista Bridges and Donald Eubank’s book ‘Leading Sustainability: The path to Sustainable Business and How the SDGs Changed Everything’, all these factors converged to create an ideal market environment for retailers and fashion groups across the world. The book attributes growing popularity of fast fashion models to consumers’ increasing desire for latest and greatest fashion.

The book highlights, success in fashion is often determined by brands that have the most efficient and cost-effective supply chains, and quickly move to rapid prototyping, quick materials sourcing, fast production, and seamless and swift distribution. However, this causes an immense burden on the environment and communities in emerging markets.

Globalization forced apparel production to move eastward. This shift was further accelerated by a WTO policy that limited textile and apparel imports from certain emerging markets. Introduced in 2005, the quota system established contract manufacturing as the new operational norm. However, it also caused several challenges for the sector. For example, In 1990s, Nike was accused of several labor onslaught and environment scandals. Since then, the brand has made a dramatic turnaround to being a role model of sustainability

Leading the sustainability movement

Driven by bold sustainable fashion innovators and an evolving consumer mindset, the fashion industry is entering a period of reflection and reinvention. Global fashion and apparel groups are beginning to invest in fashion tech startups and innovations. Foremost amongst these is the H&M Group which has introduced several sustainability initiatives since the last decade. The group is known to ensure fair wages at its factories by encouraging its manufacturing partners to implement wage management systems.

H&M has developed systems to isolate and remove wage costs from any price negotiations The brand produces 67 per cent of its product volume in factories that implement improved wage management systems, well exceeding their initial 50 per cent target. In the long term, H&M aims to change wage setting systems for the whole industry and, ultimately, entire countries. It also aims to adopt full circularity in its production and operations.

Using technology to adopt circularity

Fast fashion brands need to realize the dangers of climate change related supply disruptions on operations, says Hendrik Alpen, Sustainability Engagement Manager and Team Leader, H&M Group. They should adopt circularity through new technologies such as the Global Garment Collection Program. The ‘recycle-reuse-rewear’ approach can enable these brands to reuse 40 to 60 per cent of reclaimed materials with remaining materials being used for other applications such as making housing and car insulation, etc

H&M is also investing in a recycling technology launched by the Holy Grail of fashion. The group is collaborating with other companies and stakeholders to support their development. Two such companies are Worn Again Technologies, a polymer recycling startup, and HKRITA, whose full-loop hydrothermal method for recycling cotton and polyester blends is able to maintain the structural quality of the materials, a difficult feat to achieve.

Though the efforts of big brands like H&M are creditworthy, the sustainability movement can be successful only when small innovators and like-minded investors participate in it.

Kate Nightingale, Founder and Head-Consumer Pyschologist, Style Psychology says, consumers are socially conditioned to love everything that’s new. This explains the relentless popularity of fast fashion across the globe. Even though environmentalists have repeatedly warned about the hazards of fast fashion, its popularity continues to soar.

COVID-19 accelerates fast fashion popularity

The pandemic is likely to further accelerate the popularity of fast fashion. As the crisis has plunged many countries into recession and increased unemployment levels across the globe, consumers are likely to shift focus to affordable garments rather than sustainable ones. Even before the pandemic, consumer interest in sustainability was limited. Only 7 per cent of respondents to Global Fashion Agenda’s Pulse of the Fashion Industry report 2019 had said sustainability is the key deciding factor in their fashion purchases. Rather, they focused more on quality, value for money and the impact the garment made on the wearer’s appearance.

Though the lockdown has badly hurt fast fashion players that do not have a strong online presence but sales of big e-tailers have soared. For instance, Boohoo investors have increased their bet on the company even though the company has been accused of labor rights violation during the coronavirus outbreak in Leicester. Its largest independent shareholder Jupiter Asset Management increased its stake in the company from 9.6 to 10.1 per cent. Adam Cochrane, Analyst, Citibank expects Boohoo to successfully recover about half of its share price decline in the near term

Social media impact

The fast fashion model was established by brands like Zara and H&M in the 2000s. The entry of social media and online-only players elevated this model to new heights as ultra-fast fashion players, such as Boohoo, Fashion Nova and Missguided started offering influencer-led trends at dizzying speed.

One reason for the sustained popularity of fast fashion brands is their agility in adapting to new reality, opines Joaquin Villalba, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Nextail. These brands have swiftly tapped into powerful networks of influencers and micro-influencers to create a highly engaged community of shoppers.

Regulating the fashion business

Despite all this, there is a growing opportunity for big brands to market sustainable fashion. They are increasingly launching capsule collections featuring organic cotton, carbon offsetting and textile recycling. Their growing experiments in resale, fabric innovation and automation are an indication of their efforts towards remaining relevant and on the right side of consumer sentiment.

There is also growing push for a regulation to incentivize brands for their sustainability efforts. Along with over 90 retailers, 50 British MPs and other organizations, the British Retail Consortium issued a letter to Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary, urging the government to protect employees from exploitation. Despite these efforts, the resilience of the fast fashion industry is often attributed to its business model which represents an entire price point that consumers are accustomed to.