The pandemic has prompted clothing subscription company Rent the Runway to shut all of stores for good. Rent the Runway made this decision in order to focus investments on digital segment and adding more drop boxes for customers. The company will turn its New York City flagship store into a permanent drop-off site, while stores in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC will be closed.

Rent the Runway plans to continue to grow its network of drop box locations. The company has partnered We Work, Nordstrom and West Elm so far. In March, it laid off all retail staff to reassess business model. Costs were cut by 51 per cent at the onset of the pandemic. And it rewrote the terms with its suppliers to pivot to a revenue-sharing consignment model, away from a wholesale model that required additional capital upfront, without a guaranteed payback.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) has formed a coalition to fight counterfeit goods on online platforms such as Amazon.com Inc. The coalition, called ‘The Buy Safe America Coalition’, will back legislation that would require digital marketplaces to verify information about third-party merchants on their platform, RILA said.

The lobbying push comes at a time when Amazon has been under scrutiny from lawmakers and the White House over sale of counterfeit items. In addition to RILA, the Toy Association, American Apparel & Footwear Association, the Fashion Jewelry and Accessories Trade Association and other industry groups are also joining the coalition.

RILA is the US trade association for leading retailers. The association partners with leading retailers to meet the challenges of a dynamic economy. Through collaboration and thought leadership, we advance ideas that foster free markets, competition, economic growth, and sustainability.

The Union Ministry of Textiles, plans to set up a testing lab for PPE coveralls in Ludhiana, Punjab. The lab will conduct critical blood penetration test along with other required tests for PPE coveralls. The lab will be set up in the textile committee office of Ludhiana for which MoT, India has supplied machinery to the committee in order to conduct tests like blood penetration and bursting strength.

This lab has come as a huge relief for PPE manufacturers and the manufacturers of technical textiles as, until now, they have sent product samples to far off places like Coimbatore for testing. Sibin C, Director -Industries and Commerce, Punjab informed that COVID-19 has made the state government push Ludhiana textile manufacturers to develop PPE kits in-house. Around 141 manufacturers have already got their products approved with the help of Centre and State Governments, but many new as well as established units still wait for approval.

The audit and calibration of supplied machinery will be conducted by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

For its Fall/Winter 2020 collection, Guess introduced Michele Morrone as the new brand ambassador for mens’ collection Morrone is an international actor and singer best known for his lead role in the successful Netflix film 365 Days, one of the most popular movies in Netflix history that is currently streaming in over 200 countries.

Created by Paul Marciano, Chief Executive Officer, Guess, the holiday advertising campaign was shot by fashion photographer Nima Benati at Villa Erba in Lake Como, Italy. The campaign marks the launch of the new Guess’s men’s collection, reflecting its new focus on elevated, classic, and high-quality styles which is perfectly in-line with Michele Morrone’s personality, says Marciano.

These images will be featured in upcoming issues of top international fashion and lifestyle magazines and in all its retail stores.

A team of the biggest US mall owner, Simon Property Group, and apparel licensing firm Authentic Brands Group (ABG) has been chosen by a bankruptcy court as the winning bidder to acquire denim brand Lucky for $140.1 million. The two — in a venture known as Sparc —are set to assume the role of core licensee and operating partner for Lucky, overseeing all sourcing, product design and development, running all of the retailer’s stores in North America, and its e-commerce business.

Lucky has more than 175 stores in North America, and its merchandise is also often found in department stores like Macy’s. The clothing brand filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early July, falling victim to the pain that has been inflicted upon the retail industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

ABG, which acquired a number of retailers over the years including Barneys New York and Nine West, will own Lucky’s intellectual property and oversee all licensing partnerships, new business and brand development. The acquisition will boost ABG’s portfolio to over $13 billion in global retail sales annually.

Apparel retail sales in Japan has gone down by 40 per cent in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019,says recent data by Japan Department Stores Association (JDSA). The decline has been noted both in the first quarter from January-March of 2020 as well as in the COVID-19 hit quarter April-June. A monthly surge can be seen from mid-May onwards, as the state of emergency was lifted in stages in the entire country from May 14, 2020 before being ending fully on May 25, 2020.

As a result, growth in June ’20 over May ’20 was overwhelming, which signals a significant number of shoppers have come out to purchase apparels post-pandemic. The yearly decline shows lingering fears of infections in the country amongst majority of fashion shoppers. Monthly surge of 217 per cent was massive in June ’20 over May ’20 which is a clear indication that rebounding of apparel market post-outbreak has started. In COVID-19 affected quarter from April-June ’20, Japanese apparel sales revenues declined 66.81 per cent to $1.27 billion. Sales in January-March ’20 quarter declined 22.30 per cent to $3.28 billion from the same period of 2019.

Revenues earned from women’s wear in Q2 ’20 was valued at $ 817.24 million, a decline of 66.42 per cent from Q2 ’19 and 60.14 per cent from the preceding quarter of 2020 when it accommodated $2.05 billion. Menswear clocked in $290.40 revenues in COVID-19 hit quarter April-June ’20, while January-March ’20 could collect $709.25 million from its sales.

June ’20, sales in kidswear fell 7.40 per cent over June ’19. However, a monthly surge of 49.66 per cent was recorded in kidswear sales in June ’20 over May ’20.

Americans have increased their retail purchases by 1.2 per cent in July, with gains in appliances and clothing boosting sales to pre pandemic levels. Sales at retail stores and restaurants have now risen for three straight months, after plunges in March and April, when the pandemic shuttered businesses and paralyzed the economy.

Still, much of the spending was fueled by government aid that had put more money in people's pockets but has since expired. With Americans' income now likely shrinking, economists expect a drop in spending and a potential weakening of growth. Economists forecast growth rebounding in the July-September quarter at roughly 20 per cent annual rate, though that pace would still leave the economy far below pre-pandemic levels.

The government's figures mask a huge shakeout in the retail industry, with Americans pulling sharply back on in-person shopping and spending more online. More than 40 retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection this year, about half of them since the pandemic. That's about double the number for all of 2019.

Many retailers had been ailing before the pandemic. But analysts envision another wave of retail bankruptcies in coming months that would include some companies that were financially healthy before the virus struck. In recent weeks, Ann Taylor's parent company declared bankruptcy. So did the Lord & Taylor department store chain and the discount store chain Stein Mart, which had been in business for 112 years.

British and European luxury brands — hoping to duck out of the crossfire of the Airbus-Boeing trade fight — are requesting he Trump administration to adjust the 25 percent tariffs set on many luxury goods imported to the US

Washington raised the import tariff on certain high-end goods from Europe to 25 percent, hitting cashmere knitwear, merino wool and Savile Row suits hard and in retaliation for subsidies paid to manufacture the Airbus fleet of planes. The move was sanctioned by the World Trade Organization and the US has the right to review and tweak the tariffs, which could go as high as 100 percent, every 180 days.

The EU, which has accused the U.S. of aiding Airbus competitor Boeing, might also retaliate with tariffs of its own on U.S. made goods.

Beth Hughes, Vice President-Trade and Customs Policy, American Apparel & Footwear Association, said this dispute has already caused a negative impact on the industry. This retaliation only hurts those American workers by raising costs, costs which are passed on to U.S. consumers in the form of higher prices, which, in turn, lowers sales.

The Chinese government reduced tariffs on products imported from Bangladesh under its Preferential Tariff Program—a move that dates back to items imported from July 1. Now, nearly all Bangladeshi products (97 percent) will see reduced duties moving forward, up from 60 percent prior to the news.

According to China Briefing, a publication produced by professional services firm Dezan Shira and Associates, China will now give duty-free export benefits to an additional 5,161 products from Bangladesh, bringing the number of exempted products to 8,256. That total includes items that are admissible under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).

Exporters in Bangladesh have enjoyed the bulk of these duty-free benefits since 2010, the publication said, with items like jute, plastics, raw hide, skins, frozen fish and crabs, live eels, sesame seeds and cotton waste products being the most popular imports to China. But despite the duty benefits that the country has enjoyed over the past decade, China Briefing reported that exports haven’t shown substantial growth.

Export Promotion Bureau data shows that during the 2014-2015 fiscal year, total exports to China amounted to $791 million. By 2019, that number had only increased to $831 million. By May, looking back at the fiscal year that began in July 2019, exports amounted to $557 million.

However, there’s one area that is trending positively: ready-made garments. Due to loopholes created by a clash between APTA and China’s Preferential Tariff Agreement, the incentives offered by each agreement aren’t synchronized. Those issues actually present an area of opportunity for Bangladeshi exporters looking to bring clothing to the Chinese market.

The Seam, a leading provider of food and agriculture software solutions and Qualified Data Management Partner (QDMP) with Field to Market, has developed the Trust Protocol. The platform includes a mass-balance chain of custody model and a bale registration and verification process that digitally links cotton production to the sustainability profile of the producer. Over the past 35 years, U.S. cotton has made significant improvements in growing cotton responsibly.

Brands and retailers can join the US Cotton Trust Protocol, a new system for responsibly grown cotton that will provide annual data for six areas of sustainability in line with the U.N. Sustainability Goals. This year-over-year data, available for the first time, will allow brands and retailers to better measure progress towards meeting sustainability commitments.

The Trust Protocol underpins and verifies sustainability progress through sophisticated data collection and independent third-party verification. By working with Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and Control Union Certifications North America, the Trust Protocol enables brands and retailers to better track the cotton entering their supply chain. Brands who become members of the Trust Protocol will have access to aggregate year-over-year data on water use, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, soil carbon and land use efficiency.

The Trust Protocol is a complement to existing sustainability programs and is designed from the ground up to fit the unique cotton mass-growing environment of the United States.