Elevate Textiles, owned denim mill, Cone Denim has hired Amie Borges as new Senior Vice President, commercial strategy. As per a Sourcing Journal report, Borges will lead the company’s global sales team and work closely with the product, operations and manufacturing teams to drive its key strategic objectives Borges will replace Tom Leonard who retired from as senior vice president of sales and product in July after 28 years service.

Borges is well-acquainted with the regions where Cone Denim manufacturers: China and Mexico. Prior to joining Cone Denim, She served in several leadership roles across luxury apparel brands, most recently as 7 for all Mankind’s’s Vice President-Sales for North America and Asia. Throughout her diverse roles, she successfully led brand transformations and revenue growth, while overseeing all aspects of product life cycles across North America, South America and Asia.

Borges holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising Management from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She will be based out of Cone’s New York office and will begin connecting with customers over the coming weeks.

A new report by non-profit organization Stand.earth lists Primark, Uniqlo and Marks & Spencers as laggards in removing fossil fuels from their supply chains and products. As per Edie news, the report titled ‘Fossil-Fuel Fashion Scorecard’, compares each brand’s commitments to decarboniszation with the actions it is already taking to transition away from fossil fuels in operations, the supply chains and in products.

Stand.earth gives each brand a grade for their efforts in climate advocacy, low-carbon logistics, low-carbon materials and low-carbon manufacturing. This last category takes into account energy efficiency and renewable energy procurement. An overall grade is also provided for each brand. Across the board, no brands score an ‘A’ grade. The highest grade, a 'B-', goes to Swiss outdoor wear brand Mammut, while 20 brands receive the lowest possible grade, 'F'. The F-graded brands include American Eagle, Giorgio Armani, Booho, Capri Holdings, Espirit, Everlane, Hugo Boss, Kering, LVMH, Marks & Spencer, MEC, On Running, Pentland, Prada, Primark, Salvatore Ferragamo, SKFK, Under Armour and Uniqlo.

Many of the brands that have received an F grade are signatories of one of the several industry coalitions working towards net-zero. Such initiatives include the UN Fashion Charter, WRAP’s Textile 2030 Scheme and The Fashion Pact.

Aditya Birla Group firm Grasim aims to increase the share of VSF and chlorine value-added products in its business to 40 per cent by 2025. The firm has earmarked over Rs 2,600 crore as capital expenditure for financial year 2022 in the Viscose Staple Fiber (VSF) business. The Aditya Birla Group is also investing in renewable energy businesses. It has tripled its renewable energy capacity in the past two years, aided by the Group’s focus on increasing the share of the renewable power mix in each of its large ABG businesses. The cumulative installed capacity is expected to rise to 845 MW by FY23 based on the current pipeline.

The group has started the trial production at its new brownfield vilayat project that is set to become one of the largest single-location VSF facilities in the world with state-of-the-art technology delivering world-class fiber to Indian spinners. The vilayat expansion project entailed an investment of over Rs 3,500 crore and the capacity utilization of the business recouped from single digit utilization levels to full utilization levels towards the end of the year

Earlier Birla had also announced a capex of up to $3 billion in the next five years by Hindalco to increase its capacity in India and overseas. Part of the capex will be deployed by Hindalco subsidiary, Novelis Inc for its auto-finishing lines in the US and China as well as for rolling and recycling capacity expansion in Brazil.

As per RealReal’s latest 2021 luxury resale report, Gucci is the most bought and sold brand in 2021. The report is based on the behavior of more than 23 million members of RealReal and the data behind more than 19 million items sold, including the lasting impact of a pandemic on how people buy and sell, the current state of luxury resale.

The report shows, Gucci’s purchases increased 62 per cent and outsourcing increased 61 per cent year-on-year. Generation X is Gucci’s No. 1 buyer and shipper. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada and Dior were amongst the other brands in the list of top five An emerging brand, Teflar’s sales increased 590 per cent this year. Shoppers have returned to their preppy roots in streetwear, and the outdoors have blended into streetstyle, making flagship products such as Yeezy and Supreme less popular, and brands such as Casablanca increased 358 per cent and Salomon by 188 per cent.

According to RealReal, more people have bought and sold in the circular economy over the past year, with 29 per cent buyers buying the first second-hand luxury goods in the past year. Shoppers are becoming more and more conscious consumers, with 40 per cent of RealReal shoppers looking to resell luxury goods instead of fast fashion, and 43 per cent of buyers to make sustainability luxury goods. It is listed as the main driving force for accepting resale.

Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA) has launched a program in collaboration with the Union Government to train and professionalize youngsters hitherto working as laborers in knitwear units.

Raja M Shanmugham, President, TEA says, through this program, the association aims to elevate these laborers as designers and master craftsmen who would be able to design fashionable wears of global standards.

He said lakhs of workers are employed in the knitwear units. Many unemployed youths make a beeline to Tiruppur to get a job and they end up as working in the assembly line. They use their physical prowess but not their hearts. The program SAMARTH (Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector) launched by the Ministry of Textiles intends to train 16,000 workers over the next two years as full time designers, dress makers and craftsmenm.

The 45-day residential program will grant a monthly stipend of Rs 14,000/- and refreshments to laborers. It will increase the competitiveness and productivity of the workers.

Fuelled by younger buyers’ worries about sustainability and duplicating ensembles, Urban Outfitters plans to launch Nuuly Thrift, an online resale store.

The parent company URBN has been in the vintage rejuvenation business since inception in 1970, Richard Hayne, CEO said, the company will capitalize on the altering customer behaviur to acquire market share in the fast increasing online resale industry.

Urban Outfitters has launched a new platform, Nuuly, where users can resell secondhand items. The company’s existing customers already have a penchant for thrifting and may be primed to use the new platform. Teens’ growing interest in thrifting could also threaten traditional apparel retailers as the popularity of buying and selling secondhand grows. Some young entrepreneurs are growing their side hustles selling clothes on thrifting platforms into full-time businesses.

The Taliban crisis has halted India’s textile exports to Afghanistan. Since its peak of 2019-20, India’s textile exports to Afghanistan dwindled back to $100 million in 2020-21. In the first four months of 2021-22, export totaled just $40 million, implying that it would have crossed $200 million had the crisis not erupted.

Since the past 20 years, India’s bilateral trade with Afghanistan has grown by leaps and bounds, peaking $1.50 billion in 2019-20 with increases in both, imports and exports. In 2020-21, India’s total exports to Afghanistan stood at $825 million, whereas imports were at $509 million.

Basic textile exports to Afghanistan comprising fibers, spun, filaments and fabric shipment had recently peaked to $375 million in 2019-20, accounting for about 4 per cent of total basic textile exported from India during the year. Almost all basic textile exports to Afghanistan were of fabric material. The major types of fabric export were those made of nylon, polyester filament, and of poly/viscose. About 12 per cent of all nylon and poly/viscose fabric exports were destined to Afghanistan and about 3 per cent of polyester filament fabric.

Sanjay Garg, President NITMA has appreciated the commerce ministry’s recommendation to impose Anti- Dumping Duty (ADD) on Polyester Spun Yarn, originating in or exported from China PR, Indonesia and Vietnam. He also appreciated the recently announced RoDTEP scheme for exporters covering entire textile value chain, the PLI scheme to encourage the MMF segment. Further, he appreciated the revoking of ADD on PTA which is the primary raw material for Polyester Staple Fibre (PSF), the setting up of Seven Mega Textile parks under MITRA scheme and extension of RoSCTL scheme for Garments & Made-ups, upto March 31, 2024

Siddharth Khanna , Managing Director, Arisudana Industries. ,Ludhiana & Head of NITMA’s MMF chapter, shared, NITMA members made several representations to all the pertinent authorities coupled with offline and online meetings. Also, members of NITMA and many other producers of PSY throughout the country have carried out an immensely meticulous exercise, amidst the pandemic, of collecting data from one of the most fragmented domestic industry consisting of more than 500 entities, so that the facts can be presented before the designated authority and eventually DGTRs’ final findings.

AATCC has launched TM212-2021, a new testing method to quantify fiber fragment release during home laundering.

AATCC TM212 was developed to provide a means to determine the mass of fiber fragments released in an accelerated laundering setting. This method provides the global industry with a consistent and uniform test method to follow. AATCC TM212 defines standard nomenclature with the terms fiber fragment and microfiber, which address discrepancies that have long been a source of confusion for many who work to tackle pollution.

Originally assumed to be a plastics problem, natural fibers are also appearing in marine life's food cycle. AATCC TM212 is not limited to man-made fibers, as it can be used to determine the fiber shedding potential of natural fibers and blends.

The standard is the result of collaboration, not only within AATCC committee RA100 Global Sustainability, but among stakeholders from several organizations including The Microfibre Consortium, headquartered in the UK, and the Cross Industry Agreement of European signatories.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 that made masks mandatory for general public has now emerged as a new fashion category with brands launching own designs.

Masks across all price ranges available in the market

As per a Euromonitor International research report spanning 46 global markets, Vietnam produced maximum affordable masks priced $0.60 per unit in 2020. This was followed by Egypt and Indonesia. On the other hand, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, China lead the countries producing most expensive fashion face masks by average unit price. Consumers in these countries have higher disposable income that allows them to purchase branded fashion items.

Most of these consumers opt for luxury and premium masks launched by high-end brands like Burberry and Dolce & Gabanna. These brands launched masks in the range of $89 to $122. The high popularity of these masks led to several online retailers selling fake versions for as low as $10. Masks in the mid-price range are also available in the market. Most of these are produced by sports brands like Under Armour which launched Iso-Chill fabric feel mask priced at $30. Nike also launched Pro Hyperwarm full-face mask range.

Future demand to remain robust

Several people avoided wearing face masks at the beginning of the pandemic. However, government legislations making mask compulsory, increased usage amongst general public. Nowadays, people wear masks on a regular basis as besides protecting against the virus, they also reduce exposure to air pollution, especially within great urban areas. Masks are also effective against allergies caused by pollen. Consumers are therefore, adding them to their accessories portfolio.

These factors will continue to boost future demand for fashion face masks. However, the volume and value of demand will contract as market stabilization will lead to consumers opting for higher quality items.

Efficiencies, limitations of fashion masks

Imposition of government rules increased usage of fashion masks across the globe. The US and France imposed restrictions on surgical face masks limiting its consumption to medical staff only. This gave extra boost to this product category driving up prices as demand overwhelmingly exceeded supply. However, some restrictions impacted the category negatively. For instance, the rules introduced by Germany in 2021, allowing people to use only N95/KN95/FFP2 masks. negatively impacted sale of fashion masks category.

Hence, fashion players need to have a better understanding of the efficiency of masks and restrictions on types of face masks allowed in public spaces. They need to seek certifications for their products in order to allow wider usage. Future evolution of face masks as a fashion category will depend on the pandemic’s evolution and laws introduced by governments. Brands that are able to offer innovative designs and features will dominate the category in long term.