Often mistook to be a part of China, Taiwan is on a mission to establish its independent identity. Aiming to develop its industries independently, Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture has stepped up efforts to promote all domestic industries, including fashion. In October, the ministry held the second edition of the Taipei Fashion Week in conjunction with other government bodies, publisher Hearst Taiwan and the Taiwan Textile Federation. The event aimed to promote local talent with names such as Shiatzy Chen, Douchanglee and Jamei Chen rubbing shoulders with up-and-comers Just in XX, UUIN and Fu Yue.

However, the real value of the Taiwanese fashion market can only be understood when it is not seen through the prism of its giant neighbour. The country sells four times more fashion products than those sold in Gulf states such as Qatar. Its super rich consumers make the country a major attraction for international luxury brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, who are expanding their operations in the country.

However, all these brands have the same set of VIP customers which increases competition amongst them. If they wish to attract them, they need to launch strong exclusive and limited-edition items. Home to one of the highest density of department stores and shopping malls in the world, the financial district of Xinyi in Taipei houses many luxury brands including Burberry, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Prada. Department stores in this district currently generate sales of TWD 60 billion a year (around $2 billion).

Emerging a world leader in performance textiles

Over the last 10 years, Taiwan has transformed itself into a world leader of functionally advanced, high performance and eco-friendly textiles. As figures from Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs reveal, the country has over 4,300 textile manufacturers who produce over $13.5 billion worth of textiles every year. Around 70 per cent of the world's outdoor sportswear is made from Taiwanese textiles. Also, a few Taiwanese apparel and textiles factory owners have extensive business interests in the mainland.

This monopoly in textile manufacturing enables Taiwan to strengthen its exports to China; particularly of sportswear apparels. Many of the country’s professionals are also being hired by Chinese brands to work in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities on the Chinese mainland.

Entry of Chinese and other brands increase competition

The exodus of Chinese and other international brands is threatening the existence of domestic brands who are struggling to gain market share over big international competitors. One such example is the Taiwanese brand Douchanglee, founded by Stephane Dou and Changlee Yugin in 1995, which aims to expand its operations in mainland China.

However, these brands are challenged by the travel ban imposed by China on Taiwanese individuals which also restricts them from making heavy investments in the country. They cannot invest in the domestic market as Taiwanese consumers having a good amount of disposable income are opting for famous international brands and those without are opting for affordable international brands like Mujis and Uniqlo. The products of Taiwanese designers do not cater to the mass market. They belong more to the premium category and are highly priced which hampers their sale.

China is not the only country that is challenging the existence of Taiwanese brands. Japan has long been the favorite for Taiwanese shoppers to adopt or adapt fashion. In recent years, many Korean brands too have been sweeping Taiwan’s market. The country will therefore, need to step up efforts to engage with its partners.

The next edition of Denim Show will be held from March 19-21, 2020 at Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai. Denim Show, a concurrent show with Gartex texprocess has been providing a platform for all the denim players and industry professionals to converge together for networking. The show also has effective buyer-seller networking assisting them in forging long lasting professional bonds. The show is beneficial for all companies, big or small, that aim to create a space for itself in this highly competitive market.

The show’s New Delhi edition is already popular amongst industry professionals. It became the largest denim value chain show in the country with its 2019 edition clocking record number of exhibitors and visitors.

This year, participation has been confirmed by some of the leading names in denim including Raymond UCO Denim Pvt. Ltd., Jindal Textiles, Nandan Denim Limited, Ginni International, Arvind Limited, Partap Spintex Pvt. Ltd., Vinod Denim Limited, Anil Exports, LNJ Denim (Unit RSWM Ltd.), Oswal Denims, K.G. Denim Ltd., Vishal Fabrics Ltd., Ultra Denim Pvt. Ltd., Mahak Synthetic Mills Pvt. Ltd., Hans Denim (Mahak Creation Pvt. Ltd.), Deval Distributor, Siddhi Weaves Pvt. Ltd., PP Texo Denim, Suryalakshmi Cotton Mills Limited, Anubha Industries, Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft – India, Vardhman Threads, Dystar India Pvt. Ltd., Indorama Industries Limited (INVIYA), amongst several others.

These companies will showcase their best-in-class products, solutions and technologies, enabling buyers to explore endless sourcing options for their business ventures.

The shows are the result of the combined strengths of MEX Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd. and Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India

Sri Lanka’s apparel exports registered exponential growth to reach US$ 6 billion in revenue by the end of the year continuing with the growth momentum recorded last year. Last year, apparel exports topped US$ 5 billion for the first time in the country’s history. The apparel and textile industry contributes six percent to Sri Lanka’s GDP while accounting for 40 percent of the country’s exports.

However, apparel export earnings have declined in December by 1.71 percent (YoY) to US$ 460 million due to a slowdown in key EU and US markets.

The country’s apparel industry targets six percent YoY growth in exports this year, moving ahead with plans to set up a 200-acre fabric park with foreign investments in collaboration with the Board of Investment in the Eastern province, eyeing to attract large-scale orders by reducing lead times with locally-sourced fabrics.

Considering the slowdown in growth in the mature clothing markets, the Sri Lankan apparel industry has been planning to diversify its export base in BRIC countries, particularly to India and China. Industry leaders emphasise that the proposed FTA with China and the Economic and Technology Co-operation Agreement with India are crucial to break into the Chinese and Indian markets. However, Sri Lanka’s FTA negotiations have come to a standstill at present.

"The fashion industry is often referred to as the second-most-polluting business in the world as it contends with issues like overproduction, chemical use, carbon emissions and waste. Fashion companies have become increasingly preoccupied with their sustainability credentials"

The fashion industry is often referred to as the second-most-polluting business in the world as it contends with issues like overproduction, chemical use, carbon emissions and waste. Fashion companies have become increasingly preoccupied with their sustainability credentials. Understanding their angst, entrepreneur Jessica Schreiber, set up her a non-profit organisation FabScrap in 2016. 

Since 2016, FabScrap has helped New York’s fashion studios recycle their design-room discards including mutilated garments, dead-stock rolls and swatches

So far, the organisation has collected close to half a million pounds of fabric from the design studios of large retailers like Express, J. Crew and Marc Jacobs and independent clothiers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Their discards have been shredded and recycled into stuffing and insulation or resold to fashion students, educators and artists.

It began by shipping swimwear in compostable bags and made long-term commitments to the materials it purchased. To cut excess inventory, the brand moved away from the fashion cycle and the industry norm of placing orders on projection.

Tracking waste a challenge 

However, there are many challenges on the way. For it instance, it is difficult for the company to ensure that consumers and retailers actually compost the bags. But now, other brands are getting on board with changes at the design, manufacturing and distributional levels.

It’s hard to pinpoint how much waste is created before a garment even reaches the consumer. Factory waste is not tracked by outside agencies. Supply chains are now so complex and reliant on remote contractors and subcontractors that the companies can’t account for all the materials.

Even if a company wants to find out how much fabric waste it creates. It is very difficult for it to research this as different factories have different processes. The company works with different fibers sourced from all over the world. For instance, its ‘Good Wool’, comes from a farm in Tasmania and is scoured, spun and dyed at a mill in Italy before it is warehoused and sold around the world.

Outdated processes 

The recycling processes are similarly decades behind. In the back corner of the warehouse is one of FabScrap’s two shops, where it sells many of the larger pieces its employees and volunteers find among the scraps. On any given day, some fashion students stop by, shopping and drawing inspiration from the ends of dead-stock rolls that are cheaper here than at fabric stores in the city.

In June, FabScrap opened a second shop, on a block in the garment district teeming with secondhand shops and just a stone’s throw from FIT. The shop stocks rolls of baby blue suede and white cotton with geometric fil coupé accents. Above the shelves were nearly full cones of thread in colors that evoked a Pantone guide. Since opening, the ore has served 4,800 customers. Next year, FabScrap plans to set up operations on the West Coast.

Timberland’s revenue decreased four per cent in the third quarter. Solid momentum in apparel, outdoor footwear and China was not enough to offset challenging conditions in men’s footwear in the Americas and Europe, particularly in the classics business. Men’s non-classics and women’s performed relatively better as the company’s diversification strategy continues to evolve. For fiscal 2020 Timberland’s sales are expected to decline between one per cent and two per cent. Full-year growth is expected to be impacted by planned business model changes.

Timberland expects growth for the coming year to be challenging. Only 25 per cent of Timberland’s business is B2C with the wide majority of the brand’s business focused on wholesale. With Timberland’s poor holiday sales and resultant high inventories in the marketplace, that means there will be a struggle to grow next year as many of the wholesalers base their next year buys and the order books are set based on the performance they just saw.

VF Corp acquired Timberland in 2011. But sales have mostly declined in recent years. In the fiscal year ended March 2019, Timberland’s revenue was 15 per cent of VF Corp’s total. By category, the fastest growth for Timberland is expected to come in women’s footwear, followed by apparel and other and men’s footwear.

Pakistan is trying to increase its textile exports. Presently, Pakistan’s share is 1.6 per cent in the world textile trade. Efforts are on to increase this to three per cent by 2025. The potential of home-grown cotton will be fully utilized augmented by manmade fiber/filament to boost value-added exports and become a major player in the global textile supply chain. Among the objectives are restoring the profitability of cotton farmers by increasing cotton yields, improving the quality of cotton and decreasing the cost of production for farmers, strengthening the manmade fiber/filament sector to make this chain internationally competitive and export oriented, long-term financing facility for the entire textile value chain, revival of impaired textile capacity and establishment of textile clusters and export processing zones with plug and play facilities.

An ambitious strategy has been formulated to move from low value added semi-processed textile exports to high value-added garments and fashion articles. To improve job creation, productivity and exports, the investment-to-GDP ratio will be raised to around 20 per cent.

Pakistan was a leading player in the textile trade but over the last decade its textile sector growth has remained dismal owing to several policy limitations and the lack of an enabling environment necessary for industries to flourish.

Premiere Vision New York took place on January 21 and 22, 2020. The show featured 205 exhibitors from 25 countries. The event was a stage for new fabrics and trims for spring/summer 2021 and the focus was on sustainability. Wares of 30 selected eco-responsible exhibitors were exhibited along with signage with actionable tips to become more environmentally sensible. One of the show’s three seminars was dedicated to the sustainability topic while the other two discussed trends and colors for the season. Some of the top trends were tone-on-tone, bluish hues, foamy surfaces, organic cottons and silks, terry-like tweeds, chubby flower prints, light and wavy undertones, iridescent fabrics, rippled surfaces and hybrid textiles made from plant and artificial fibers.

There were just a handful of companies serving the active or casual wear sector. Polartec displayed its Power Air collection, a mid-layer fabric that sheds five times as less microfibers thanks to encapsulated fibers on the inside. Polartec’s sturdy fabrics are constructed to last a long time. Japan Textile Salon featured 16 Japanese mills as well as a trend area. Japan Blue presented standard cotton selvedges and specialty offerings such as laminated denim and material made from organic cotton and then eco-dyed.

Liberty Fairs was held in the US on January 20 to 22, 2020. It presented fall/winter collections that take denim seriously. Enduring designs, winterized constructions and garments that allow men to show their individual style—from raw denim that ages over time to crystal-embellished jeans—offered buyers a variety of options.

While the industry is full of denim brands providing a barrage of marketing around their sustainability capsule collections, at Liberty Fairs brands chose to focus on enduring design and long-term solutions. And during a time in men’s wear that celebrates fashion statements and individuality, denim brands delivered with embellished pieces. Momotaro Jeans featured its new pieces, including its bestselling raw denim that was updated with an embroidered accent on the back of the jeans. Its logo—two horizontal stripes—is displayed in bright blue on the jeans’ back pocket. Naked & Famous proudly displayed its variety of heavyweight denim, which it considers its specialty. Its standout piece included a 22-oz. sanforized dark-wash denim with extreme texturing throughout. Though a lifestyle brand, Scotch & Soda also branched into heavyweight denim with a matching denim jacket and jeans set. Available in a faded black wash, the set is made from rigid denim and featured western-inspired details.

Buyers in the US and Europe are not paying enough for clothing made in India. From 1994 to 2017, the real dollar price paid by American buyers declined 62.81 per cent. The real dollar price of blouses made of synthetic fabric exported to the European Union fell by 31.93 per cent from 2010 to 2017, and the real dollar price paid by buyers for cotton T-shirts slid by 41.4 per cent. At the same time, speed to market has accelerated. From 2012 to 2017, average lead times—that is, the time given to suppliers to source fabric and other inputs and make and ship an order—fell eleven per cent from 87.39 days to 77.67 days. Yet buyers took longer to pay suppliers after orders shipped, stretching the time from 47 to 54 days.

Buyers often change order specifications or sometimes after the start of a production cycle. Workers in India, too, are feeling the pinch. Production targets have moved from daily goals to hourly targets. Verbal abuse and sexual harassment have likewise intensified. Workers are yelled at by their supervisors for not fulfilling production targets. Female workers are sexually harassed and the subject of physical abuse at work. Below-subsistence wages remain a concern.

Leading streetwear and sustainable menswear show Jacket Required received positive and upbeat feedback during this week’s show with the new curated layout working well for exhibitors and buyers alike. Response to the show’s move to its new Saatchi Gallery home and increased focus on sustainability, premium and tailoring sectors was equally well-received. A steady volume of orders was taken, with visitors in attendance including End Clothing, Asos, Article, John Lewis, Urban Outfitters, The Project Store, Filati, Stuarts, Fenwick, Natterjacks, Sefton, Anthropology and Harvey Nichols.

Showroom A, dedicated to a host of sustainable brands including Dashel, Conscious Step, Komodo, United Change Makers, Thalassophy, Revolution and Raeburn, maintained a buzzy atmosphere throughout the two-day show. Christopher Raeburn said: “We’re a really proud British brand. We’ve been going now for 11 years and we’ve found that there’s so much more conversation around what we’re doing around responsible design; the idea of remaking, recycling and reducing. We’re so proud that Jacket Required has been so supportive in what we’re doing, it’s a really natural alignment. We’re really pleased and proud with the space that we have here, and we’ve already met some really good people this morning, so, so far, so good. For us [exhibiting at Jacket Required] is a bit of a no-brainer. It’s an opportunity to meet directly with all of the amazing British stores and press that we have around the country and build the momentum really.”

Jacket Required will be making its debut in SW3 from the 22nd - 23rd July 2020, offering showroom spaces for Sustainable, Contemporary, Streetwear and Tailoring sectors.