Victoria’s Secret revenues for the second quarter fell by six per cent. This has been attributed to decelerated customer traffic trends across the retail environment throughout the quarter.

Among the brand’s aims are to grow market share in the key categories of bras, intimates and beauty, while being more inclusive and attract a broader customer base with more compelling storytelling in stores and on digital platforms, build a global footprint, add new brands, and build a modern, high-performing organization to deliver efficiencies and invest in people and culture. Expectations are to generate a significant cash flow to invest in growth and also return value to shareholders through a capital allocation strategy.

Third-quarter operating income and earnings per share are expected to fall at the high-end of its previously announced guidance, despite a high single-digit sale dip. The lingerie giant now estimates third-quarter operating income to be towards the high end of its previously communicated guidance range and earnings are estimated to be towards the high end of the previously communicated guidance range. The updated operating income and earnings per diluted share guidance is based on a net sales decline in the high single digit range compared to last year, which is consistent with the company’s previously communicated guidance.

Bangladesh’s export-oriented apparel sector has been hit by a power crisis. Production in many readymade garment factories has dropped by at least 40 per cent after the gas and electricity supply situation deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.

Exporters are facing trouble producing the existing orders due to the shortage of electricity. They fear that if Bangladesh cannot produce and deliver the current orders on time, the confidence of international buyers will also decline amid a falling demand for textile products in the global market.

Bangladesh’s garment exports fell seven per cent in September 2022 for the first time in 13 months. In the midst of the slide in foreign currency reserves, both export earnings and remittance inflows decreased significantly in September 2022.

Demand for diesel is increasing in the readymade garment sector as factory owners are forced to use generators to keep production uninterrupted in their units amid frequent and prolonged power cuts.

Production in spinning and dying mills has decreased by more than 50 per cent, which has created a shortage of fabric for the knitwear sector. Earnings of workers have decreased as the energy shortage has squeezed the scope for overtime duty. Bangladesh exporters fear that if the shortage of gas and electricity in the industry continues, Bangladesh will lose its share of orders being diverted from China.

US imports of garments from January 2022 to August 2022 increased by 37 per cent. Import values in August were 11 per cent higher than imports done in July 2022.August also proved to be the best month for US apparel buyers in 2021.

Most big retailers in the US are holding back new inventories and are not placing fresh orders in their partner factories located worldwide. On the other hand, because of the fast-approaching holiday season in the US, buyers don’t want to see bottlenecks in supplies due to logistics issues.

In the eight-month period, the top Asian countries – China (up 37 per cent), Vietnam (up 33 per cent), Bangladesh (up 53 per cent), India (up 56 per cent) and Indonesia (up 56 per cent) –all upped their respective shipments to the US on a yearly basis.In the first seven months of 2022,imports of textiles and apparel by the US rose by 29 per cent. US textile and apparel imports consist of cotton products, manmade fiber products, wool and silk products, and products from silk and vegetable fibers.Apparel constituted the bulk of textiles and garments imported by the US in January 2022 to July 2022.

Titas (Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show) is being held in Taiwan, October 12 to 14, 2022. This is one of Asia’s leading trade shows for innovation in textile applications. Exhibitors from the US, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, UK, Switzerland and Sweden, among others, will present their newest developments.

Among the exhibits are eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes for cleaner production, circularity, reducing carbon emissions and achieving zero discharge of hazardous substances; textiles and apparel with multifunctional purposes for key application areas such as sports, outdoor, fitness and health and wellbeing; and personal protective equipment focusing on the development of personal protective and medical textile products using advanced textile technology.

The area dedicated to intelligent manufacturing will showcase hi-tech automation systems and solutions to enhance production efficiency, streamline processes and provide value-rich data in order to adapt to changing market and consumer needs.Smart textiles will also occupy a significant area of the show considering that research and development are advancing fast around smart textiles, and companies are combining cloud computing and wireless communication technology for textile applications.

A number of forum and seminars related to circular textiles and sustainability will also be part of the event’s program as well as a digital, interactive and intelligent exhibition format that online visitors will be able to visit.

Ralph Lauren is a member of the US Cotton Trust Protocol (Trust Protocol). This membership will support Ralph Lauren in its efforts to scale sustainable practices in US cotton production.

Launched in 2020, the US Cotton Trust Protocol is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, recognised by Textile Exchange and Forum for the Future, and part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Cotton 2025 Sustainable Cotton Challenge, Cotton 2040 and Cotton Up initiatives.

The Trust Protocol drives continuous improvement in six key sustainability areas—land use, soil carbon, water management, soil loss, greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency. The Trust Protocol integrates these sustainability metrics from Field to Market’s Fieldprint Platform, enabling enrolled growers to measure the environmental impacts of their operation and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.The program is designed to enable improvements in soil health and better management of natural resources

Iconic global luxury brand Ralph Lauren is working to improve soil health through programs that support regenerative agriculture practices and rigorous impact measurement, believing that these efforts are fundamental to building a resilient cotton industry in the US and globally.Cotton makes up more than three-quarters of the brand’s total material use and Ralph Lauren is committed to ensuring this critical fiber is fully sustainably-sourced in its portfolio by 2025.

T Rajkumar is chairman of the Product Advisory Committee. While seeking wholehearted cooperation and support from the committee members, Rajkumar as Chairman of PAC said that most of the contract specifications have been modified to curb speculation and protect the interests of the entire cotton value chain including the farmers.

An urgent concern of the cotton textile industry has been the unprecedented volatility in raw cotton prices in domestic as well as international markets. In a bid to address the price volatility of cotton, stakeholders from the sector represented the matter to SEBI and MCX with a request to take measures to make the futures market more representative of the market trends and address the concerns arising out of the volatility.As short-term corrective measures, the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) suspended trading in all-cotton futures contracts on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) from January 2023 and subsequent contracts were temporarily not available for trading till the revised contract specifications are finalized.

For long term solutions, in a joint meeting of SEBI with the MCX and cotton value-chain participants, it was decided that the cotton contract specifications shall be revisited and modified in consultation with the product advisory committee of the exchange and other stakeholders.

North India’s cotton production estimate has been revised downward to 51 lakh bales of 170 kg each for marketing year 2022-23.

The Indian Cotton Association’s earlier estimate for the region comprising Punjab, Haryana, upper Rajasthan, and lower Rajasthan was 58 lakh bales. Slower growth of the cotton plant is expected to lead to lower productivity.

Traders expected an upward trend in cotton prices due to low production, which was witnessed on Monday as cotton prices increased by Rs 75 per maund of 37.2 kg to reach Rs 7250 per maund for ready trade.Growth of the cotton plant remained slow in the current season. Therefore, average productivity may decline which will lead to lower production. Lower Rajasthan and lower Haryana continue to get rainfall during the last lap of the current monsoon season, the impact of which is yet to be ascertained. If the crop gets affected by the disruption in weather, the output may decline further.

Earlier, ICA had estimated that cotton production to increase by 23 per cent. Last year, late rain and pink ball worm attack severely affected north India’s cotton production. The Indian Cotton Association was incorporated in 1965 and is majorly into textile manufacturing.

In July 2022, the import volume of US textiles and apparel was up by five per cent year-on-year. The import volume increased by 12 per cent year-on-year. In August 2022 US textile and apparel imports were down 0.6 per cent year-on-year, ending 24 consecutive months of positive year-on-year growth since August 2020. US textile and apparel imports in August were up 20 per cent year-on-year.

Among them, the import volume of clothing increased by seven per cent year-on-year and the import volume of clothing was up 28 per cent year-on-year, setting a new high in recent years.The fact that US textile import volume reduced at a time when clothing imports increased reflects the structural changes in product imports. However, the growth of import volume still outpaced import volume.

The total amount of textiles and garments imported from China in August 2022 was down 12 per cent year-on-year. Among them, the total amount of clothing imported into China increased by five per cent year-on-year.

Total US garment imports slowed for the fourth consecutive month, but still maintained a positive growth. In August, the growth rate of imports from China was slightly lower than the total import growth, which represented a decline for three consecutive months.

India has committed to promote sustainability and circularity within its textile sector. A unit will be created within the ministry of textiles specifically dedicated to sustainability issues. Although the Indian textile sector is gradually being equipped with common effluent treatment plants, the sector is still facing effluent management problems due to the unavailability of data on waste generations from processing clusters.

The success of the Indian textile industry is largely based on an abundance of raw materials, particularly cotton. India is one of the world’s pillars of the textile and clothing industry. In addition to its massive domestic market, the sector is the European Union’s fourth largest supplier of clothing and its third largest supplier of textiles. India is also the third largest supplier of textiles and clothing to the US.

So Indian textile exports have a huge growth potential. With some 45 million employees in its textile industry, India is also the world's second largest cotton producer, behind China, with six million tons produced in the 2021-2022 season. This position will prove important in the coming months after the destruction of a large part of the cotton crops of its neighbor, Pakistan, which is the fifth largest cotton producer in the world.

Garment workers are being retrenched in the Philippines because of the global economic slowdown. There are 2,80,000 workers in the apparel, textile, garment, and leathergoods industry in the country. About four percent of workers have been retrenched. If conditions worsen, that can go up to ten percent.

The US is the biggest market of Philippine apparel, textile and leathergoods but the average US consumer is not confident of spending as they are worried about another possible recession and would rather hold back spending in the next 12 months. Orders are being canceled midstream. Aside from the global economic slowdown, other issues are disruption in the global supply chain, labor costs, and access to raw materials, logistics and compliance risk issues.

In the meantime the industry in the Philippines is hoping for a bilateral free trade deal with the US, which could be through a sectoral FTA or revival of the previous Save Act proposal, and the ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It is also pushing for the expansion of the list of garment products eligible for zero-duty under the Generalized System of Preferences. There are only 24 tariff lines for leather goods under the GSP.