Skechers a brand from Skechers USA, Inc has been awarded Men’s Footwear Brand of the Year for the second year at the Drapers Footwear Awards 2022. Skechers was praised by the panel of expert judges for its unique ability to cater to a variety of consumer tastes and they commended the brand on its strong sales growth, recognizing the menswear market is the hardest to crack within the industry.

In 2019 and 2020, Skechers was recognized by Drapers as Women’s Brand of the Year, followed by Men’s Brand of the Year in 2021. Drapers Magazine is the market-leading title offering unparalleled access to the UK fashion market, and the Drapers Footwear Awards are the most respected and prestigious in the footwear retail industry.

In addition to retired football player Jamie Redknapp, celebrity product endorsees for Skechers' collections for men in the UK include music artist Willie Nelson; golfers Colin Montgomerie, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Billy Andrade; and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, as well as a slate of retired sports stars such as footballer Michael Ballack; American football players and broadcasters Tony Romo, Howie Long and Cris Carter; and iconic boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.

The Republic of India and the United Kingdom concluded the fourth round of talks for an India-UK Free Trade Agreement on June 24 after addressing 20 policy areas.

The talks were carried out in a hybrid fashion and some of the participating teams met in person in London while the majority of officials joined the technical talks virtually. The next round of negotiations, which will be the fifth round to date, are scheduled to take place in New Delhi next month, according to the UK Government.

Union Minister PiyushGoyal had stated while the fourth round of talks were still ongoing that he is confident that the India-UK FTA will be completed before the festive season of Diwali. Goyal also said that two of the three main areas that Indian industry needs to focus on to boost trade are garments and fashion jewelry, along with meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions, which he is confident the FTA will aid.

Denim brand Diesel has launched a new logo ‘The Big D’ with an aim to position itself as a premium lifestyle denim brand. The new D logo will now be seen across all categories as the new branding of Diesel.

The brand is shifting gears and moving towards being an alternative to luxe denim brands and has launched the SS'22 collection which includes footwear, clothing, and accessories.

Diesel retails in India through a joint venture partnership with Reliance Brands Limited. Diesel has 12 stores in India and also sells online through its website and e-commerce platforms like Ajio and Tata cliqLuxe.

British Wool has purchased new premises in Selkirk, which will replace its current depot in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders from the 2023 wool season.

The new site provides a more modern and spacious working environment, with increased capacity for wool grading and storage, providing more flexibility for the business and improved service to members. This development comes on the back of the sale of the Irvine site in 2021 and enables British Wool to optimise wool collection and processing costs in the region, ultimately helping improve wool prices for all British Wool members.

For local members delivering wool this season the arrangements will remain the same and there will continue to be no deductions for transport for wool delivered to an approved British Wool collection site.

Reviving and revitalizing face-to-face business meetings through the physical format, the 9th Intex South Asia – Bangladesh Edition concluded on a positive note in Dhaka.

The biggest international textiles sourcing show for fibers, yarns, fabrics, trims and more for the apparel industry was held from June 16-18, 2022, at the International Convention City Bashundhara, Dhaka. The show was attended by 4,860 trade visitors from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Malaysia, Brazil, Italy, Germany and more.

During the course of the expo, Intex South Asia once again presented the globally renowned Interactive Business Forum Seminar Series (IBF), hosting trailblazing industry seminars and workshops by global industry experts on India-Bangladesh business ties, green manufacturing, textile business and investment opportunities in Africa, latest digital technology to support RMG industry and logistics and supply chain with industry leaders and experts from the textile and apparel industry of South Asia.

The trends showcase at Intex South Asia had representations from Italtex, an Italian Trends Studio that showcased Fabric Trends for Fall Winter 23/24 & Spring Summer 2024 Collection; Pantone Connect with Live Colour Swatches on display for visitors and Fashion Snoops USA with their trends forecast. Also present were the Bangladesh Handloom Board showcased “Dhaka Muslin” with other traditional textiles and the BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology (BUFT) whose students presented innovative and sustainable fashion “Made in Bangladesh”.

For the first time, Bangladesh is participating in Techtextil 2022, which is expected to provide an opportunity to export high-value technical textile products to the $200 billion global technical textile market.

As per Saiful Islam, Commercial Counselor, Bangladesh Embassy in Berlin, the event will help Bangladesh diversify exports to technical textiles which many BGMEA members specialize in. It will help them represent Bangladesh at such international expos.

Held in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from June 21 to 24, 2022, Techtextil presented international exhibitors who showcased the entire spectrum of technical textiles, functional apparel textiles and textile technologies. Texprocess, the leading trade fair for the apparel and textile processing industry, and the Heimtextil Summer Special, international trade fair for home and contract textiles, were also held parallel to Techtextil.

The next Techtextil and Texprocess will take place from April 23-26, 2024.

A Texbrasil company, Santista Jeanswear, which presented its winter ’23 collection, at Denim City SP in May, has allied its sustainable processes with Eco Laundry. The company has also become the first Brazilian weaving company to achieve high scores in Light Sensitive Fabric Score (LSF) by Jeanologia®, which evaluates the performance of fabrics in sustainable processes in the criteria of luminosity, contrast, degree of white, threadbare and visual aspect.

Among the releases, the company highlighted articles Soft UP and UP which obtained high scores in the Blue Scan. Soft UP also achieved excellent score in the Light Sensitive Fabric Score (LSF). In addition to the Eco Laundry fabrics, the new Panther collection comes in black, Dakota, Dakota Mix and New Like in Super Stretchs and New Slime in the Sticker Power ranges with special Lycra®. The company’s fabrics were analyzed by designers Jorge Feitosa and Tom Martins. The showcase also featured special pieces washed by the Jeanologia Europa team

Nike’s Q4 revenues declined 1 per cent Y-o-Y to $12.2 billlion. Direct revenues increased 7 per cent to $4.8 billion during the quarter compared to earlier while wholesale revenues declined 7 per cent compared to a year earlier. The brand’s gross margins for the quarter declined 80 basis points to 45 per cent. Nike’s revenues for the full fiscal 2022 increased 5 per cent to $46.7 billion. Revenues for the brand Nike increased 5 per cent to $44.4 billion on a reported basis. Direct revenues increased 14 per cent on a reported basis led by 18 per cent growth in Nike’s digital operations. Revenues from Nike-owned stores grew 10 per cent.

Nike’s gross margin during the full year increased 120 basis points to 46.0 percent, primarily due to margin expansion in its Nike’s direct business, a higher mix of full-price sales and favorable changes in net foreign currency exchange rates, including hedges, partially offset by elevated freight and logistics costs and higher inventory obsolescence reserves in Greater China in the fourth quarter.

Levi’s collaborated with Reese Cooper to showcase its Spring/Summer 2023 collection at Paris Fashion Week on June 23, 2022. The collection includes a 10-piece jeans range from Levi’s, trucker jackets, hoodies, and T-shirts. It combines high fashion with heritage and offers fast fashion styles with formalwear garments.

The collection also includes a Levi’s Type II Trucker and straight fit jeans in triple-stitched organic cotton duck canvas in green or ecru shades, and a patchwork chore coat and straight fit jean in indigo denim made from cottonized hemp. Also, the line offers two graphic printed T-shirts in organic cotton. The graphics on are based on Levi’s workwear range. The Levi’s pieces were supported by ruched dresses, trench coats and cargo trousers.

The Japanese textile manufacturer Ecosensor™ by Asahi Kasei Advance has launched Spring/Summer 2023 collection offering high-tech fabrics to create a harmony between nature, body and mind. The collection comprises 40 new fabrics that meet the needs of the contemporary consumer, such as durability, wellbeing and performance. It covers the different market applications with seven fabrics for innerwear, two for outerwear, 17 for sports knit and 14 for sports woven.

The fabrics offered in the collection are made with sustainable materials certified by GRS, RCS or self-certified by each yarn supplier. The stretch fabrics are made with Roica™ EF by Asahi Kasei, the recycled stretch yarn made from pre-consumer materials. The main fibers used include certified recycled polyester and recycled polyamide, but the collection also features some blends, such as in Bemberg™, the high-tech yarn.

Even the dyeing and finishing phases - key moments for performancewear - have been certified by international labels such as bluesign® or OEKO-TEX® Standard 100.