Dutch brand Scotch & Soda plans to expand by opening 20 new stores across the world in the next six months. The brand will open a flagship at London’s Long Acre in Covent Garden and one on Milan’s via Manzoni. They will be the label’s biggest European stores outside of its domestic market. Slated to open in early June, the Milan store will have szales area of 186 sq m. And the London store will be its third in the city, covering 250 sq m.

Other cities where the brand will open directly-owned and franchised stores include Washington DC and Boston in the US, Shanghai and Beijing in China as the firm builds on its direct debut in the country last year, Frankfurt in Germany, and Dubai, Doha, Tel Aviv, Johannesburg and Cairo. Last year, Scotch & Soda opened 16 stores. It opened new stores in France and Germany with a number of new locations targeted for store opening. By September this year, the brand will have a portfolio of 31 stores in France and 42 in Germany.

The company also continues to roll out its rebranding strategy. This year, it refitted existing stores with new Free Spirit design concept in Amsterdam, Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona and Luxembourg City.

Scotch & Soda’s global retail expansion will be combined with its omnichannel and unified commerce’s ambition. The brand will intregrate RFID technology in partnership with Nedap for stock level optimisation, as well as the opening due in September of a new 27,500 sq m warehouse on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The new warehouse will include a roof fitted with solar panels and automatically irrigated vertical gardens.

As a part of their broader aim to make sustainable products the norm in fashion industry, the European Union has pledged to take strict actions action the waste problem created by fast fashion. As per a Textile Focus report, the European Commission announced new rules to boost clothing quality, reduce toxic chemicals and waste. The most prominent amongst these rules include: a fee on brands like H&M, Primark and C&A for creating huge amounts of textile waste. The fee aims to encourage textile reuse, recycling and reduce waste amongst brands.

Environmental Group, Changing Markets Foundation welcomed the textile strategy, saying, they will drive positive change worldwide. However, the industry lacks measures to improve supply chain traceability, a problem because most textile impacts are felt outside Europe, the foundation said. The waste fee must be set high enough to make a difference, it added.

According to Changing Markets Foundation, clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014 with the average consumer buying 60 per cent more clothing compared to 15 years ago. The average European creates 11 kilos of textile waste a year, but less than 1 per cent of clothes are recycled into new clothes. The rest are either burned or buried at a global rate of one rubbish truck per second. To curb this, 11 EU member states are calling for ambitious and comprehensive action on textiles.

With inflation hitting a new high post-pandemic, off-price retail is increasingly becoming a growth avenue for the fashion sector, says a new McKinsey study titled ‘Mastering off-price fashion in an omnichannel world.’ The segment is growing faster than the fashion market, indicates the survey done on 11,000 consumers in 10 European countries.

The market is estimated to grow five times faster than regular apparel market between 2025 and 2030. Most of the growth will be pushed by the increasingly strong online presence of off-price retailers like TK Maxx, the European arm of TJ Maxx, as per a Women’s Wear Daily report. Katharina Schumacher, Digital Expert and Co-author adds, accounting for 40 per cent of the off-price market, online sales are growing at around 13 per cent annually. To add new customers, brands need to master off-price fashion in an omnichannel world, adds Schumacher.

The study also reveals, off-price shoppers, interested in luxury, affordable luxury and premium categories and active on specialized platforms like Dress-for-less, BestSecret, Brands4friends or Scarce, spend 2.3 times more on their purchases than other groups of fashion customers. For example, around 30 per cent customers in Germany spend more than €1,000 year on off-price fashion. These buyers are willing to pay the full price for premium and luxury brands, explains Achim Berg, Global Leader-Apparel, Fashion and Luxury, McKinsey & Company. Fashion companies should therefore, carefully weigh which products they offer off-price, he adds.

Felix Rölkens, Co-author, McKinsey says, shoppers’ expectations from off-price outlets are also growing. They now expect amenities like sales staff who speak several languages, restaurants and a good customer experience, from these stores, he adds. To fully capitalize on this growing opportunity, brands must adopt a multipronged strategy to maximize revenues for both channels, and secure their brand equity, Rolkens says.

A project to train designers to reduce the impact of textiles on environment and adopt new techniques to transform this material into ecological clothing has been launched in Kenya. The project has been launched under the aegis of CXP Africa and funded by the Estonian Centre for International Development, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CXP Africa is a specialist in design and implementation of sustainable development projects in Kenya.

The project aims to teach designers to adopt recycling to reduce textiles and create new pieces from textile waste, says Robin Mugani Njuno, Project Leader. The Kenyan designer herself presented her recycled collections made entirely from post-consumer textile waste at the “Completely Out of Fashion” show recently in Nairobi. The designers are trained by Estonian fashion designer Reet Aus, an expert in recycling. They are accompanied by three fashion design students from the Estonian Academy of Arts who are visiting Kenya as part of an exchange program with Moi University in Eldoret.

A project to train designers to reduce the impact of textiles on environment and adopt new techniques to transform this material into ecological clothing has been launched in Kenya. The project has been launched under the aegis of CXP Africa and funded by the Estonian Centre for International Development, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CXP Africa is a specialist in design and implementation of sustainable development projects in Kenya.

The project aims to teach designers to adopt recycling to reduce textiles and create new pieces from textile waste, says Robin Mugani Njuno, Project Leader. The Kenyan designer herself presented her recycled collections made entirely from post-consumer textile waste at the “Completely Out of Fashion” show recently in Nairobi. The designers are trained by Estonian fashion designer Reet Aus, an expert in recycling. They are accompanied by three fashion design students from the Estonian Academy of Arts who are visiting Kenya as part of an exchange program with Moi University in Eldoret.

US’ apparel imports from the Sub-Sahara African region grew by 32.54 per cent Y-o-Y to $258.03 during the January-February ’22 period. OTEXA stats reveals, imports from Ethiopia surpassed those from Kenya as the country emerged as the top African apparel exporter to the US market in the first two months’ period. The US imported apparels worth $68.05 million from Ethiopia during the January-February ’22 period, whereas it imports from Kenya totaled $65.10 million during the first two months of 2022.

Imports from Madagascar grew 42.87 per cent Y-o-Y to $51.62 million. Markedly, the country surpassed Lesotho – from where US buyers sourced $47.60 million worth of apparels in the mentioned period. A lot of movement is happening in the African manufacturing landscape, despite US’ sanctions on Ethiopia last year that led to the suspension of AGOA benefits for the country, adds the report.

The Act on Fashion Coalition along with designer Stella McCartney announced a new bill in New York on January, this year. Known as the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act S7428/A8352, the bill was sponsored by Senator Alessandra Biaggi and introduced by Assembly member Anna Kelles. As per Apparel Resources, it aims to address the social and environmental toll taken by the global fashion industry.

The New York Fashion Act is likely to impact several manufacturing destinations including Bangladesh. The bill aims to compel apparel retailers and makers to be transparent about their environmental and social practices, including workers’ wage and carbon emissions, at all levels of the global supply chains. However, the new regulations may increase hassles and costs for the garment makers in Bangladesh, says Faruque Hassan, President, BGMEA. Further such pressure tactics by buyers often lead to unhealthy competition between suppliers, he adds.

Bengaluru-based bottomwear company, GoldenSeams Industries aims to increase its capacity by placing more orders, and capture the US market. The company has launched a new Rs 50 crore LEED-certified facility that will have 1,000 stitching machines in two phases. This future-ready factory will begin operating by the middle of next year. The company’s USP has always been fetching orders of 5,000 to 15,000 pieces. To tap the US market, it aims to continue operating in existing bracket and go to mid-size fashion customers and supply fashionable trousers at a good price.

The company is exploring new markets, strengthening relationships with existing buyers, enhancing its capacity with a new factory, and even adding new product segments. Sanjeev Mukhija, Managing Director, GoldenSeams Industries says, the company expects to grow 15-30 per cent in the next financial year. The new factory will further drive its growth to 40-50 per cent in the next year, he adds. Sanjeev Mukhija, Managing Director, GoldenSeams Industries says, the new factory would boost the company’s growth to 40-50 per cent in the next year.

However, buyers are placing orders in smaller volumes to reduce the risk of buying at high price at one go. They are placing orders of whatever is required for immediate selling. The market is expected to settle down by the end of this year and prices will stabilize, feels Makhija.

Leading textile trade fair, Texprocess 2022 will be held in Frankfurt from June, 21-24, 2022. Elgar Straub,Managing Director, VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies, says Exhibitors want to show what innovations they have developed in the last three years. They have hardly had the opportunity to show these to a larger audience since the pandemic began. In turn, visitors are looking for solutions for more sustainable, more flexible and also more regional production. Accordingly, the expectations for Texprocess are enormous and linked to the hope that many necessary investments will be made. The pandemic has shown that no virtual meeting can replace face-to-face exchanges on site."

German manufacturers of Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies ended the year 2021 withpositive figures. Incoming orders increased by 35 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year.

In the sewing and garment technology sector, German machinery manufacturers were also able toincrease exports in 2021 by 7 percent to 439 million euros. The most important export market froma German perspective was Poland, followed by the USA and France.

Exports also recovered at European level in 2021. Exports from the EU countries as a whole roseby 8.5 percent to €1.356 billion. The most important markets for EU exports were Germany, the USand Poland.

Texprocess is the leading international trade fair for the processing of textile and flexible materials.From June 21 – 24, 2022, for the sixth time, international exhibitors will present to trade visitors atTexprocess the latest machinery, equipment, processes and services for garment manufacturingand textile and flexible materials. Techtextil, the leading international trade fair for technical textilesand nonwovens, and Heimtextil, the international trade fair for home and contract textiles, will beheld parallel to Texprocess.

The removal of wool tariffs as part of the new Australia India free trade agreement could open the door for Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) to explore new processing opportunities within India.

John Roberts, CEO, AWI hopes the additional opportunities relating to early stage processing could be developed off the back of the signing of the interim Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.

Under the deal, the 2.5 per cent tariff currently imposed on Australian wool imports into India will be slashed to zero.

India is currently Australia's third biggest international market for wool, taking a 4.6pc share of wool exports, coming in behind China's 80pc share and Italy's 5pc.

India has typically taken between 4 to 8pc of the wool clip, at one point reaching 12pc, adds Roberts.

Roberts described India as a slightly closed shop at the moment, dominated by four or five key textile businesses but the changes could make India an early stage processor for markets globally, he added.