Spinners attending the two-day trade show Pitti Filati, expressed optimism for the year ahead despite the ongoing pandemic and its accompanying supply chain woes. Held at the small scale Slazone Leopolda venue in Florence, Italy, the fair closed on February 4, 2022. Flanked by the Pitti Connect digital platform, it showcased the spring 2023 yarn collections of around 80 exhibitors, mainly hailing from Italy. The showcased yarn blended lightweight fibers with textured and mélange effects to channel breezy summer atmospheres.

Raffaello Napoleone, CEO, Pitti Immagine said, the fair confirmed its pivotal role in the yarn making sector especially in such a crucial moment characterized by the retooling of the market’s nuts and bolts [needed to] give renewed fuel to the system. It attracted 1,750 visitors, 35 percent of whom were foreign attendees hailing mainly from the UK, the US, France, as well as other European countries.

According to data provided by Confindustria Moda, textile sales surged by 21.4 per cent to €2.45 billion in 2021 compared to the previous year. Exports jumped by 23.2 percent in 2021, based on the performance in the first 10 months of last year, with exports of woolen yarns to the US skyrocketing 184.7 percent year-on-year.

The North American apparel and footwear industry is likely to lose $9 and $17 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2022 due to supply chain disruptions. As an analysis by Chicago-based global management consultancy firm Kearney says, the industry experienced significant supply disruptions in 2021, frustrating companies' efforts to meet rebounding consumer demand.

North America's apparel and footwear industry also endured a variety of unanticipated cost increases in 2021, including the rise in cotton prices by 40 per cent, trans-Pacific container shipping costs by 300 per cent, air freight costs by 50 per cent, and over the road (OTR) freight by 20 per cent. Labor shortages also drove up logistics, warehousing and retail wages leading to industry-wide spikes in the cost of goods sold (COGS) and general and administrative (G&A) expense. The analysis recommends reduction in supply chain complexity, fresh sourcing strategies and more rigorous alignment of inventory management with merchandising for companies in this sector.

The pandemic has seen secondhand shopping emerge one of the hottest fashion trends across the world. People have become aware of their responsibilities towards the environment, and are buying more pre-owned clothes says, a report by the New York Times. A 2021 report by resale platform ThredUp and analytics firm GlobalData predicts, sale of secondhand clothes will rise to $77 billion by 2025.

The rise in secondhand shopping is being particularly witnessed in Malaysia, which has seen growing traffic at resale sites like: Etsy, eBay and Grailed. The country has many thrift stores from tiny roadside stalls to vast warehouses. Two of them are: Jalan Jalan Japan, with eight stores across the country; Family Bundle, a chain with numerous outlets in Kuala Lumpur.

Rise in bundle shopping

Over the last decade, Malaysia has witnessed a tremendous rise in secondhand shopping, also known as ‘bundle shopping’ in the country, says Naim Azhar, 28-year old employee of a cybersecurity company in Kuala Lumpur. In 2019, Azhar bought several luxury fashion items from thrift stores. Amirul Ruslan, a musician in Kuala Lumpur, also loves to shop in thrift stores. Though most of these stores are not present on social media, they stack well-known brands like the Japanese-owned Edwin, Adidas, Nike and Levi’s.

One such store, Maxstation, is made up of four canopy tents with walls of recycled tarpaulin. Nor Muhamad Mat Nor, Proprietor, Maxstation sells about 10 to 15 clothing items online per month with Japanese brands generating highest sales.

Most secondhand clothes end up in thrift stores for resale, says Adam Minter, author of “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale’. Thrift stores ship their excess clothes to exporters around the world who in turn sell them to secondhand sellers. US is one of the largest exporters of used clothing in the world, according to the Observatory for Economic Complexity. It exported used clothing worth $720 million in 2019. They were mainly exported to countries like Ukraine, Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya and Malaysia. In 2019, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South-Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda banned clothing imports to protect homegrown garment industries. The ban is likely to cost 40,000 American jobs and $124 million in exports, says SMART, a US trade organization. The American government responded by raising tariffs on imports from those countries.

Infrastructure facilitates growth of secondhand clothing market

Secondhand clothing can be sold internationally only if a country has the required shipping infrastructure and a fairly globalized population like Malaysia, adds Minter. Malaysia has the population and disposable income required for this kind of business as it is likely to transit from a middle to high-income country in the next six years.

Malaysia also serves as manufacturing base for companies like Dell and Intel, which ship huge amounts of products to America. Its close proximity to Japan too facilitates import of rare and highly desirable merchandise from the country. Many garments sold on eBay and Etsy by Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier come from Malaysia, says Collin James, Founder, James Veloria, a Manhattan vintage store. Julian Jeo, Managing Director, DHL Express Malaysia and Brunei says, his company ships over 260 vintage clothing pieces from Malaysia to the US.

The secondhand clothing business is proving to be big for Malaysian sellers, says The Yoppy Ardiyanto, an Indonesian seller from Bandung City. He sold vintage racing jackets on Etsy for five years. Though increasing competition has impacted his business to a certain extent, he continues to operate in the secondhand clothes business.

APTMA is in a celebratory mood as Pakistan’s textile exports have surged 26 percent to $9.4 billion in the 1HFY22. Year-on-year basis, Pakistan’s textile exports surged 17 per cent to $1.55 billion in January this year. The growth is being attributed to a shift in export orders from India and Bangladesh, as per a Business Recorder report. However, growth in textile exports is not confined to Pakistan alone. Even Bangladesh witnessed 41 per cent Y-o-Y increase in textile exports in January ’22 and 28 per cent in 1HFY22. The growth also resulted in the rise in value of textile exports from these countries

Shifting orders, currency adjustments boost exports

Over the last three years, yarn and cloth exports from Pakistan have declined while exports of knitwear and garments have increased. That is helping the country earn more foreign exchange. Pakistan is also benefitting from the shifting of global orders from China, currency adjustments and energy subsidies. According to an IGC study, gas and electricity subsidies are helping boost Pakistan’s domestic textile sales. They are also encouraging spinners and weavers to add more value to garments. This is boosting the exports of garments and knitwear items from the country.

The end of gas subsidy has made gas supply erratic in Pakistan, especially during winters. Though this has not impacted export volumes yet, it has caused certain production losses that may impact textile exports in future. To avoid losses, Pakistan needs to leverage the new investment-major share of both LTFF, and ERF. The country can take share from Bangladesh that offers cheaper transportation that may compensate for the energy cost disadvantage.

Textile stakeholder demand more gas subsidies

Spinners and weavers in Pakistan are demanding more gas subsidies as they are expanding operations. The country offers competitive advantage over Bangladesh due to lower freight costs. However, to continue growing its textile exports, the government needs to ensure uninterrupted supply of energy. It needs to speed up private supply in the LNG market. It has already initiated a proposal to construct a terminal and, is also working on certain practical supply solutions

The government can achieve external account stability by enhancing exports and making domestic industries competitive. It also needs to reduce its involvement in the energy market and encourage supply of low-cost fuel.

Brac, H&M Foundation, and The Asia Foundation have announced the six winners of the international competition titled ‘Stitch for RMG: Global Innovation Challenge.’

The global competition was launched October last year to promote improved livelihood opportunities for the women working at the export-oriented readymade garment factories in Bangladesh, promote gender equality at the factory floors and increase factory performance.

The six winning teams of the competition are: Agroshift, iSmart, Jyoti, Quizrr, Sustify and ToguMogu.

The awards for the winning teams come with grants up to $30,000 to pilot the solutions. The winners also will have opportunities for bootcamp training with mentors, incubators, and accelerators.

The competition started with a "concept round" in which 220 applications were received and 50 applications were shortlisted for video submissions in the ‘pitching round.’

A total of 12 teams won to move to the final round that organised a virtual marketplace, offering opportunities to partner with RMG factories. Through a tough competition the winning teams secured opportunities to incubate their projects in these factories that had volunteered to provide time, space, and other resources for the purpose, the press release added.

The "Stitch for RMG: Global Innovation Challenge" is part of the Stitch for RMG pilot project undertaken by BRAC, H&M Foundation and The Asia Foundation.

The goal of the project is to create an environment that advances welfare and livelihood of the women in ready-made garments sector of Bangladesh as well as boost Bangladesh's performance in the RMG industry.

At the inauguration of the first medical university in the country, over 20 investors from Uzbekistan announced investments in the textile sector and various other sectors of Pakistan. As per a Daily Times report, Uzbekistan would provide technical assistance to increase cotton production in Punjab.

Uzbekistan will also help Pakistan increase its cotton production in Punjab. It will create new special economic zones for domestic and foreign investors. ShavkatAbdurazzakov, Governor, Namangan Province, said any investor investing in other sectors including textiles in Punjab will work same as they do in their own country.

End-of-season fashion platform, Otrium has been named the British Fashion Council’s newest patron and has joined the Science-Based Targets project (SBTi).

As per a Textile Value Chain report, as a patron, Otrium will assist the British Fashion Council (BFC) in delivering significant and impactful programs that will benefit the industry as a whole. The platform will specifically assist the BFC in developing plans for more sustainable business practices, as well as how fashion businesses report their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) progress and credentials.

Milan Daniels, co-CEO and co-founder of Otrium, will also join the BFC’s Industry Advisory Board as part of the patronage to oversee, assist, and advise on major industry concerns.

Otrium joins the British Fashion Council’s existing 36 patrons, which include Depop, Farfetch, Yoox Net-A-Porter, Burberry, and Chanel.

Otrium was created to address the fashion industry’s unsold inventory problem by providing fashion labels with an online outlet channel as well as the digital technologies needed to intelligently link their end-of-season collections with fashion fans.

Fashion for Good is calling for industry stakeholders within the Indian textile suppliers and garment manufacturers to volunteer crucial information for an ambitious project to map the Indian textile waste landscape. The survey will collect data and resources vital to obtaining real-world estimates beneficial to mapping the landscape and successfully testing innovative technologies that are best placed to address the challenge of textile waste.

Fashion for Good launched the Sorting For Circularity India consortium project to understand the pre-consumer textile waste streams in India, and to trial sorting and mapping solutions. Together with industry players adidas, Levi Strauss & Co., PVH Corp., Arvind Limited, Birla Cellulose, Welspun India, and key technology partner Reverse Resources the project aims to build an infrastructure towards greater circularity in the years to come.

Messe Frankfurt and Inexmoda have jointly launched Heimtextil Colombia, a new trade show for the Americas in Medellin, Colombia, South America. Messe Frankfurt, owner of Heimtextil has licensed the event to Inexmoda, the Latin American Fashion institute creator of the most successful textile and fashion trade shows for this market.

Heimtextil Colombia will cover the Americas which represent a high potential in the world market. Messe Frankfurt and Inexmoda are targeting Colombia as a business platform for the home, furnishings, hospitality business, and further textile related products that will gather both top of the line exhibitors, and professional buyers from the region. The development of tourism and mobility in the Americas has driven a surprising increase in the demand of hospitality services and boosted construction rates, which creates new opportunities for companies and professional buyers in these categories, who will be able to meet at Heimtextil Colombia.

In 2021, Japan's textile and apparel imports declined by 4.7 per cent to 3646.3 billion yenfrom the same period in the previous. However its apparel imports increased by 2.2 per cent to 2602.9 billion yen.

As per a CCF Group report, the total import value of Japan' s textile and apparel from China declined by 4.8 per cent to 2120.4 billion yen in 2021 The imports from China increased by 7.2 per cent year-on-year to 1519.1 billion yen.

In the last 20 years, Japan’s wholesale and retail sales of clothing have declined to a large extent. Depressed consumption of textile and apparel has affected its imports over the years.