India’s largest clothing export business, Shahi Exports, and the Apparel, Made-Ups, and Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council (AMHSSC) recently held a skill training program for women.

As per a Textile Value Chain report, the program aimed to uplift economically backward women by training them as sewing machine operators and self-employed tailors.

The program was sponsored by Haldiram Snacks, one of India’s most renowned snack and sweets companies.

Shahi Exports has launched a CSR program to provide employable skills to Indian women. The company aims to make these women a bigger part of the skilling eco-system and to help them secure employment. The Government of India has been proactively encouraging CSR-funded skill development activities to promote skilling, reskilling and upskilling on a massive scale.

India’s biggest apparel exporter, Shahi Exports produces women’s, men’s, and children’s clothing, as well as home furnishings, and has a client list to be reckoned with, including Gap Inc., Walmart, H&M, JCPenny, PVH, and Target among others.

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, conducted a meeting with the Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) to have a feedback on the export performance of the sectors and also seek inputs regarding various issues.

The meeting was attended by the Chairmen and Heads of around 35 EPCs, Commodity Boards along with the senior Government officers were present in this meeting.

Raj Kumar Malhotra, Chairman, EPCH raised the issue of enhancement of rates under Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme.

He requested the Minister to intervene in the matter as handicrafts exporters who used to get higher MEIS rates, factor in the MEIS incentive in their pricing and low RoDTEP rates will make their products uncompetitive.

He specially stressed on the need for enhancement of RoDTEP rates for the handicrafts sector as the handicrafts sector engages 7 million artisans and any increase or decrease in exports affects their livelihood.

He also raised issues like restoration of provision of duty free import of essential embellishments, trimmings, tools consumables for handicrafts sector; restoration of MAI provision for opening of showrooms, warehouses and marketing offices abroad and display in international departmental stores; high container charges levied by shipping lines; policy framework for B2B e-commerce and others.

Sri Lanka’s textile and garment exports increased by 28 per cent year-on-year to $2.5 billion in the January to June period, according to statistics released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

As per a report by Business of Fashion, textile exports increased by 47.8 percent to $156.6 million, while garment exports surged by 30.8 percent to $2.27 billion. The two categories accounted for 56.43 percent of all industrial exports from Sri Lanka during the first half of 2021, the report said.

From January-May 2921, Sri Lanka could maintain restrict the number of COVID-19 infections that helped it gain a competitive edge over neighboring textile and garment producers struggling with major COVID-related disasters.

However, from June onwards, Sri Lanka’s infections soared and reached historic highs in August. The government has rejected calls for a lockdown or curfews to help stem this rise in infections, saying the country is on track to vaccinate everyone over the age of 18 by September.

Debuting August 08-10 at the Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas, the first edition of Las Vegas Apparel was a huge success.

Hosted by International Market Centers, the show welcomed buyers from more than 30 states including California, Texas, Washington, Utah, Alabama and Florida in addition to Puerto Rico. International buyers visited from Colombia and Canada.

The Atlanta-based Get It GRL boutique’s mother-daughter team of Kim Askew and Jade Goins attended the show with Patrice Hull of C2bN. At the Vintage Addiction booth, designer Alesia Longenderfer sold her line of bags made from responsible sourcing such as recycled, upcycled and vintage materials for $15–$125 wholesale.

Las Vegas Apparel showcased collections from around 150 brands. The show allows retailers to spend quality time with the brands to fully explore new styles. In addition to brand presentations, buyers also can expect the trend education and trade show floor experience they enjoy at the Atlanta Apparel markets.

For long, luxury consumers have been coveting the ‘Made in Italy’ label on their garments. However, recent COVID-19-led disruptions have highlighted the need for reforms in this age-old industry. The industry needs to establish rules applicable to the Italian production system, says Andrea Rambaldi, Owner, FashionArt and President, Gruppo Moda Sport Calzatura of Assindustria Venetocentro. His company, which works with luxury leaders like Valentino, Armani, Ferragamo, Chanel, Lanvin and Yves Saint Laurent, plans to open its own production unit with around 20 subcontractors.

Currently, Italian luxury producers face multiple challenges including rising transport costs, pressure to reduce turnaround time and need to confirm to new sustainable strategies. They hope to resolve these issues post lockdown by making their supply chain more flexible and better organized in collaboration with artisan production networks

Highly fragmented production system

One of the foremost challenges forced by luxury makers in Italy is the complex production system in Veneto. The region is divided into a series of highly specialized districts including eyewear (Belluno), sportswear (Montebelluna), footwear (Riviera del Brenta) and leather (Vicenza). It houses over 10,000 companies that employ 73,000 workers. In 2020, exports from this region declined 11 per cent to €9 billion due to the pandemic, as per Unioncamere Veneto estimates.

Companies that managed to survive the crisis switched to making masks and medical devices. However, in the first quarter of 2021, demand for luxury products resurged with most orders coming from China. The Italian luxury production model relies on highly specialized small-sized companies. Vendors such as Fashion Art play an important role in ensuring compliance with deadlines, quality levels and cost controls in this production chain. The firm collaborates with the artisans to guarantee flexibility and speed. It has also started working with new brands.

The industry also suffers from lack of skilled workers, states Laura Dalla Monta, Owner, Confezioni Alice. It doesn’t make standard products. Dalla Montà relies on a vendor to procure work for her business and handle the relationship with the brands. She does not have the required infrastructure to manage contracts and comply with brands’ specifications.

Ilegal occupancy by Chinese brands

Another hurdle being faced by Italian luxury fashion industry is growing competition from Chinese companies in Veneto. As per Confartigianato Vento estimates, small Chinese-owned businesses now account for about 35 per cent of total production in the region. Most these Chinese companies operate illegally. Their production is of a lower level and standard, says Giuliano Secco, President, Confartigianato Veneto. Italian luxury brands are unaware of these subcontractors as the supply chain is managed by vendors who conceal these details from them.

To resolve these issues, some Italian suppliers plan to recruit skilled Chinese workers in their companies, while others plan to collaborate directly with Chinese firms. These firms plan to build long-term relations with luxury brands by encouraging more investments in personnel and machinery. Currently, these suppliers are struggling to fulfill orders in double-quick time. They wish to reward their workers for the efforts. But for this, the production model needs to change.

With the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh set to expire in the next two week, time is ticking for Bangladesh to follow it up with a new safety agreement. This Accord agreement was signed by Bangladesh in 2013 after the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 workers and injured many more. The agreement revolutionized factory safety inspections in Bangladesh. Its binding nature, transparent reporting, and robust grievance mechanism, helped the country save thousands of lives by reducing building collapses and factory fires.

Expanding reach to other countries

In January 2020, governing brands and union assented to follow Accord up with a new agreement covering other countries as well. The agreement would ensure safety rules remain binding even after the expiry of the current contract.

Negotiations for the agreement started late due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have dragged on beyond the initial deadline of May 31, 2021. The agreement did not attract brands like H&M, Aldi Nord, Otto, Auchan, and Carrefour, who failed to comply with human rights due diligence obligations, both under the French Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law or Loi de Vigilance as well as the upcoming German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains or Lieferkettengesetz.

Legal risks await companies leaving Accord

Miriam Saage-Maaß. European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, believes, companies leaving the Accord risk legal proceedings under the French as well as the German law if they fail to fulfill their due diligence obligations.

Hundreds of factories in Bangladesh lack basic safety facilities such as fire alarms and sprinklers despite identifying thousands of safety hazards, reveals Accord data. The 63 Bangladeshi factories that produce for French brand Carrefour do not have a fully installed and verified fire alarm system while 43 lack completed sprinkler system. These factories pose a major risk to worker safety post Accord expiration, and a liability risk to Carrefour, says Carolijn Terwindt, Clean Clothes Campaign.

The Ready-made-garment Sustainability Council (RSC)’s mechanism alone cannot fulfill the human rights due diligence obligations in Bangladesh. The council fails to hold brands accountable for their actions. Bangladesh therefore, needs a legally binding agreement that mandates brands to continue supporting the Accord’s work -- including operating factories safely and providing them with financial assistance to so. Brands refusing to renew Accord would be solely responsible for future risks they face, adds Ben Hensler of Worker Rights Consortium.

The US apparel market has revived in 2021 following consumers’ optimism for shopping after a dreadful 2020 in both values and volumes. As per an Apparel Resources report, US’ apparel imports increased by 26.92 per cent in H1’21 to $35.38 billion from H1 ’20. Volume-wise, its imports surged by 38.39 per cent Y-o-Y to 13,365.48 million SME.

The values of US’ apparel imports declined by 11.63 per cent in H1 ‘21 to $ 40.04 billion in the first half of 2021. However, the US didn’t see any major decline in volume terms which fell marginally by just 0.23 per cent as compared to H1 ’19.

The two-year comparison and the negligible shrink in the volume-wise imports indicate that US buyers are still sourcing garment products from world over in bulk quantities. On the other hand, the decline in values says the unit prices are getting tighter – particularly for basic commodities, which will increase competition for manufacturing destinations more in the coming months!

There was steep decline in unit prices of imported apparels by the US during the first half of the year. In H1 ’21, UVR (Unit Value Realisation) was $2.64 per SME declined significantly from $2.88 in H1 ’20 and $2.99 in H1 ’19. These declining unit prices are an indication of stiff competition that apparel exporters are facing as time passes by in COVID-19 era.

Coloreel has appointed Torbjörn Bäck as its new CEO with effective from August 9, 2021. He will succeed Mattias Nordin who will transition to a new role within Coloreel as Senior Vice President Business Development.

Torbjörn Bäck was earlier employed as the President of Camfil Northern Europe, an international manufacturing group with world leading technology. Prior to this, he was the Senior Vice Persident for Nederman in Asia Pasific. Torbjörn has a long industrial experience from sales and marketing, product management including hands on leadership experience for how to create growth for products and innovative companies.

Coloreel is a Swedish textile innovation brand with a groundbreaking technology for embroidery that enables high-quality coloring of textile thread on demand, unlocking a world of potential It is a part of the movement to reduce waste and move the textile industry towards more sustainable production. By coloring the thread directly, there is no wastewater, hence no water pollution. And, using a single reel of thread and needle also means minimized thread waste and minimized microfiber pollution.

Collaborations are an important part of supply chain management in the textile industry. They help the industry create the right textile product for application. To highlight the importance of partnerships in the industry, MIT and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) published an instruction manual describing their multi-year partnership to develop sustainable fabrics, to help other organizations replicate their success.

Titled, ‘Transdisciplinary Innovation Playbook: How to build a virtual workshop that collapses walls between design and engineering and kick-starts collaboration to solve real world problems’ is a template for building partnerships in the textile industry. The manual elaborates on ways to find the right industry partner, employ the most suitable associates and plan an effective budget for projects.

Synergy between design and engineering

In 2017, Joanne Arbuckle, Former Deputy to the President for industry partnerships and collaborative programs at FIT, and Gregory C Rutledge, the Lammot du Pont Professor in Chemical Engineering at MIT also proposed a plan to develop a synergy between design and engineering in the textile industry. To realize their collaborative vision, FIT and MIT approached Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), which agreed to support their work.

The result was a multiyear partnership to organize workshops on developing products using advanced fibers and fabric technologies. Being held since 2018, these workshops help the domestic textile industry develop new advanced fiber and fabric technologies. They help create next-generation workforce for the advanced fiber and fabric industry.

Students attending these workshops learn new technologies developed by MIT and FIT. This helps them respond to the challenges that emerge during the course of the project. The workshops also allow students to see some of the research in the field of technical textiles, says Chris Wawrousek, Senior Creative Design Leader, New Balance Innovation Studio.

Revolutionizing textile technologies

Over the last few years, students have launched many futuristic projects that revolutionized existing designs and technologies in textiles. Some of these projects are:

• Project to develop a biodegradable lifestyle shoe by Team Natural Futurism by using natural material alternatives, including bacterial cellulose and mycelium, and advanced fiber concepts

• A project by Team CoMIT to Safety Before ProFIT to explore various ways runners get hurt

• A project by Team Peacock to develop a color-changing athletic apparel range that analyzes the athlete's movement through an app

• A project to design apparel and footwear using PE (polyethylene) and color changing material by Team Ecollab

• A project to create a long-lasting footwear range by Team Laboratory56 that reduces waste by using PE, while connecting with the community through a recycling app program.

The playbook is expected to encourage students to work in an interdisciplinary environment, and advanced textiles. It would help create an agile, innovative, and able to apply higher-order thinking workforce to develop the future of the industry, says Sasha Stolyarov, CEO, AFFOA.

Arbuckle adds, the MIT/FIT collaboration will encourage other institutions to team up to develop new products to help define the industry’s future. Collaborations between designers and engineers will help develop new technologies having everlasting impact on the world, adds Yuly Fuentes, Project Manager, MIT Materials Research Laboratory.

The sixth edition of Asia’s premier fashion event, Centrestage will be held in a physical format from September 10-12, 2021 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). To be organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the show will feature over 200 brands from over 20 countries and regions and close to 30 fashion events. It will offer an ideal platform for brands and designers to showcase their creativity in the fashion arena and demonstrate their resilience in overcoming the recent challenges. For the first time, the show will open to public visitors for the entire duration of the event.

Centrestage 2021 will have "Chapter Infinity" as its central theme, encouraging those in the fashion industry to take creative approaches and reignite their inspiration in the pandemic era, exploring the countless opportunities that lie ahead. The event will feature three thematic zones: Allure - representing craftsmanship, refinement and elegance; Iconic - displaying avant-garde designs; and Metro - showcasing contemporary, minimalistic expressions of urban life. This year's event will feature over 200 fashion brands, including more than 120 brands from Hong Kong. Although travel restrictions remain in effect between Hong Kong and the rest of the world, some brands and industry organizations outside Hong Kong will send local representatives to participate in the event, including the Taiwan Textile Federation, Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center, Italian fashion promotion organization Ente Moda Italia (EMI) and new joiner Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Amalty from Kazakhstan.

In addition, the show has invited overseas buyers to conduct video business meetings with exhibitors include 3NY from the United States, Germany's Encode Fashion, Thailand's Bluepin and Vietnam's Runway. Local fashion buyers such as Club 21, D-mop, Harvey Nichols, I.T, Lane Crawford and online fashion store Farfetch have also been invited.