Australian fashion and homewares retailers with suppliers in India are raising money and donating to charities, as the country faces a catastrophic surge of coronavirus cases.

Online clothing and homewares store Sage and Clare has already raised $10,000 of a $15,000 target by selling its popular bathmats. The sales will go toward Give India’s funding for families of those who have died from COVID-19.

India is currently experiencing the world’s biggest surge in coronavirus infections, which has seen 10 million cases recorded in the space of four months. However, due to the country’s testing capabilities, experts believe the number is at least five times higher.

Emily Wright, founder of Melbourne-based leathergoods and clothing brand Nancybird, says the situation is devastating.Nancybird works closely with five manufacturers in India, which are a mix of non-profit collective, Fair Trade certified workshops and larger makers.During India’s 10-week lockdown last year all of Nancybird’s suppliers closed their factories. Wright says this time a couple of her manufacturers have closed but surprisingly, some of them are still able to be open albeit with restrictions.

Olli Ela, a sustainable clothing, toys and homewares brand, is showing its support by donating to charities and continuing to manufacture with them despite the disruptions.The retailer has also donated $5,000 to Help India Breathe.

Held under the chairmanship of lawyer Sven Unger, H&M’s annual general meeting (AGM) approved the board’s proposal to pay no dividends and carry forward the amount at the disposal of the board. The AGM adopted the income statement and balance sheet for the parent company and the group. It discharged the members of the board and the chief executive officers from liability for the 2019/2020 financial year.

The AGM also reelected regular board members Karl-Johan Persson, Stina Bergfors, Anders Dahlvig, Danica Kragic Jensfelt, Lena Patriksson Keller, Christian Sievert, Erica Wiking Häger and Niklas Zennström. Karl-Johan Persson was re-elected as chairman of the board. The regular members appointed by the trade unions are Margareta Welinder, Ingrid Godin and Tim Gahnström, with Louise Wikholm, Helena Isberg and Hampus Glanzelius as deputy members.

The AGM approved the nomination committee’s proposal to retain previous year’s fees of the board. It also resolved to appoint Deloitte AB as auditor until the close of the 2022 AGM. The auditor’s fees are to be paid based on approved invoices.

The AGM approved the nomination committee’s proposed principles for its elected members that included Stefan Persson (Ramsbury Invest AB), Lottie Tham, Jan Andersson (Swedbank Robur fonder), Erik Durhan (Nordea fonder) and the chairman of the board Karl-Johan Persson.

The AGM approved the board’s remuneration report and the resolutions proposed by the board concerning guidelines for remuneration to senior executives and amendments to the articles of association.

World’s largest spandex brand Hyosung has launched Creora® highclo, a thread that protects fabrics from water damage. As per Texbrasil, the thread can be used to make beachwear and fitness products that usually have a shorter life span due to exposure to water and chlorine, sunscreens and tanning oil.

Spandex improves the durability of the fabric and provides a more lasting fit, it guarantees the compression and modeling of the articles made and conservation of the shape. Furthermore, it can also be used in products focused on outdoor sports, as it protects the fabric from UV rays.

Another feature of the thread is stretchability up to 500 per cent of its original shape, providing comfort and softness in the fabrics produced in its composition. The thread also has a risk of almost no fiber breakage and a class of polymers that support up to 135 degrees in the dyeing process.

A world-class manufacturer of fibers and products, Hyosung has 10 industrial plants located in South Korea, China, Turkey, Vietnam, Brazil, and India. In Brazil, it has been present since 2011, when it installed the industrial plant located in the city of Araquari, in Santa Catarina, with a land of 250,000 sq. mt. and a built area of 40,000 sq. mt.

German sports equipment brand Puma has promoted Arne Freundt, Managing Director-EMEA region as its new chief commercial officer from June 1. Besides continuing to oversee the EMEA region, Freundt will be responsible for Puma’s global commercial operations, from brick-and-mortar retail to e-commerce and logistics. In this capacity, Freundt will also join Puma’s board of directors.

Puma also elected, Hubert Hinterseher, Global Head-Financial Controlling to the board. The new members will sit alongside Bjorn Gulden, CEO, Puma, who oversees product development and marketing, and Chief Sourcing Officer Anne-Laure Descours.

The board is chaired by Jean-François Palus, COO, Kering, the French luxury group that is a former owner of Puma and still a shareholder. Recently, Puma increased its first quarter sales by 26 per cent.

Puma SE is a German multinational corporation that designs and manufactures athletic and casual footwear, apparel and accessories, which is headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. Puma is the third largest sportswear manufacturer in the world. The company was founded in 1948 by Rudolf Dassler.

Helped by the popularity of online and wholesale business, British fashion brand Superdry returned to growth in its fourth quarter. As per Business of Fashion, the brand’s revenues in the fourth quarter increased 0.8 per cent to £118.3 million, with a 26.6 per cent rise in online and a 13.5 per cent rise in wholesale offsetting a 51.5 percent drop in store sales.

Known for sweatshirts, hoodies and jackets, Superdry has been hammered by the pandemic. The brand registered a 21 per cent decline in sales last year due to COVID-19 disruptions. The company recorded an underlying pretax loss of £10.6 million ($14.4 million) in the six months to October 24, and it suffered a further blow when stores were forced to close during the Christmas period.

Superdry is a contemporary brand which focuses on high-quality products that fuse vintage Americana and Japanese-inspired graphics with a British style. The brand has a significant and growing presence around the world, operating through 768 Superdry branded locations in 65 countries. There are 245 own stores across the UK and mainland Europe, 497 franchised and licensed stores and 26 concessions. Superdry sells to over 100 countries worldwide, operating from 21 international websites.

Scheduled to debut as physical events, Seek, Premium and Fashiontech have been cancelled by Premium Exhibitions. As per Spin Off reports, these events were scheduled to from July 6 to 8 in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Cancellations are a result of current situation in Europe including lack of permissions, adjustments to official measures at short notice, travel restrictions, potential quarantine obligations and short-term work in many companies. These events will now be held in the Main metropolis from January 19-21, 2022.

In July, Frankfurt Fashion Week (FFW) will be held in a digital format. The event will open with Frankfurt Fashion Week Studio encompassing the whole FFW ecosystem. The key themes will be fashion business, sustainability and digitization and it will bring together German fashion trade shows, conferences and events under one roof, first as a digital venue, then as a hybrid one.

Asahi Kasei’s new S/S 2022 high-tech fabric collection, Ecosensor™ provides a diversified range of technologies from circular knits to woven fabrics in different textures and finishing. The collection has been made from premium materials including Bemberg™, the high-tech yarn made from cotton linters through a full circular, transparent and entirely traceable process. Another of its materials includes Roica™ EF, the premium certifies sustainable recycled stretch yarn made from pre-consumer recycled content.

The innovative collection covers different applications; sportswear, urban wear, underwear and athleisure. The innerwear range is made from recycled polymides and polyesters combined with Roica™ EF sustainable stretch yarn. The Sportswear range is made with double-layer knits with 3D geometric pattern, where ingredients are recycled and GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified. The third outerwear category has been designed to offer a more classic and casual choice. Some of its garments are made from 100 per cent Bemberg fabrics.

The collection will be available on CLASS Smart Shop the inspirational materials’ bank and samples' e-shop, that includes a premium selection of the CLASS Material Hub’s materials, for students, designers and brands willing to explore and test sustainable fabrics from one little sample up to 50 meters.

Iconic apparel brand Fruit of the Loom and fashion retailer Zara have launched their joint capsule collection. The collection is available in US stores and all Zara stores across the globe and on Zara.com. The collection is inspired by Fruit of the Loom's heritage and leverages its most recognized vintage logo. It corporates its classic styles in its new women's collection featuring bright-colored, quality T-shirts, sweatshirts with matching shorts and pants, and undergarments.

Featuring a round neck sweatshirt with long sleeves and a ribbed trim, high-waist pants with an adjustable drawstring elastic waistband, a round neck tank top with a patch at the front hem, a V-neck crop top with straps and matching elastic hem, and others, the full capsule collection ranges from $19.90 to $39.90. It offers a variety of comfortable and stylish selections.

An American company, Fruit of the Loom manufactures clothing, particularly casual wear and underwear. The company's world headquarters is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Since 2002 it has been a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

The US Cotton Trust Protocol aims to trace and track cotton fiber on its blockchain platform in partnership with TextileGenesis. This will encourage sustainable practices across the cotton supply chain and enhance its transparency with consumers and retailers.

Launched in 2020, the Trust Protocol has over 300 brands, retailers, mills and manufacturers in its member network, including Gap and Next. Transparency and traceability practices are growing in demand across almost all industries. The Cotton Trust Protocol addresses these challenges by collecting data related to sustainability in cotton production and setting verifiable and measurable goals.

The program aims to reassure brands that the cotton has been sustainably grown and has low environmental and social impact. It works on providing transparency across the supply chain through its Protocol Credit Management System (PCMS), which will be enabled by TextileGenesis platform to record and verify every movement of U.S. cotton fiber. Incorporating the TextileGenesis blockchain solution will capture article-level transactions between the participants in the supply chain.

The Trust Protocol brand and its associate retail members will also be able to claim Protocol Credits on completion of cotton products. These are digital tokens representing the environmental metrics and sustainable practices adopted in the creation of the item. Pilot trials for the program will begin in June of this year and it will be fully launched by the beginning of 2022.

Cameroon’s cotton development corporation Sodecoton plans to increase Central African country Cameroon’s annual cotton production to 600,000 tonne by 2025. To reach this ambitious target, Sodecoton plans to develop high-yielding seed varieties, instead of the earlier planned introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops.

Sodecon expects Cameroon’s cotton production in 2020-21 season to rise to 350,000 tonne. As per China Textile, Cameroon cotton production in the previous season was 328,000 tonne, most of which was exported.

Cameroon exports its cotton to Asian countries, with China being the main destination. The other Asian countries that import Cameroon cotton include Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia.

In 2019, Cameroon exported 18.4 per cent of its cotton to China, followed by 12.2 per cent to Italy, and 11 percent to India. As a part of 2020-30 National Development Strategy the Cameroon government merged Sodecoton and Cotonnière Industrielle du Cameroun (Cicam) last year to boost the country’s cotton textiles industry. Prior to merger, Sodecoton organized the production and marketing of cotton in Cameroon.