To offset the effects of COVID-19 and shape the future of denim in the country, Turkish denim mills are turning to new innovative digital solutions, says Tricia Carey, Director-Global Business Development, Lenzing. Foremost amongst these is Orta Anadolu which recently launched a new sales kit featuring concept boxes with a fabric swatch and information card that includes a QR code. Users can scan the code on their mobile device and be taken directly to the fabric’s wash gallery to see exactly which washes are available for the specific material, as well as the Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) of the garment.

Similarly, Calik Denim has doubled down on its mobile app to include both a video and content component. Users can turn to this app for videos on each of the mill’s concepts as well as the latest news surrounding the denim industry. The company, which currently operates at 60 per cent capacity, has seen an uptick in online business. Likewise, Bossa, which operates at 70 per cent capacity, is collaborating with partners to help its business recover from the pause and spread positivity. The mill now receives new payments and orders regularly.

Texworld USA and Apparel Sourcing USA hosted its inaugural digital event from July 21-23, 2020 at the Javitts Centre in New York. Organized by Messe Frankfurt North America, the event attracted visitors with its innovative approach. Almost 4,000 visitors attended the event. Jennifer Bacon, Show Director- Fashion and Apparel, Messe Frankfurt North America, also noted a 20 per cent increase in attendance of industry professionals from 93 countries over previous shows for its global presence. In the virtual space.

Texworld USA vendors found the virtual show to user-friendly and an efficient way to tell buyers about their products. Design Knit Inc, a Los Angeles–headquartered textile knitting mill, exhibited new fabrics and sustainable textiles, while Fashiondex’s Local Loft provided attendees with fabric and apparel manufacturers providing nearshore-sourcing opportunities. Max Andrew, President, Local Loft noted the presence of emerging designers starting off with an ecologically sound or ethical mission.

David Prentice, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, OnPoint Manufacturing opined that the virtual model would provide great accessibility to fresh designers. Smaller exhibitors also welcomed the shift to a more-affordable show option. Ben Hostetler, Operations Manager, Mountain Meadow Wool, found that he spent about 10 times less to exhibit at the virtual show. He connected to buyer meetings at an office at his mill, which allowed his mill colleagues to help conduct meetings, an impossible option for a trade show in New York.

Lori Wyman, the representative for North America at the Global Organic Textile Standard, felt the event was organized well and afforded useful tools to connect with attendees.

The organizers of Kingpins Show aim to build digital denim supply chain platform through an agreement with Material Exchange, which has created a sourcing database with nearly 20,000 digital materials from the biggest suppliers around the world.

With an aim to push the denim industry to evolve and behave responsibly, Kingpins has always relied on its physical shows in New York, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and China to bring its mix of vetted and selected supply chain partners and its invite-only guests together around the globe.

The platform’s first foray into providing digital solutions for exhibitors and attendees was Kingpins24, an online event featuring live-streamed content, webinars, interviews, panels and product demonstrations. Its new agreement with Material Exchange represents the next step in the process to complement Kingpins’ successful in-person events with new digital solutions.

The new digital supply chain will allow Kingpins exhibitors to showcase textiles to denim brands year-round. It will create new opportunities for business and build new ways for brands to conveniently source denim fabrics from Kingpins’ exhibitors. Through this supply chain, the organizer aims to provide denim brands with tools to be able to source denim and denim related fabrics instantly, view detailed product data online and help buyers make informed decisions about the materials needed for product design and creation process.

Apparel Retailers in America are reopening stores in accordance with the guidelines issued by the National Retail Federation (NRF). In addition to plexiglass dividers at the cash wrap stations, retailers have made floor markings in their stores to help everyone maintain social distancing.

Apparel retailers are also ensuring the provision of masks for workers and customers and maintaining social distancing between people in the store. Some of them are limiting their store hours to maintain a balance between meeting customer demand and giving their employees sufficient time to receive inventory and keep the store clean and organized. In some cases, retailers are also reconsidering the layout of areas of their stores where sales associates and customers are most likely to come in close contact, such as entrances, cash wraps and fitting rooms.

They are also introducing new practices for the dressing area, including wiping down fitting rooms after each customer and moving any garments tried on but not purchased to the back room to be steamed and then left overnight before returning them to the sales floor.

Lord & Taylor and Tailored Brands have joined the list of retailers aiming to restructure their operations in the wake of COVID-19. Lord &Taylor has been struggling due to a shift in consumer habits from offline to online shopping. In its bankruptcy filing, the company listed assets and liabilities between $100 million and $500 million. Tailored Brands, which operates Men’s Warehouse stores, also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to shut as many 500 of its stores.

A company that files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy under US law usually continues operating by reorganizing its business and payments to creditors. This year, two major US department stores, JC Penney and Neiman Marcus also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. Major clothing brands have also sought reorganization through bankruptcy. The more-upscale Brooks Brothers sought Chapter 11 protection last month, as did the parent company of women’s fashion brands Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant.

Other sectors have also been hit by the changing habits of consumers, with lockdown orders stifling travel and forcing places like restaurants and gyms to temporarily close their doors to try to stop the spread of the virus. Rental car giant Hertz, gym chain 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym and vitamin and supplement retailer GNC also filed for bankruptcy.

Coterie, a traditional women’s fashion and accessories tradeshow, held biannually in New York City, plans to launch its online edition in September. The action is the result of a partnership between Informa Markets, which organizes the event, and the NuOrder platform, a B2B e-commerce specialist, which has 500 thousand retailers and 2 thousand brands.

The virtual show will be an extension of the tradeshow, offering brands the opportunity to exhibit and interact with buyers. In addition to displaying their catalog, the show will also provide a 360-degree showroom to participating companies.

The show will run for two months and will be joined by 500 thousand retailers. Supported by the Texbrasil Program, Coterie is used by brands such as Joulik, Haes, Skazi, and Patbo to exhibit their spring/summer and autumn/winter collections at its two editions.

Bangladesh fashion companies like Aarong, Sailor, Yellow, Twelve, Klubhaus, SaRa, Infinity, Mbrella, Smartex, Cats Eye, Anjon’s, Bibiana, Kay Kraft, Rang, Shadakalo, Nipun, Deshal, Shoishob, Bishwo Rang, La Reve etc launched their new online collections after Eid-ul-Fitr to protect demand, trust of the fashion lovers and brand image.

While the collection of Sailor is oriented with washed, printed and embroidered designs and smooth layering fashion, Yellow’s summer collection speaks of vivid colors and pretty prints. Thinking about the intense heat, SaRa’s collection will be dominated by cotton fabrics, south Asian motif prints and Minimi style. The brand produces knitted mask with good filtration capacity. ‘Bishwo Rang’ brings some pattern innovations along with tie-dye, batik style while Twelve has introduced Equal Monthly Instalment (EMI) facility for the first time in Bangladesh.

These fashion houses are also emphasizing on easy browsing with attractive offers and reasonable prices along with store sales. They take orders from web and Facebook fan page too. Motiur Rahman, Assistant Director of SaRa Lifestyle revealed the brand’s online business has boomed by about 30-40 per cent in the last four months. Azharul Haque Azad, Managing Director, Sadakalo said it is organizing an online fair being participated by almost all fashion houses. These fashion house leaders believe it may take several months for fashion lovers to go to the store spontaneously, even if the shopping malls are opened in compliance with the hygiene rules.

Less than a week later, one of the most modern mills in the world belonging to medical gauze fabrics manufacturer Ada Fios in Porto, Portugal, was hit by a devastating fire, the Ada Group negotiated the speedy delivery of 112 new airjet machines from Picanol, in order not to too badly jeopardize the operation.

Not only is Picanol making a huge effort to guarantee a record delivery time for these machines, with deliveries scheduled to start in September, but the Picanol service team – which has a local presence in Portugal – is already making the necessary preparations to have the new OmniPlus-i machines in full operation in the shortest possible time.

The OmniPlus-i airjet machine, which was first introduced to the market at the ITMA textile fair in Barcelona in June 2019, is characterised by the highest performance levels, lowest energy consumption, maximum user-friendliness, and a wide data application palette that is ready for the Industry 4.0 environment. Ada Fios will soon have an even more modern weaving mill than its previous one.

Crocs, Inc reported $331.5 million in global revenues in Q2 FY2020. This was a 7.6 percent decline from the second quarter of 2019, or 6 percent on a constant currency basis. Four out of five locations of the company including United States, Korea, China, and Germany registered growth. It’s global e-commerce revenues increased by 67.7 percent with strong growth in all regions. The company’s operating margin rose approximately 380 basis points to 17.1 percent and adjusted operating margin increased approximately 800 basis points to 22.3 percent. The company added diluted earnings per share grew 50.9 percent to 83 cents or 71.2 percent to 1.01 dollars on an adjusted basis.

As of June 30, 2020, 98 percent of the company-operated stores were open. In the Americas, the company closed its stores in mid-March and started to reopen in mid-May. Currently, the majority of its stores in the United States are open. In Asia, outside of China and Korea, most of the company-operated stores were closed for the majority of the quarter, while in EMEA region, stores in Western Europe closed in mid-April and reopened in mid-May, while stores in Russia closed in early April and reopened in early June.

Driven by a better-than-expected performance from both its apparel and its new PPE businesses, HanesBrands swung to a surprise profit in the second quarter. The company’s apparel business performed meaningfully ahead of the company’s best-case scenario across segments. Its point-of-sale (POS) trends improved sequentially through the second quarter in all key geographies with POS in its US basics and Champion businesses in May and June exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels.

In the US, the activewear segment, the point-of-sale accelerated to nearly 40 percent in May and more than 70 percent in June as consumers continued to seekout the brand, particularly within the online channel.

In the innerwear segment, the POS accelerated to up 8 percent in May and up 11 percent in June. The gains were driven by the basics business with a mid-teen POS growth in the quarter.

Internationally, as stores reopened, recovery was seen in its innerwear business in Europe and Australia as well as within its Champion business in Europe and Asia. HanesBrands’ online business also continued globally in the second quarter with sales up more than 70 percent over the prior year. The company generated triple-digit online growth at some of its largest customers. Its sales through the enhanced Champion.com website increased by nearly 200 percent in the quarter.