Organic cotton denim brand Nudie Jeans has a program that repairs unwanted jeans and sells them through Nudie’s website and repair shops around the world. Nudie, based in Sweden, incentivizes customers to bring in their used jeans in exchange for a 20 per cent discount on a new pair of jeans. The garments are then repaired by hand in Nudie’s repair shop and washed and ready to wear. Each re-used jean is labeled with the Swedish Good Environmental Choice eco mark. The new collection offers many of the brand’s best-selling fits, including the Steady Eddie, Grim Tim and Lean Dean.

The program, which is in its third year, underscores the brand’s mission to encourage consumers to care for and repair the jeans they own. Each pair of Nudie Jeans comes with a lifetime of free repairs. In 2018, Nudie repaired 55,173 pairs of jeans and collected more than 10,000 pairs of jeans for the re-use program.

The brand has begun to use fabric from old Nudie jeans to make new products like bucket hats. The company also began to sell its old stock through an online agency that resells dead stock, allowing other denim brands and designers to repurpose the fabric.

New York Denim Days will be held from June 8 to 9, 2019. This festival puts consumers, brands and the denim supply chain under one roof. It will feature a diverse mix of activations, brands and collaborations, including a children’s runway show. Spearheaded by true denim insiders, the event connects denim professionals, designers and brands to denim consumers. It acts as a spotlight on the global denim scene.

For the second year, Lenzing is the event’s title sponsor. Last year, the fiber company created a Tencel forest in the entry to showcase how its Tencel fibers are derived from sustainably harvested trees. This year there will be an interactive display. Together with its brand partners 3×1, Athleta, Garbage by Marta Goldschmied and Triarchy, Lenzing will build the World of Tencel Denim with styles to suit every consumer lifestyle.

With its mix of denim-heads, the best brands and retailers and the most forward fashion, New York is the perfect home for Denim Days. Denim lovers from across the spectrum - fashionistas searching for the perfect pair of jeans, fade junkies looking to compare notes on raw denim, purists on the hunt for handmade indigo items, and designers shopping for Americana inspiration - will find the largest selection of indigo available at one event.

Lectra held a fashion event in France on April 10 and11, 2019. More than 75 industry insiders and market experts from 14 countries convened for two days to examine how the digital age is bringing about major shifts in consumer behavior. The keynotes, live demonstrations, and customer testimonials highlighted the importance of process digitization and data analysis for meeting new consumer needs.

Beyond understanding the new fashion consumer, the event stressed on the importance of leveraging data to deliver customer-centric services and products. Attendees were treated to a live demo of Fashion On Demand by Lectra, the industry’s first end-to-end personalization solution. They saw how a data-driven, automated on-demand production process from order reception to final cutting stages could deliver garments customized according to consumers’ specific demands. With Fashion On Demand by Lectra companies can increase production output, achieve the perfect fit, reduce cost of consumables, save time on preparing orders and minimize human errors.

For companies that breathe life into wardrobes, car interiors, furniture and more, Lectra crafts premium technologies that facilitate the digital transformation of their industry. Lectra’s offer empowers brands manufacturers and retailers, from design to production. Founded in 1973, Lectra has 32 subsidiaries across the globe, serving customers in over 100 countries.

Apparel exports from India are expected to make a recovery in the current fiscal year. The declining trend witnessed in the last two years may be reversed. So far there were intense competitive pressures from nations having a cost advantage over India. This constrained the overall momentum of the apparel export sector in India. But now changes are taking place in the global market. Both Bangladesh and Vietnam are now seeing some sort of slowdown. Apart from price differential, buyers are now also looking at various other factors including compliance, diversity and stability. Considering all these factors, India is gradually gaining an edge over them.

The domestic apparel market is expected to continue its growth trajectory. Having grown at a CAGR of 13.8 per cent from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2018, the domestic market is likely to grow at a CAGR of around 12 per cent in the coming years, driven by the growth in the economy leading to a rise in disposable income as also other favorable macro-economic factors.

Presence in the niche and value-added product segments, together with access to an established client base, has helped export-based companies to maintain revenue growth. Favorable currency movements and a healthy growth in revenues have facilitated an improvement in margins.

India’s cotton imports are likely to rise by 80 per cent this crop year. The major reason is unavailability of the fiber with farmers and stockists. India is the top global producer of cotton. Even so, textile mills are importing raw cotton this year, due to short supply of quality material. Drought in major growing states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh has resulted in lower output this year. Over and above, the quality of late picked crop is poor due to the paucity of moisture in the field. This poor quality cotton cannot be used by spinning mills. Farmers uprooted their cotton plants in 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the sown area due to scarcity of water, ahead of the crucial third and fourth pickings. The quality started deteriorating since the second round of picking in early February.

Rising prices of Indian cotton have made exports uncompetitive. India’s exports are estimated to decline to 4.7 million bales in 2018-19 from 6.9 million last year. Though India has a smaller crop size this year, the supply position is very comfortable with a big ending stock of four million bales for the next season. Thanks to a big opening stock, smaller exports and large imports, the production deficit is well covered.

Bangladesh is devising a master plan to boost productivity at its apparel factories. The master plan is expected to improve efficiency at factories, which in turn is expected to increase the competitiveness of Bangladesh’s factories – particularly in the apparel sector – at the international market. Eventually, this is expected to create a robust export growth. The long-term plan is aimed at boosting productivity not only at apparel factories but also at the other manufacturing and processing sectors in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s apparel sector occupies around 83 per cent of the country’s export basket. Apparel manufacturers recently raised workers wages in Bangladesh. This is one sector they have identified that can cover up the additional costs and bring in profits. This will be even more effective if Bangladesh manages to properly brand its products in the apparel market.

One key aspect where there is room for improvement is the efficiency of workers. The efficiency level of workers in Bangladesh is between 40 per cent and 45 per cent – much lower compared to competing countries like Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Other problems stem from infrastructure, energy and power and going up to the issue of fair pricing from buyers abroad.

Shima Seiki makes possible knitting solutions on yarns previously deemed impossible to knit, or what was never even considered for knitting. The computerised knitting machine manufacturer has disrupted the conventional perception of knitting through its arsenal of patented knitting techniques combined with cutting edge hardware and software. Its latest technological contributions are aimed at promoting knitted applications in various fields ranging from fashion, sports, shoes and accessories to medical, automotive, aeronautical and other wearable and industrial textile applications.

Shima Seiki has even developed a special device for unwinding spools of technical yarn to ease yarn feed for such difficult-to-handle material. Wholegarment knitting maximises the benefits of shaped knitting even further by expanding that potential to three dimensions. Wholegarment knitting is capable of producing knitted items in their entirety on the machine and allows 3D forms and tubing to be produced without sewing. Elimination of sewing allows for faster turnarounds and high potential for on-demand knitting.

In addition to machine technology the latest version of Shima Seiki’s SDS-ONE APEX series 3D design system is an equally important factor in modern day knit production. Flexible knit manufacturing begins with flexible design, and the APEX series is designed to offer a fully comprehensive set of tools and functions, as well as the capability for ultra-realistic simulation that realises virtual sampling.

Texprocess will be held in Germany, May 14 to 17, 2019. This is a trade fair for processing textiles and flexible materials. Exhibitors will present latest machinery, systems, processes and services for manufacturing garments as well as textile and flexible materials.

The Texprocess forum will offer a wide range of topics and technical impetus for textile processors, users and retailers. On May 14, VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies will investigate the impact of digitisation in the garment and textile processing industry and the extent to which the changes triggered by Industrie 4.0 are already part of the value chain. The advancing digitisation of the entire value chain as well as the constantly increasing automation and robotization in processing textiles and flexible materials will also be the main topic at the VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies’ press conference at Texprocess on May 15. Other topics are 3D product development, networks of cutting, handling and software, predictive maintenance, augmented reality as well as new business models supported by big data and artificial intelligence. Companies will provide an up-to-date overview of the next steps in Industrie 4.0 developments in sewing and garment technology as well as in machines for processing technical textiles.

Levi Strauss has undertaken a new denim recycling initiative with the ‘Blue Jeans Go Green’ program. Any type of denim, including scraps or non-jean items like jackets, is eligible for recycling. Blends are, too—though the fabric does need to contain at least 90 per cent cotton. To date, the Blue Jeans Go Green program has recycled more than 2.5 million pieces of denim, to create almost five million square feet of insulation. The denim insulation developed through the program isn’t for sale, but given to charity partners for use in schools and libraries.

The Blue Jeans Go Green initiative, launched in 2006, lets consumers bring denim clothing—from any brand and in any condition—to dedicated recycling bins at partner retailers. The initiative is a key feature for the strategy Levi’s has to hit its sustainability benchmarks. The company hopes to hit major goals around climate impact, chemical applications, and water use, and alter its sourcing, design and manufacturing processes to plan for future circularity. Levi’s also offers consumers several opportunities to extend the life of their denim, in whatever way they can. The brand refashions archive-quality denim for resale in select stores, and at in-store tailor shops Levi’s professionals can repair used garments that might otherwise be wasted.

A breakout session that updates delegates on Higg Index progress and other new developments will feature at the upcoming Planet Textiles summit in Barcelona. The Higg panel is just one part of a full day’s schedule which focuses on the practicalities of innovation and sustainability in the textile supply chain. With many textile industry tools now in an advanced stage of development to allow apparel brands and retailers to improve supply chain transparency, and to measure their overall environmental impact, the Higg session will be extremely timely and promises to bring new insight for brands, textile mills and suppliers right through the supply chain.

As a part of the ‘Pitch for the Planet’ session run by Fashion for Good at this year’s event, that details new, cutting edge textile innovations that have yet to scale, Abishek Bansal from Arvind Mills will feature in conversation with Fashion for Good investment manager Tanvi Karambelkar about how the Indian textile conglomerate has helped and encouraged innovators to scale-up technology and how it can be integrated into a major textile operation such as Arvind. Also presented will be an innovation that uses minimal chemistry to finish textiles, and how it can contribute to a world where the discharge of potentially hazardous substances from textile wet processing mills can be minimised – and preferably avoided altogether.