Ghana has suspended the subsidy on residual fuel oil (RFO). This has compounded the country’s textile industry’s challenges.

Inflation and rising utility prices have already put pressure on business margins. The subsidy on RFO was withdrawn to ease the financial burden on the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Account (PSRA). The move is meant to ensure availability and supply of the product – a low grade of fuel oil, which contains the undistilled residue from atmospheric or vacuum distillation of crude oil and is mostly used by manufacturing industries.

Due to increases in global fuel prices and exchange rates, funds accrued through the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy – used in paying for subsidies on RFO and premix fuel – were not enough to meet the demand. The policy directive takes consideration of the growing concern about the sustainability of the account to meet under-recovery payment obligations for premix fuel and RFO.

At the start of the year 2022, the subsidy on RFO was 55 percent; then it was slashed by 15 percent around July and completely suspended at the start of November. Suspension of the subsidy is expected to lead to an impending shortage of textiles for the country in the coming days.

The Chinese fashion and luxury market has had a rough year. Waves of strict lockdowns throughout 2022, especially the two month long one in Shanghai, wreaked havoc on fashion spending.

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton experienced severe double-digit declines in China. Compagnie Financière Richemont’s jewelry division also witnessed double-digit sales declines in China. Swiss watch exports to China slumped 18 percent in the first ten months of 2022. Chanel saw double digit negative growth in April in mainland China, where five of its 16 boutiques there were closed, while 35 fragrance and beauty stores — roughly equivalent to a third of its network — were also shuttered.

China didn’t scale back the lockdown measures until thousands of people began to protest in late November.By December, China had abandoned most of its rules on mass Covid testings, the track and trace system, and quarantines.Even amid the lockdowns, those brands that were well prepared for the situation came out stronger, while some went the extra mile to consolidate their presence in the market. While China is still performing below 2021 figures, it is expected to recover between the first and second half of 2023.Chinese spenders are expected to account for between 40 per cent and 45 percent of the total consumers of personal luxury goods by 2025.

Esprit is being rebranded. This luxury California apparel brand has had a rough couple of decades.In its heyday in the ’80s and ’90s, it was known for its high-end clothing like sweatshirts. But most of its US business dried up in the 2000s, and the company’s German and Hong Kong business began to lose their luster with shoppers.

The major restructuring began in 2021. The company is completely refreshing its assortment and plans to unveil all the new designs later in 2023. Decades like the ’80s and ’90s are in vogue these days, which gives Esprit the chance to resonate well with multiple generations. Nostalgia happens to be resonating with the current generation and consumer who has been through a lot of very stressful times over the last couple of years.

Since consumers find aspirational brands to be something to look forward to, and since things were quite more open and freewheeling in the ’80s, Esprit wants to start by reconnecting the consumer with nostalgia. But this is not just a brand from the ’80s, it is now a modernized version of Esprit. The brand will globally be created, designed, thought through, photographed all in New York City. And it will resonate globally from there.

David Jones will be acquired by private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners.

The iconic retailer’s current owner, Woolworths Holdings Limited, and Anchorage Capital Partners entered into a binding agreement that will see Anchorage acquire the David Jones operating business.

David Jones is one of Australia’s leading omnichannel retailers, and the oldest continuously operated department store under its original name.Founded in 1838, it currently has 43 stores across Australia and New Zealand and employs 7500 people.

Anchorage is one of Australia’s leading private equity firms with extensive experience in retail and consumer investments over 25 years. It has fully backed Scott Fyfe as David Jones CEO, together with his management team, and plans to contribute their financial investment to accelerate the company’s existing Vision 2025 strategy.The deal is expected to complete by the end of March 2023.Interestingly, the deal is not expected to include the department store’s flagship store.

David Jones had been delivering sales above pre-Covid levels. Trade in the prior period was impacted by the extended lockdowns, resulting in relatively higher growth rates in the current period compared to the prior period. David Jones’ turnover and concession sales increased by 55 per cent for the period.

The latest Covid outbreak sweeping China has begun impacting the global textile and apparel supply chain.

This has raised uncertainty over production delays and factory closures.The Omicron variant of the Covid virus is making its way across several big cities in China after the country made a U-turn on its former zero-Covid policy of containment earlier this month.The spread of infections, which has hit China’s capital city Beijing the most, is threatening widespread business disruption to the world’s second-largest economy and largest apparel exporter.

More than half the population has been infected. The increase in infection rates means industry across China is facing disruption such as staffing shortages, which is leaving businesses vulnerable to closures, while sickness in the logistics sector is causing supply chain chaos.One imminent challenge is a nationwide labour shortage, production delays, and even factory closures as Covid cases surge.

When Covid first broke out in China in early 2020, garment-exporting countries in Asia struggled to get enough raw textile materials as China was their top supplier. The same situation could repeat this time.Given these mounting uncertainties, fashion brands and retailers are likely to accelerate their China exit strategy and prioritise mitigating supply chain risks in their sourcing decisions.

Texcare Asia and China Laundry Expo will be held, September 25 to 27, 2023.

This is the most comprehensive show on advanced machinery and commercial solutions for the laundry and dry-cleaning industry in Asia. The international textile care show will host an estimated 300 local and overseas exhibitors and 20,000 visitors.

As the leading trade fair for the laundry and textile care industry in Asia, Texcare Asia provides business openings across the supply chain, including machinery, systems and accessories, chemicals and consumables, digital and intelligent solutions, energy saving and environmental protection technologies, leather care products, rental services and more.

The fair helps the industry raise the bar when it comes to technology, and as the range of domestic products is rapidly expanding, companies feel the need to increase their exposure by participating at the fair. The Chinese and international laundry industries are eager for in-person business. The fair hopes to take advantage of the country’s gradually easing pandemic restrictions and the market’s steady growth.

Despite the pandemic, the commercial laundry industry has been performing strongly and the global commercial dry-cleaning and services market was valued at around $72bn in 2021. The pandemic has brought new developments to China's laundry industry, in the direction of industry standardisation, increasing production scale and digitalisation.

British fashion house Burberry is bringing its signature camel trench coats and check-patterned garments to the digital world of Minecraft.

Minecraft is a survival game. Burberry developed the 15-piece capsule collection for players of the popular survival game, but it’s also available in real life.

The 15 pieces include multiple Burberry logo T-shirts, a Minecraft logo jacquard scarf, a black cotton gabardine car coat, a Burberry logo baseball cap, a square cotton scarf, a hoodie, a bucket hat, jogging pants, and sweatshirts and a version of Burberry’s classic Waterloo trench coat featuring a pixelated white Burberry and Minecraft logo on the back.The collection’s laid-back loungewear vibe has comfort as the main priority.

Each real, physical garment has a digital counterpart in the game. Avatars wearing the collection get the chance to complete a series of challenges within four realms, like navigating a maze covered in Burberry’s signature pattern. The game itself is downloadable for free as an add-on adventure for the Minecraft game.

Burberry sees digital crossover as the way of the future and wanted to work with one of the largest, most beloved games, hence the Minecraft choice. Gaming has become an important channel for the brand in terms of customer engagement.

Brazil may become the world’s largest cotton exporter in 2023.

An increase in the planted area may help it to surpass the United States, which could reduce sowing by 30 per cent to make way for competing crops such as corn, soy, and wheat.Brazilian cotton producers see the sector ready to move forward with next year’s crop, despite higher costs, in order to protect progress in Asian markets, particularly China.

While Brazilians started planting for the 2022-2023 season (to be harvested the following year), Americans are still finishing harvesting the current season’s crop and making preparations for 2023-2024, with harvest expected to occur in the calendar year 2023.

Brazil currently ranks fourth among global cotton producers – behind China, India, and the United States – but is the number two exporter.Brazil expects to increase shipments by more than 22 per cent. Cotton production should increase by 18 per cent, with a recovery in productivity following some weather problems in the previous cycle. Production costs rocketed 27 per cent after a surge in input prices during 2022. Cotton’s path would be similar to that of soybeans, a market in which Brazil has outperformed the US as the largest producer and exporter for some time, while in corn, Brazilian exports may soon gain leadership.

As a category that dominates and dictates mass market aesthetics, streetwear is an everyday style that appeals to people of all ages and not just the millennials. As fashion that is considered to have emerged from studios but from the grassroots and street level, the global streetwear market size was valued at $173399.5 million in 2021 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 1.82 per cent during the forecast period, reaching $193217.4 million by 2027.

In the post-pandemic return to normalcy, street style offers a lot of twists of trends on the runway, as people are finally out and about with a vengeance this winter. Oversized outerwear, pleated skirts and balloon cargo pants are the winter streetwear trends to watch out for this year.

Top six winter 2022 trends

Edited recently outlined six top trends that are dominating 2022 winter wear. Firstly, the cargo pant trend is flying off shop shelves and retailers are now concentrating on topping up their existing best-sellers styles including parachute shapes and earthy tones. Motel’s chute parachute trousers and Jaded London’s tech cargo are ruling the roost. The mass market saw an increase of 198 per cent in womenswear and 98 per cent in menswear YoY. While Gen Z’s focussed on the parachute shape as a key item in womenswear, male customers bought into more classic outdoor utility styles, with 75% of sales made up of black, green, brown and grey.

The Y2K’s influence on streetwear has propelled moto jackets and maxi skirts into the top investment areas for 2023. Denim has emerged as a key fabric across versatile styles which is also trending in streetwear fashion. Maxi skirts follows second in line in new shapes as long skirts comprised 29 per cent of skirt arrivals in the mass market, with Annie’s collaboration with Levi’s, becoming a front-row favourite at fashion week which saw the £245 denim skirt sell out. In the luxury sector, Rick Owens and ACNE Studios led the top moving styles, seeing the first majority sell-outs of jersey, split hem and metallic iterations of the trend.

Trending in the third position were moto jackets which climbed 74 per cent YoY in Fall 2022 and the newly released PALACE x Gucci leather jacket trouser that has dominated social feeds has only fortified the trend’s return next year. The fourth fashion trend for winter 2022-23 is varsity bomber jackets with collegiate graphics and updating sweats and T-shirts with varsity lettering and numbers. And with FIFA World Cup hysteria high on the trending segment, football jerseys of different countries have entered big-time into fashion assortments in 2022. Oversized shapes, retro styling and logo-heavy styles have seen the biggest success this year.

Fifth are the football jersey entered fashion assortments in 2022 amid World Cup hysteria. Oversized shapes, retro styling and logo-heavy styles have seen the biggest success this year.

And lastly, fuzzy fleece is back as tailored silhouettes and fuzzy textures in garments and fuzzy accessories and functional details like zips and patch pockets are supplementing high fashion garments

Although strong tailoring has always been a staple of runway fashion weeks this winter’s offerings have taken sleek tailoring to a more dramatic level with bigger silhouettes and exaggerated frames. This winter people are out and about like never before in the post-pandemic era and streetwear brands are hoping to make high profit in their stride.

In India, MSMEs contribute about 30 per cent to its GDP but have not yet received due recognition or support to strengthen itself to be more competitive and increase its contribution to the national GDP. This sector boasts of 63 million units and employs 110 million workers. As per the government, MSMEs require all the support to help India become a $ 5 trillion economy. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises launched the CHAMPIONS portal which stands for Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength.

It was time to create a single window system for this sector. Therefore, CHAMPIONS has been put and promoted as a unified, empowering, bundled and technology-driven platform to handhold, and solve problems, roadblocks and grievances. CHAMPIONS have set three key objectives. The first one is to aid MSMEs in difficult situations in terms of finance, raw material sourcing, labour, permissions, etc. The second objective is to help MSMEs to find new opportunities in manufacturing and services sectors. The third objective is to identify the star MSMEs who can demonstrate resilience during this tough economic time and grow to become domestic and international champions.

One of the key sectors that have outshone others and registered tremendous growth is the textile and apparel MSMEs.

Haryana to enhance its textile MSMEs

The state government plans to promote its textile industry, mainly MSMEs, through its Haryana Atmanirbhar Textile Policy of 2022. The policy has already been placed in the cabinet for approval and will be implemented before 2025, with the state government targeting an investment worth Rs. 40,000 million and creating 20,000 jobs for the state’s youth. The Haryana Atmanirbhar Textile Policy includes entrepreneurship expansion, investment, employment generation, grants, textile parks and supply chains. In the field of textile MSMEs, Haryana has carved itself amongst the top three states and is also one of top Indian states for ease of doing business. The policy will pay particular attention to developing synthetic fibre and regenerated fibre to meet domestic and international demand. The policy has also engaged with the National Technical Textiles Mission as it wants aggressively promote the manufacture of technical textiles in Haryana as the demand for this particular textile is growing rapidly worldwide.

Walmart, Flipkart and NSIC to unlock export potential

The National Small Industries Corporation was partnered by Walmart and Flipkart to speed up the Indian MSMEs in the retail sector to expand their output capacities. The aim is for these MSMEs to leverage the export potential factor and become a part of the retail supply chain for both, the domestic and international markets. In a recently held summit that marked the completion of Walmart Vriddhi Supplier Development Programme by 20,000 Indian MSMEs, the three entities signed the agreement of development. A senior US-based Walmart spokesperson stated the organisation was committed to triple its exports by 2027 to $ 10 billion per annum and therefore are keen to support the rapid development of India’s retail MSME sector.

In a statement issued by Flipkart’s Chief of Corporate Affairs, the organisation identified technology and innovation playing a crucial in the growth of small businesses in India. It will focus on helping MSMEs through the paces of digitisation so they can enhance their outreach and growth through e-commerce. This will enable small businesses artisans and weavers across the country expand their business like never before.