FW
Burberry’s chairman Sir John Peace is planning to leave. Peace has been chairman of the luxury fashion retailer since 2002.
A successor will be announced by the end of 2018. Meanwhile Christopher Bailey, who had been combining the role of chief executive and chief creative officer, will step aside and become president of the iconic British brand.
It is not clear whether the departure of 68-year-old Peace from Burberry will mark the end of a long career in the boardrooms of some of the UK’s biggest companies. At one point, he chaired three major businesses – Burberry, the credit-checking company Experian and Standard Chartered bank.
Marco Gobbetti will become chief executive next month after being recruited from French luxury rival Céline. His appointment is one of a number of senior management changes at the company, which recently hired Julie Brown from the medical supplies group Smith & Nephew as chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
Founded in 1856, Burberry is a global luxury brand with a distinctive British identity manufacturing clothing, fragrance and accessories. It is known for its iconic trench coat, sweaters, jackets, backpacks, and the unique and recognizable tartan pattern. The brand has a heritage of innovation, craftsmanship and design.
Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) a public-private partnership that began at MIT, has officially opened its headquarters in Cambridge. CEO Yoel Fink at the headquarters’ opening ceremony stated that a new high-tech fabric center has actually developed that technology and fabrics those convey the identity as individuals and our values as a society.
The Cambridge headquarters has space for startups, workforce development and product prototyping.The $10 million center is located near MIT, which last year founded AFFOA after the federal government tapped Massachusetts to lead a national textile manufacturing innovation institute. Other centers are also planned.
The centre looks like a gigantic laboratory inside. The walls are white with floor-to-ceiling glass partitions. Twenty-foot-tall machines spit out long tiny fibers. Those fibers go on a spool. Think of it as high-tech yarn spinning.
The space will have three main functions a startup incubator and provide tools and guidance to emerging companies, other to focus on education and opportunities for students to get involved in this emerging field. AFFOA is collaborating not only with startups, but also with universities both in the commonwealth and across the country, from UMass Lowell to Drexel University to the University of Texas at Austin and more. The institution is also working with large-scale companies, like Boston’s own New Balance.
To Fink, who is also a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, fabric is “the new software.” The big idea here is to develop fabrics that provide services.
The invention AFFOA unveiled is a backpack made out of fabric that allows people to upload photos, videos or other information into it using an app called AFFOA Looks. Someone else with the same app can then hold their phone up, scan the backpack and pull up what the backpack owner has uploaded. It works sort of like a QR code.
It's like having a social media platform embedded into fabric. There could also potentially be some advertising and marketing applications.
Apparel manufacturers from Mauritius will participate at Fashion SVP, UK, June 27 and 28. Thirteen manufacturers comprising four large enterprises and nine SMEs will be showcasing to UK buyers their latest collections of a wide range of products including T-shirts, shirts, knitwear, denim, and jersey wear.
Fashion SVP is Europe's unique sourcing event, with an international show presenting over 120 leading fashion producers from the UK and 21 overseas countries, as well as training seminars, trend focus features, product demonstrations, fashion clinics, a jobs' forum and prime networking with the fashion industry. The fair attracts buyers from large famous European retailers to smaller chains, clothing brands, wholesalers and boutique labels.
The textile and apparel industry has been a major contributor to Mauritian GDP. The UK remains an important market for Mauritian exports, accounting for over 15 per cent of total domestic exports. Mauritius has been working with top UK retailers such as Arcadia Group, NEXT, Debenhams, Harrods, and River Island, among others.
To further encourage exports Mauritius has introduced the speed-to-market scheme which is being implemented by Mauritian enterprises. The aim is to give a boost to textile and apparel exports to European countries and to enhance product delivery in terms of speed-to-market.
Marks & Spencer has been the first mover in the retail sector on supply chain sustainability, the venerable UK department store chain, which operates about 1,000 locations across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, says it is pushing even more boundaries. A decade after its first “Plan A” sustainability commitments, M&S is setting 100 new targets to be reached by 2025.
For M&S, the evolution of its sustainability plan is not just about social and environmental sustainability. As is the case with much of the world’s retail sector, this is also about remaining sustainable economically. If M&S cannot thrive financially, then neither can many of the workers within the farthest reaches its supply chain.
Community engagement sums up the first of the three pillars that largely define M&S’ 2025 targets. Well-being is another pillar, one that M&S says it hopes to improve the lives of 10 million people in the UK and abroad over the next eight years. M&S says key to this objective is sourcing 50 critical raw materials that come from sources respecting ecosystems, animals, communities and people.
Finally, “caring for the planet” rounds out the third pillar of M&S’ recharged sustainability program. M&S has outlined its goals in minute detail, the challenge of M&S how to remain relevant in consumers’ lives as shoppers migrate away from brick and mortar onto computers screens and smartphones.
Jockey’s brand campaign features former Navy SEAL and actor Remi Adeleke. The campaign introduces Remi wearing Jockey in a personal, intimate video and a series of portraits illustrating what's underneath, both literally and figuratively.
Remi was born in West Africa. But the Nigerian government seized his family's assets driving Remi and his mother to relocate to the US. The void left by his father's death led Remi to fall in with the wrong crowd and after years of no direction, Remi joined the Navy and became a SEAL, making it through a program that only about 15 to 20 per cent of trainees complete.
During his 13 years on active duty, Remi found his faith and eventually became a youth pastor and motivational speaker. He has a role in the blockbuster Transformers: The Last Knight.
The Jockey brand campaign has shared the powerful stories of Chris Van Etten, a US Marine veteran who shows perseverance always wins; Lisa Cusimano, a firefighter who defines courage as serving something greater than yourself; Michael Cottone, an adoptive father who exemplifies the gift of family, and Michaela DePrince, a war orphan turned ballerina who demonstrates that with hope, anything is possible.
American brand Jockey’s apparel products are sold in major department and specialty stores in more than 145 countries around the world.
JD, China's number two e-commerce firm, will invest 397 million dollars in fashion retailer Farfetch to expand its luxury offerings. JD is locked in fierce competition with Alibaba for China’s high end retail market.
JD will become a major shareholder in the UK firm. The partnership will combine the Farfetch brand and curation with the scale and influence of the foremost Chinese e-commerce giant.
Farfetch will be integrated into JD's existing logistics and marketing systems and the former will also employ JD's online finance tools, including its payment service and microcredit feature.
The deal comes as JD is looking to broaden its offering of luxury and branded consumer goods. Its largest domestic rival Alibaba has expanded heavily into branded goods with its online marketplace Tmall.
JD initially gained popularity as a retail platform for electronics and appliances, but it has since leveraged its extensive in-house logistics network to expand into a range of products including grocery, apparel and on-demand services.
JD has a high-end delivery service, JD Luxury Express, where staff in suits and white gloves deliver packages directly to customers’ homes using electric vehicles.
Online UK fashion retailer Farfetch has partnered with 700 global luxury brands and boutiques.
India and Australia will collaborate in the textile, clothing and fashion sectors. Appropriate measures will be identified to connect the Australian and Indian textile and fashion sectors; promote collaboration and international engagement between those sectors; nurture the skills and talents within those sectors; promote economic opportunities and encourage professional engagement, training, skill development and public exhibition of products derived from these sectors in the two countries. However, Intellectual Property Rights of either side will stand protected.
For overall development of the handloom sector, the initiative aims to increase handloom fabric production by way of establishing market linkages, encouraging innovation in designs and techniques for improvement in design capability, diversification of product lines and value addition, facilitating better access to domestic and export markets so that weavers are able to get continuous employment and improve their living standards.
Australia is emerging as an important market for Indian textiles and handicrafts. Australian fashion designers are interested in working with the textile and handloom sectors in India. Major department stores in Australia source from India.
Exports of Indian handicrafts to Australia have been only 1.31 per cent of India’s total exports of handicrafts. Australia is a small but high-end market where buyers are willing to pay for quality.
Zara and H&M are been found to source viscose from manufacturing sites whose processes pose serious health and environmental dangers, according to a new report from Changing Markets Foundation. The report found that untreated hazardous waste was leading to severe air and water pollution.
Viscose is used by fast fashion brands and high fashion alike. Its provenance from trees gives it the appearance of being natural, making it a prime candidate for corporate green washing. Although viscose itself does not damage human health or the environment, the chemicals used in its manufacturing process can be highly toxic. One of those chemicals, carbon disulfide, can damage the nervous system to the point of insanity in factory workers — though not consumers, as viscose doesn’t retain residue from chemicals used in manufacturing.
Viscose production is highly concentrated. About 70 per cent of production is controlled by 10 companies, and, as the above graph shows, roughly two-thirds of global viscose production takes place in China. India and Indonesia are the second and third largest producers, respectively. Environmental regulations in these three top viscose-producing countries are hardly stringent. Factor in mass production as a result of steady consumer demand for cheap, trendy clothing, and you have what the Changing Markets Foundation calls a “toxic” combination.
Despite growing awareness of the ugly environmental and social consequences of fast fashion, the trend is not slowing. When investigators from the Changing Markets Foundation visited viscose factories in China, India and Indonesia, they found that the manufacturers were dumping untreated wastewater into local water sources. The resulting heavily contaminated water has affected fishermen’s livelihoods, and it is also hypothesized to be behind nearby areas’ increasing cancer rates.
According to the report, other viscose buyers like Zara, ASOS, Tesco and Marks & Spencer are also linked to the polluting factories. H&M sources from six of the polluting factories that the foundation investigated. However, the specificity of the information on H&M’s suppliers also reflects on the company’s greater transparency. Out of the 45 major brands that the foundation contacted, only H&M provided a full list of the viscose factories that it works with.
GE and Oerlikon will collaborate on research and development in additive machines and materials (more often called 3-D printing) over the period of the agreement. The MoU, announced at the International Paris Air Show, includes GE Additive affiliated companies Concept Laser and Arcam AB. The five-year agreement between Oerlikon and GE agrees the provision of additive machines and services by GE to Oerlikon, and Oerlikon becoming a preferred AM component manufacturer and materials supplier to GE Additive and its affiliated companies. The MoU states that GE Additive and its affiliated companies will be preferred suppliers of AM machines to Oerlikon, also the companies will collaborate on machine and materials R&D.
Roland Fischer, CEO of the Oerlikon Group, says that developing innovative technology is key to growth strategy and a distinct advantage Oerlikon brings to customers. The collaboration will strengthen both companies’ positions in additive manufacturing, and allows us to meet the growing demand for additive services in many industries.
Vice President and General Manager of GE Additive, Mohammad Ehteshami, stated that GE Additive and Oerlikon both are aware of the transformative power of additive manufacturing throughthis strategic partnerships there can be uptake of AM in industries.
Additive manufacturing involves transforming digital designs from computer-aided design (CAD) software, and building them using an additive machine, layer by layer, with metal powder. GE has been a leading end user and innovator in the additive manufacturing space, GE has also invested approximately USD 1.5 billion in manufacturing and additive technologies over the past ten years
Paul T. O’Day, president, American Fiber Manufacturers Association, is dead. He was appointed president of the association in 1984. He was fiercely dedicated to the industry he loved. A true gentleman and a powerful intellect, Paul O’Day led the association with a sophisticated wit and charm.
O’Day led the initial implementation of the multi-fiber arrangement (MFA), the international agreement which imposed quotas or quantity limits on textiles and clothing from developing countries, in force from 1974 until 2004. Under the auspice of the MFA ensuring realistic quota outcomes on sensitive items and was lead negotiator for fibers and yarns in the Uruguay Round, the most ambitious multilateral trade agreement in history, calling for elimination of all textile and apparel quotas by January 2004.
O’Day was also a lead negotiator in textiles and clothing in the NAFTA agreement, the first free trade agreement with phase out of tariffs among partners, and was responsible for establishing a yarn forward rule of origin which became standard for all subsequent FTA agreements.
He has been deputy assistant secretary of commerce for trade development, executive assistant to the secretary, and other senior positions in the commerce department and the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
