FW
In the global textile manufacturing market, where countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam leverage preferential trade agreements (FTAs) to dominate export markets, India's Tiruppur stands as a remarkable anomaly. Dubbed the ‘Knitwear Capital of India’ this unassuming city in Tamil Nadu has, against all odds, transformed itself into a global manufacturing powerhouse, demonstrating an astonishing trajectory of growth and resilience.
From a modest $1.21 million in 1985 (Rs 15 crore), Tiruppur's textile exports are confirmed to have risen to over $4.71 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) in fiscal year 2024-25, almost 2,667-fold increase and a consistent 22 per cent CAGR over four decades. This phenomenal success story is not just about numbers; it's about an unparalleled ecosystem, a dedicated workforce, and a strategic vision that has allowed Tiruppur to carve out a significant niche on the world stage.
A self-contained ecosystem of efficiency
One of Tiruppur's most formidable strengths lies in its integrated industrial ecosystem. Boasting an estimated 28,000 manufacturing units, the city covers every stage of the textile value chain within its own geographical confines. From knitting and dyeing to printing, embroidery, and final garmenting, the entire process is meticulously managed within Tiruppur. This vertical integration drastically reduces lead times, cuts logistical costs, and allows for unparalleled quality control and flexibility – factors that are highly prized by global brands.
"The ability to control every aspect of production under one roof gives us a significant edge," explains A Sakthivel, President, Tiruppur Exporters' Association (TEA), a collective representing 1,400 exporters. "We can respond quickly to changing fashion trends and deliver orders with remarkable efficiency, even for complex designs and large volumes."
Dominating India's knitwear exports
Tiruppur's influence extends far beyond its export figures. In FY25, the city is projected to account for an astounding 90 per cent of India's total cotton knitwear exports and contribute a significant 55 per cent to the nation's overall knitwear exports. This dominance is not limited to international markets; Tiruppur also supplies apparel worth a staggering $3.18 billion (Rs 27,000 crore) for domestic consumption, cementing its role as a cornerstone of India's textile industry.
Empowered workforce
The economic ripple effect of Tiruppur's growth is profound. The industry directly employs 6 lakh people and indirectly supports another 2 lakh workers. What's particularly noteworthy is that 65 per cent of this direct workforce comprises semi-literate women workers from rural areas. Tiruppur has become a beacon of economic empowerment for these women, providing them with stable employment, skill development, and improved livelihoods. The industry's focus on inclusive growth has contributed significantly to social upliftment in the region.
Competing without the crutch of FTAs
Tiruppur's success story becomes even more compelling when considering the competitive landscape. Unlike major textile exporting nations such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, which benefit from extensive Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with key markets like the European Union and the United States, India often faces tariffs on its textile exports. Despite this disadvantage, Tiruppur has consistently demonstrated robust growth.
"We are growing at a rate of 15-18 per cent annually, and in FY25, Tiruppur's exports will cross $4.71 billion," states Sakthivel with confidence. This growth is a testament to the industry's ability to offer compelling value propositions beyond just price.
Global brands take notice
The quality, reliability, and efficiency offered by Tiruppur manufacturers have not gone unnoticed by global giants. Leading apparel brands such as Walmart, Primark, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Warner Bros, and Tommy Hilfiger are actively placing fresh and substantial orders with Tiruppur units. The city exports approximately 35 per cent of its production to the European Union, another 35 per cent to the US, and around 10 per cent to the Middle East and Canada, underscoring its broad international appeal.
Table: Knitwear export performance, Tiruppur vs. regional competitors (select years)
|
Year (fiscal/calendar) |
Tiruppur exports ($ bn) |
Bangladesh knitwear exports ($ bn) |
Vietnam knitwear exports ($ bn) |
|
2010-11 (FY) |
~2.6 |
~7.0 (2010 C.Y.) |
~5.5 (2010 C.Y.) |
|
2015-16 (FY) |
~3.4 |
~13.0 (2015 C.Y.) |
~8.0 (2015 C.Y.) |
|
2020-21 (FY) |
~3.58 |
~23.2 (FY2021-22) |
~11.0 (2023 C.Y.) |
|
2024-25 (FY) |
>4.71 |
(Data pending for FY25) |
(Data pending for 2024/25) |
Resilience and innovation
There are numerous success stories within Tiruppur. For instance, many units have invested heavily in sustainable manufacturing practices, including zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) dyeing units and renewable energy sources, addressing growing environmental concerns of international buyers. This proactive approach to sustainability, often without direct government mandates, further enhances their appeal to ethically conscious brands.
Moreover, several companies have embraced technological advancements, integrating automation in various stages of production and adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to streamline operations and enhance efficiency. This continuous drive for innovation ensures that Tiruppur remains at the cutting edge of manufacturing capabilities.
What lies ahead…
While Tiruppur's journey has been extraordinary, challenges remain. The lack of FTAs continues to be a hurdle, putting Indian exporters at a tariff disadvantage. Additionally, rising labor costs and the need for continuous skill upgradation are ongoing concerns. However, the industry's historical ability to adapt and innovate suggests that Tiruppur is well-positioned to navigate these challenges.
The ‘Knitwear Capital of India’ is not just a regional success story; it's a powerful demonstration of how a focused industrial cluster, driven by entrepreneurship, innovation, and a dedicated workforce, can compete and thrive on the global stage, even without the preferential treatment enjoyed by its rivals. Tiruppur's journey serves as an inspiring blueprint for other aspiring manufacturing hubs, proving that homegrown excellence can indeed conquer global markets.
British menswear label Drake’s has teamed up with sports-casual brand New Balance for a unique collaboration, reimagining New Balance’s recently launched Made in UK Allerdale shoe.
The reworked Allerdale features brown leather and pigskin, a FuelCell-equipped cup sole, and an Ortholite insole. It is designed like a Japanese nylon ripstop tongue with an an embroidered flying NB logo, and distinctive D-ring lacing. The shoe is available with three pairs of paracord-inspired laces, designed to channel the UK's legacy of country pursuits and craftsmanship.
Michael Hill, Creative Director, Drake, terms the collaboration as ‘natural fit.’ It aims to embrace the vintage feel of the Allerdale with the addition of brown leather, green suede, and a jolt of orange paracord with the laces. These are colors and materials that the brand often incorporates into Drake’s collections, he adds.
Drake and New Balance have also developed a limited edition apparel collection to coincide with the launch. This collection highlights the British outdoors and includes several Drake’s staples.
Key pieces feature an unstructured Games blazer and matching fatigue trousers in waxed herringbone cotton, a packable shirt, a cagoule, and a utility vest in ripstop nylon. The collection also offers hiking shorts, button-down shirts, graphic T-shirts, knitted ties, and a tote bag crafted from fabrics used throughout the collection.
To promote the collaboration, the brand has launched a campaign film starring actor and comedian Charlie Cooper, who road-tests the Allerdale shoe and the limited-edition apparel in the picturesque Lake District.
A global leader in digital imaging and printing technologies, Epson has launched Monna Lisa ML-18000, the latest addition to its flagship series of digital textile printers.
Engineered for high-volume production, the ML-18000 delivers unparalleled performance with exceptional print speed, enhanced color depth, and sustainable features, making it a powerful solution for the evolving textile and fashion printing industries.
At its core, the ML-18000 features 18 Epson PrecisionCore® Micro TFP printheads, enabling production speeds up to 252 sqm/h in 2-pass mode (600 x 600 dpi) while maintaining outstanding print quality. Its double black ink configuration significantly improves black density, delivering deep, rich tones at high speeds, ideal for fashion, home décor, and soft signage.
Compared to its predecessor, the Monna Lisa ML-16000, the ML-18000 uses a higher proportion of black ink for improved optical density and greater cost-efficiency, especially for dark and monochromatic designs.
In line with Epson’s commitment to sustainability, the ML-18000 incorporates an Integrated Water Recycling Unit. This system conserves valuable water by filtering and recycling water used in belt cleaning processes, ensuring maximum recycling efficiency and compliance with local wastewater regulations. This compact, efficient system reduces water consumption and minimizes environmental impact, making it an ideal solution for eco-conscious production.
The ML-18000 integrates Epson’s advanced Precision Dot Technologies, including microweave and lookup table technologies to reduce banding and graininess, and multi-layer halftone technology for smoother gradations. Features like symmetrical color alignment, accurate belt position control, and Epson Edge Print PRO X (genuine Epson RIP software supporting Adobe PDF Print Engine) guarantee high-speed, high-quality output with exceptional detail.
Built for non-stop operation, the ML-18000 features a dual 10-liter ink system, high-efficiency cleaning mechanisms, and automated maintenance tools like auto nozzle verification and ink mist extraction. It utilizes Epson Genesta Reactive Inks, which are ECO PASSPORT certified and GOTS-approved, ensuring brilliant color reproduction with minimal environmental impact.
The printer is also supported by Epson Cloud Solution PorMonna Lisa ML-18000 ist, allowing remote monitoring for maximized productivity and faster service resolution.
The ML-18000 is ideal for high-quality prints on various fabrics, including silk, cotton, polyester, and blends, making it suitable for haute couture, fast fashion, home textiles, and sportswear.
With double black ink technology, an integrated water recycling system, and a robust Epson ecosystem, the Monna Lisa ML-18000 empowers textile printing businesses to stay competitive while advancing responsible production practices, states Satyajeet Satpathy, Director – Sales & Marketing, Epson India.
Renowned designer Antonio Marras has forayed into innerwear segment with the launch of his first genderless lingerie capsule collection. Launched at a special event during the Milan Fashion Week, the collection is inspired by 1950s lingerie and its embodiment of body and self-awareness.
Titled, ‘Nuda Veritas,’ the collection was launched premiered inside the brand’s Via Montenapoleone boutique, which was transformed into a theatrical space celebrating underwear and imagination. Under the guidance, of Mauro Balletti, Creative Director, the immersive environment blended live performances with digital installations, creating a vibrant atmosphere.
At the core of the collection is a universal-cut ribbed tank top that naturally follows the body's contours. A heart-shaped patch on the chest serves as an emotional and distinctive symbol, framing the Antonio Marras logo in metal hardware. Designed to be worn either under or over other garments, this versatile tank top anchors the collection with an urban and casual appeal.
The collection also features two brief styles - one for men and one for women - that reinterpret iconic vintage proportions with modern, essential cuts for comfort. A visible elastic band bearing the logo adds a bold identity statement through a subtle design detail. The color palette - brown, black, white, écru, and the brand’s signature burgundy - deepens the narrative with refined, intimate tones, each evoking a personal memory.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has signed an MoU with a leading Textile B2B platform connecting textile and apparel exporters with global buyers, Textilepages.com to help garment exporters, especially SMEs, build global visibility with minimal cost and effort.
The MoU will help BGMEA members create digital business profiles, list and showcase their products, and use buyer connection tools. Additionally, BGMEA members can showcase their company through a verified textile business listing for apparel exporters and attract international sourcing agents and brands. These tools are especially valuable for SMEs that lack access to large trade exhibitions or costly B2B marketing channel support.
According to Md Anwar Hossain, Administrator, BGMEA, this partnership will help members, especially SMEs - connect with buyers worldwide and showcase the strength of Bangladesh’s apparel industry. Rahman Rob Bhuiyan, Founder, Textilepages, opines, the collaboration will help provide visibility and opportunity to all exporters beyond borders.
The platform is already being used by buyers from over 50 countries to find textile trade partners and factories. It facilitates safe buyer-supplier communication and promotes transparent trade. Signing of this MoU marks the beginning of a strategic digital shift for the apparel industry. It reflects a shared commitment to enhancing B2B readiness, reducing dependency on intermediaries, and giving every exporter, supplier, and manufacturer.
Making its debut as an official exhibitor at the Global Fashion Summit, held from June 3-5, 2025 in Copenhagen, world’s leading elastane manufacturer, Hyosung, showcased innovative textile solutions designed to shape a sustainable future for fashion.
Of the products highlighted by Hyosung at the event included the expanded regen Bio Elastane range, featuring varying amounts of renewable content. This range is gaining significant traction among luxury fashion brands and retailers seeking sustainable stretch solutions to blend with natural fibers like organic cotton, merino wool, cashmere, and silk.
The company's third-party-certified regen Bio+ Elastane and regen Bio Max Elastane replace some traditional fiber inputs with a high content of renewable resources. This significantly reduces reliance on fossil fuels and helps minimize environmental impact, all while delivering the same elasticity, recovery, and durability as conventional elastane.
Simon Whitmarsh-Knight, Global Sustainability Director – Textiles, Hyosung, says, the brand supports flexible adoptions of various options, such as regen Bio+ or Bio Max, according to their specific goals. The regen Bio elastane is being increasing adopted by brands and retail as it can be added as a renewable stretch engine to blend with both natural and synthetic fibers.
As part of its corporate ESG commitment to achieve net zero by 2050, Hyosung has begun work on a new 50,000-ton Bio-BDO (Butanediol) facility at its Vietnam plants, with plans to expand to 200,000 tons annually. Bio-BDO is a major ingredient in elastane manufacturing. This new facility will utilize Geno’s proven Geno BDO technology, which ferments sugars derived from sugarcane to replace fossil raw materials. This initiative will create the world's first integrated elastane manufacturing plant, streamlining production in the same region, improving efficiency, and reducing the carbon footprint.
At the Summit, Hyosung also showcased its 100 per cent recycled functional elastane, nylon, and polyester fiber technologies, alongside circular polyester made from end-of-life textiles. These efforts further advance the company's commitment to creating a circular textile ecosystem.
Focusing on the theme ‘Barriers and Bridges,’ the 2025 Global Fashion Summit aimed to transform traditional barriers into tangible change. The Summit's program addressed impact-centric topics related to social and environmental challenges, merging barriers and bridges in innovative ways.
Every year, the fashion industry produces around 100 billion garments globally, with a staggering 92 million tons of clothing waste ending up in landfills. In the face of such waste, many believe the only sustainable path forward is to embrace degrowth in fashion - a planned reduction in production and consumption that promotes fair, equitable living.
Degrowth challenges the industry’s reliance on maximization, commodification, and efficiency. Instead, it focuses on sufficiency, cooperation, and care—values that are difficult for an industry driven by mass production and fast fashion. While governments and corporations encourage responsible shopping, real change demands collective responsibility and a shift in how designers, brands, and manufacturers approach waste. Circular practices like upcycling help build a more just and equitable fashion system.
Upcycling offers a bold, creative rethink of waste. Unlike recycling - which breaks down textiles into raw materials and reuses only about 1 per cent of clothing - upcycling transforms discarded or waste garments into higher-value pieces. Recent studies on upcycling in Turkey, a major textile producer, show how this practice can align with degrowth principles. Designers, brands, and NGOs there creatively repurpose materials - like turning food waste into natural dyes or sailcloth into handbags—adding value through skill sharing, community care, and craftsmanship.
Upcycling shifts the view of clothing from disposable to valuable, building connections between people, materials, and ecosystems. Local designers are preserving cultural heritage by partnering with rural women to weave discarded fabrics into garments. Brands are collaborating with cafés to collect food waste for dyes. During the COVID-19 crisis, solidarity networks turned textile scraps into upcycled uniforms for healthcare workers.
These efforts go beyond profit - they build alternative systems rooted in care, shared knowledge, and sustainability. However, upcycling remains niche, with challenges like limited access to waste resources, lack of public funding, and gaps in circular literacy. Still, when tied to local communities and narratives of care, upcycling holds real potential to support a degrowth transition and help fashion rethink its relationship with waste.
As luxury brands struggle with declining sales and bad PR around how their goods are made, they need to rethink their pricing strategy to bring back lapsed luxury consumers and jaded Gen-Z shoppers in 2025, says Federica Levato, Partner, Bain & Company and Co-author, Bain-Altagamma Luxury Goods Worldwide Study report, 2024 was a flat year, with a good holiday that saved it from being negative. But this year, with what visibility we have, it has been bad in the first quarter, especially after Liberation Day, notes Levato.
In a first slowdown in the last 15 years, global luxury revenues declined from around $423 billion to $418 billion in 2025. The market is likely to contract by 2-5 per cent this year, predicts the report. Tariffs are likely to eat into luxury brands’ profitability with the trend of constantly reshuffling creative directors chipping away at the credibility and identity of many brands with frequent aesthetic shifts, Levato states.
The luxury industry is facing both weakening consumer sentiment and an identity crisis as Gen-Z consumers grow disillusioned with the traditional luxury value proposition, conclude Levato and d’Arpizio.
Part of the luxury industry’s failure to capture Gen Z comes down to its increasing reliance on its wealthiest customers and continued price raising that has cut out an aspirational customer, opines Levato Luxury prices in Europe have increased by almost in the last five years. At the same time, high-profile incidents like an Italian probe that revealed the true cost and labor conditions in some of Dior’s workshops are undermining the premise that the high costs are justified, adds Levato.
Brands are e-injecting some entry price products, doing a sub-$1,000 bag they didn’t have last year to regain some relevance with that customer. While some luxury brands like Ralph Lauren have announced that they will continue to increase their prices in order to offset tariffs, Burberry added some more accessibly-priced products to its holiday lineup last year. This helped the brand increase store by 4 per cent, registering its first quarter of customer growth in two years. Even the wealthiest of customers can be wooed by softer prices and get a bag for $8,000 instead of $10,000, says Charles Gorra, Founder and CEO, Rebag, a luxury handbag reseller.
Hilco Consumer – Retail has been hired to manage store closing sales at 26 At Home locations across the US. These sales give shoppers a rare chance to score major savings on a wide variety of home décor, furniture, and seasonal items. Once the sales end, closing stores will direct customers to nearby At Home locations or, if none are close, encourage them to shop online.
Hilco is leading the sales process to ensure everything runs smoothly for both shoppers and store employees. The sales will continue until all inventory, fixtures, and equipment at the closing stores are sold.
Shoppers can save up to 30 per cent off storewide. Discount coupons and other customer discounts will not be added on top of sale prices at closing locations.
All purchases made on or after June 19, 2025, will be considered as final sale with no returns or exchanges. Items purchased before June 19, 2025, can be returned at closing stores until July 2, 2025, following At Home’s return policy. Gift cards, gift certificates, and loyalty or credit card rewards will be accepted at closing stores through July 2, 2025. Store fixtures and equipment are also available for purchase.
Nike and Levi’s have launched their biggest and most ambitious collaboration yet. More than just a sneaker collection, the latest Nike x Levi’s drop brings together the two iconic on an apparel collection to perfectly complements their footwear range, taking the partnership to a whole new level.
The collection offers jeans and jackets that stand on their own. The faded denim jeans feature a relaxed, slouchy fit ‘specifically designed to complement the collection’s footwear,’ according to Levi’s. Made from selvedge denim—a premium material rarely used for jeans with such a lived-in, vintage look- these jeans are finished with authentic chainstitching that true denim lovers will appreciate. The Type II-inspired trucker jacket follows suit, crafted from the same high-quality selvedge denim and featuring clean, thoughtful details that elevate it beyond your average jacket.
What really sets this collection apart, is the bold Nike branding. With visible Swooshes integrated into the denim pieces, this two-piece set is destined to become a future classic. The apparel is designed to shine right alongside the sneakers.
Shoes in this collection including the Nike Air Max 95, incorporate panels of washed and slightly distressed denim. The result is a textural, layered look that’s sure to age beautifully with wear—bringing to mind the standout Air Max 95 collab from COMME des GARÇONS.
Adding even more star power to the drop, the campaign features familiar faces from both brands’ circles, including WNBA standout Paige Bueckers, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman, and Daniel Buezo, designer of Kids of Immigrants and a longtime Nike collaborator. Together, they show how this collection blends sport, style, and culture into something truly special.
