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The International Conference on Apparel and Home Textiles (ICAHT) will be held in New Delhi on September 9, 2017. This is a cross- disciplinary event and the idea is to explore creativity and the creative process through the lenses of imagination and innovation. Renowned speakers from different organizations across the globe will share knowledge in the form of presentations and workshops on various topics connected to the textile and apparel industry.
The theme for this year's conference is ‘People, Purpose and Passion: The Pathway to Success’. The conference is intended to cover all aspects of the apparel industry, including the problems of small-scale enterprises in the developing world, barriers which are hindering the growth of this industry, strengths and weaknesses of manufacturers in different regions, globalization issues, resource and manpower scarcity, quality of the product, trade laws, adopting new techniques to improve productivity, managing the global supply chain and finally changing apparel industry trends with ever-changing fashions.
The conference in October 2016 was attended by over 400 delegates from 110 manufacturing units and 50 academicians from all over the country. More than 70 per cent of attendees were garment industry professionals and 60 per cent of attendees were senior level persons which included 60 owners of garment manufacturing units.
Digital Textile Symposium will be held in Mumbai on November 16, 2017. The conference will look at opportunities and market growth enabled by new high speed and high performance digital textile systems and consumables.
The focus will be on creating business opportunities for stakeholders of digital textile printing industry and charting out a sustainable growth part for this technology in India. The conference will feature an array of topics covering the entire breadth of the industry including high speed digital fabric printing solutions, digital fabric printing for increasing profits, pigment inkjet technology for textiles, software solutions enabling digital textile printing, latest technologies for textile sublimation printing, emergence of new business models driving digital textile printing, solutions for durable printing of home textiles, direct disperse inkjet printing onto synthetic fabrics.
Concurrent to the symposium, and in Mumbai, an exhibition on textile processing will be held on November 17 to 18. This is dedicated to innovations in textile processing across various application sectors. This exhibition should be of particular interest to ink manufacturers, OEMs, fashion designers, service providers, processing houses, textile mills, brands, print service providers, garment manufacturers, home textile manufacturers, fabric manufacturers, digital textile printers, apparel manufacturers, fabric printers, screen printers, investors and entrepreneurs, and technologists.
Apparel Tech Up was held in Sri Lanka on July 20. The event was aimed at discussing the latest trends in global apparel retail and manufacturing. And subsequently how new age technology like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Mobility can aid Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers.
The event saw a large turn out from the apparel manufacturing fraternity of Sri Lanka with a presence of over 42 manufacturing groups including Sirio, Hirdaramani Group, MAS Bodyline and Brandix. The audience also included technology providers Fast React Systems and GSD. There was a discussion on the changing landscape of retailers and consumers of fashion products, the inevitable rise of e-commerce and the plausible impact on manufacturers.
The number of styles per season is rising at a CAGR of 17.9 per cent. This means that by 2020, manufacturers will have to plan twice the number of styles as they do today, whereas the overall quantity will remain constant.
This impact of fast fashion is expected to greatly affect global apparel manufacturing. Amazon holds a 6.6 per cent share of fashion retail in the US and this is expected to rise to 16.2 per cent in the next five years. Products using AI, Big Data and Mobility can drastically change the landscape of apparel manufacturing in the world.
Babar Afzal, a shepherd and pashmina artist from Jammu & Kashmir, has come out with an initiative, Global Luxury Pashmina Dialogue Series, to preserve, enhance and re-imagine the authentic handmade pashmina heritage. The objective is to walk the audience through pashmina’s journey right from Changthang to luxury stores in Europe and bring back the lost sheen of the fabric once worn by royalty. Sozni pashmina shawls take around six to seven years to be made and cost close to Rs 70 lakhs.
The dialogue intends to be a yearly event, first in six cities of India and subsequently going international. Udaipur will be the first city. Others are Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and New Delhi. Among the items on display will be a paisley woven wool and silk shawl with a typical all-over intricate design, part of the big-sized square Mughal collection woven in gold thread, priced over Rs 1.5 crores.
Besides antique collection from the Mughal courts, two dozen pashmina artworks made from pashmina goat hair, vegetable dyes and cotton will be showcased. The cost of each artworks ranges between Rs 20 lakhs and Rs 50 lakhs. France, Germany, Canada, Monaco and the UAE are the largest importers of pashmina.
Japanese denim powerhouse Edwin is launching a collection for the US market. This line will feature five-pocket jeans and fashion bottoms in denim and non-denim fabrics as well as T-shirts, chambray shirts, outerwear and shorts. The collection will be manufactured in Edwin’s group of factories in Japan. The foundation of the new collection will be Edwin’s production capability, its five-pocket jeans and a unique denim culture.
Edwin is one of Japan’s top denim brands available at 3,000 points of sale, including at 900 doors in Europe. However, in the United States, Edwin has been available only at a handful of boutiques catering to hard-core denim enthusiasts. The brand’s Japanese executives plan to boost its American and Canadian business, where interest in denim runs the highest. So much so 96 per cent of American consumers own a pair of jeans, and 39 per cent of the world’s denim purchases are made by Americans compared to the 20 per cent made by European customers and ten per cent by Japanese and Korean buyers.
Edwin has been historically known as a men’s brand. However, the brand will focus on increasing its women’s business. The upcoming US collection will include 60 women’s products.
Color Solutions International is launching Color Analysis for spring/summer 2019. Color Analysis is a trend forecasting magazine that provides high-level global color trend information for color managers, directors and designers to support the color palette development process. It contains a forecast of key colors, accents and core neutrals that will be most relevant for the upcoming seasons. The forecast is based on consumer reports, detailed market research, current social trends and generational mindsets. Every issue features an artist who influences and inspires forward thinking.
The magazine includes a seasonal color palette selected from a wide range of approximately 9,000 CSI colors. The palette is available as cotton swatches sold on a ring. Part of the CSI service offering is to provide color direction based on a wide scope of palette searches as well as validated color use. Every issue will include an exclusive Relative Color Popularity (RCP) report, which provides color validation based on seasonal color palette usage by comparing similar hues.
Color Solutions International is a member of the DyStar Group. CSI and DyStar support brands, retailers and their business partners from development to production. The CSI and DyStar team of experts work together and assist their customers in color development, communication as well as in the dyeing and quality inspection process to achieve the best possible results and sustainable fashion.
China is focusing on hemp cultivation. A research program involving partners from the Ukraine and Canada aims at developing new, high-yield hemp varieties for stalks and seeds and introducing biotechnological procedures which allow for the production of fine hemp fibers using enzymes.
This procedure is referred to as the enzymatic cottonisation of hemp fibers, which may then be processed alone or blended with other fibers. Hemp cultivation is considered more environmentally friendly than growing cotton, as it thrives in moderate climates, and doesn’t need artificial irrigation. Hemp is said to be ideally suited for crop rotation schemes and delivers around twice the fiber yield.
China feels hemp can be a strategic resource. The country is attracting partners from Europe and North America for the production and marketing of organic hemp foods and offering them solid infrastructure and investment subsidies. Hemp fibers have benefits including good moisture absorption characteristics, antibacterial effects. They provide good UV protection and allow textiles to dry fast.
Earlier this month, a conference on hemp was held in China. The show showcased very fine hemp fabrics including suits, jackets, dresses, trousers, underwear, socks and towels. Hemp viscose fibers were also presented – mixed with cotton they are used in wet and cosmetic wipes.
Bestseller has joined the Global Fashion Agenda, which aims to change the way the world produces, markets and consumes fashion. It operates as a leadership forum steering the global sustainability conversation.
As a strategic partner, Bestseller will advise on the strategic direction and help shape the operational focus of Global Fashion Agenda and provide expert opinion and inputs for the development of sustainability recommendations for fashion businesses. Global Fashion Agenda’s other strategic partners are H&M, Kering, Target, Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Li & Fung.
Global Fashion Agenda is best known for the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the world’s principal event on sustainability in fashion. World apparel and footwear consumption is projected to rise 63 per cent by 2030. This increases the need for the fashion industry to address its environmental and social footprint and take remedial action. As of today, sustainability pulse of the industry is weak – scoring only 32 out of 100. The fashion industry has a clear opportunity to act differently, pursuing profit and growth while also creating new value for the world economy.
In the past decade, the global fashion industry has been an engine for development and made progress on sustainability. Awareness is growing and individually, companies are optimising business practices to limit their negative impact.
Bangladesh’s export earnings in July grew 26 per cent compared to the same period last year. Export earnings from knitwear increased by 17.28 per cent; earnings from woven sector grew 16.88 per cent. Leather and leather product exports grew 26 per cent. Earnings from leather footwear exports grew by 30 per cent while earnings from leather products increased by 38.43 per cent. Earnings from jute and jute goods declined 7.51 per cent.
Growth took place due to increased shipments of readymade garments. Earnings from RMG exports in July grew 17 per cent. There were two main reasons for the growth: some of seasonal goods shipped at a time in the month of July and, second, orders increased as capacity of Accord and Alliance approved factories increased.
Exports in fact witnessed double digit growth in July as a good number of export consignments for the month of June was shipped in the month of July due to the vacation of Eid-ul-Fitr. Export earnings growth are expected to be satisfactory in August but decline in September due to of Eid-ul-Azha vacation.
The Australian Cotton Industry Awards has declared winners. The recipients are: Cavaso Farming for Monsanto Grower of the Year, CSD Farming for AgriRisk High Achiever of the Year, Fiona Norrie for ADAMA Chris Lehmann Trust Young Achiever of the Year, Dr Paul Grundy and Dr Stephen Yeates for Cotton Seed Distributors Researcher of the Year and the IPF Service to Industry Award to Michael Bennett.
The awards recognises excellence and achievement in Australia’s cotton industry throughout the supply chain, from growers and ginners to product suppliers, consultants, agronomists and researchers. Meanwhile more than 500 cotton growers from across Queensland and NSW flocked to Southern New South Wales to discuss issues facing the industry and catch up on the latest developments in farming. The two-day cotton collective industry forum covered a huge range of topics, from research and development, connected agriculture and technology, to positioning Australian cotton in the world fiber market.
This year’s program and speaker line-up was extremely diverse, giving attendees a broad variety of topics covering many issues affecting cotton growers. The cotton industry has grown rapidly in southern New South Wales in recent years, with many farmers becoming cotton growers for the first time, so a significant portion of the collective’s agenda was devoted to issues important to new growers.
