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"As per recent American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) data, the US apparel and footwear industry contributed $383.6 billion in retail sales to the US economy. According to AAFA, the industry continued to be in a deflationary market for apparel during the past decade, with per capita consumption of apparel in volume terms down 2.5 per cent in 2016. The actual domestic production of apparel and footwear has risen by more than 50 per cent from its lowest point in 2009 but this increase didn't move the percentage share of the total market in ‘Made-in-America’ goods significantly."
As per recent American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) data, the US apparel and footwear industry contributed $383.6 billion in retail sales to the US economy. According to AAFA, the industry continued to be in a deflationary market for apparel during the past decade, with per capita consumption of apparel in volume terms down 2.5 per cent in 2016. The actual domestic production of apparel and footwear has risen by more than 50 per cent from its lowest point in 2009 but this increase didn't move the percentage share of the total market in ‘Made-in-America’ goods significantly.
Many surveys have highlighted Americans prefer ‘Made in America’ products and are willing to pay a premium for them. Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle Monitor Survey found more than half of all consumers (55 per cent) say it is ‘very or somewhat important’ that the apparel they buy is made in the US and those in the prime ages for apparel consumption, consumers aged 35-to-70, are significantly more likely to prefer made in America (66 per cent versus 40 per cent).
Globalisation a decisive factor
Rick Helfenbein, President & CEO, AAFA, points out globalisation is a critical factor when looking at these statistics. Around 95 per cent of the planet’s clothes-wearing population live outside of the US. This is a significant consideration when developing sourcing strategies. It is important to remember that apparel and footwear is a global business. Apparel and footwear companies need to determine the best way to source their product. This means keeping in mind the location of materials, the quality of craftsmanship, and the final cost for the end consumer. Through the years, this has meant diversifying supply chains around the world to meet this mix of needs.
Giving a holistic perspective on sourcing, he said when a product is imported from China, it is assumed that 100 per cent of the value of that product went to the Chinese. This ignores the fact that 70 per cent of the value of the product is America-made, be it the design, marketing, intellectual property, etc. The fact that products based on American ingenuity are imported into countries throughout the world, would thus mean that imports are actually very good for the US economy. He further admitted that manufacturing jobs left the US because of the ‘-ations’ – automation, innovation, globalisation, over-regulation. To increase jobs in the US, there needs to be investment in the other ‘-ation’ – education – to prepare for the jobs of the future.
Creating jobs
Helfenbein says, if the US has to make more products, there are several groups and companies that have made major strides in automating the supply chain, especially in the footwear space. As for creating more jobs for Americans, the answer lies in employing Americans on the intellectual and information-side of the industry. The better route is to create more jobs elsewhere in the industry, such as design, marketing, logistics, R&D, tech jobs, etc., that are higher paying and play to the strengths of the US job market.
The industry will increase its contribution to the US economy by focusing on two factors: opening new markets to American products by removing trade barriers, and protecting the intellectual property produced and owned by American companies. One must focus on ‘Created in America’ tag rather than ‘Made in America’ and that’s where the real difference would lie.
LYCRA has teamed up with Who What Wear, a leading fashion editorial and shopping website, to showcase the FALL DENIM EDIT featuring 2017’s most fashionable and technically savvy jeans for women. What makes the featured jeans unique is the inclusion of LYCRA dualFX technology, the key ingredient that allows denim to keep its shape, all day, every day. Who What Wear is a leading fashion editorial and shopping website among millennials. It will promote jeans by leading brands including Citizens Of Humanity, Frame and Joe’s Jeans. What makes the featured jeans unique is the inclusion of Lycra dual FX technology, the key ingredient that allows denim to keep its shape, all day, every day.
This unique innovation offers women enhanced comfort and exceptional fit that they desire in jeans across a range of styles and finishes--from distressed vintage to more contemporary skinnies.
Invista is the owner of the Lycra brand and long an innovator in comfort, style and fit. Lycra dual FX technology achieves its long lasting shape retention by combing two Lycra brand fibers into a single resilient yarn. One Lycra fiber adds stretch to denim, and the second lycra fiber ensures it always snaps back to its original shape. The two fibers work in tandem to create stretch denim fabrics that won’t stretch out. Who What Wear knows millennial fashion well and has created a platform that makes it easy to learn about the latest denim fashions and innovations. It even provides links to make an instant purchase on any device.
Asia’s first Fashion Summit aims to make Hong Kong industry sustainable The influential decision makers in the Hong Kong fashion industry came together today to officially announce the Asia’s first and largest sustainable conference dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in the global fashion industry. Fashion Summit (HK), the largest two-day conference on driving sustainable fashion initiatives opened today, to be held on two days Sept 7-8 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The theme of Fashion Summit (HK) 2017 is “Fashion Summit – Zero Impact”, to discuss tomorrow’s sustainability solutions for fashion.
The conference aims to raise understanding and awareness on the role of the Hong Kong fashion industry in leading the charge for revolutionary change, and the critical role Hong Kong can play in driving sustainability. The objective of Fashion Summit is to increase environmental protection awareness of public and provide a sharing platform of sustainable fashion development. It brings together a panel of leading academics, key players from the fashion industry, NGOs, media, decision makers and leaders from across discipline and geographical boundaries to exchange insights on the latest sustainable fashion trends, technology, best practice, solutions and opportunities.
The Fashion Industry’s Impact on the Environment
Fast fashion and a throw away consumer culture are the main culprits when it comes to fashion waste, causing overproduction, overconsumption and excessive refuse. The fashion industry is said to be the fifth most polluting industry in the world after oil, with global consumption of clothing and footwear expected to increase by 63 per cent by 2030, from 62 million tonnes today to 102 million in 2030 . With 150 billion new garments are produced every year, 15 per cent of textiles intended for clothing end up on the cutting room floor . Closer to home, Hongkongers spend an estimated total of HK$25 billion a year on clothes, with the average Hongkonger spending around HK$10,000 a year on clothes . Furthermore, textile garment waste amounts to 110,000 tonnes each year . Shockingly, approximately 20 per cent of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment in China. And in HK, 12,000 garments enter landfills everyday.
Fashion Future Challenge Award
Fashion Summit plays an important role in inspiring and nurturing young generation to involve earlier in sustainable fashion mindset. This will not only target in achieving a more environmental friendly fashion development, but also aim in preventing and protecting our living environment.
The launch of the Fashion Future Challenge Award is also announced, which is targeted at local university students and is set to commence in September this year. Fashion Summit (HK) hopes to tackle the pertinent issues facing the industry in terms of driving sustainable outcomes at each point in the fashion loop cycle as well as foster the spirit of collaboration for fabric makers, manufacturers, brands and academia, bringing them together to effect real, impactful change. In conjunction, the Fashion Future Challenge Award aims to recruit young talents into the cause.
British men’s knitwear brand Ross Barr will now be sold in China. Opportunities are being created for UK businesses by China’s new silk road. Ross Barr has generated sales throughout the UK, Europe, China, Japan, South Africa, Australasia and South America.
Britain has a well-deserved reputation for being at the global forefront of fashion and clothing design. China’s middle-class and wealthy consumers are increasingly seeking out boutique, quality brands with a story to tell, rather than just the major international labels.
Ross Barr will be available this autumn/winter in a department store called The British House in Beijing. The British House highlights UK businesses to help them capitalise on China’s appetite for British goods.
The British House features British fashion, homeware, art and education, including brands such as Turnbull and Asser, Johnstons of Elgin, Heals, Duke and Dexter and John Smedley.
Ross Barr’s garments will be displayed in the Men’s Dressing Room, alongside other clothing and accessory brands. The British House is a store exclusively showcasing British premium brands and modeled on a London townhouse. The 13,000 sq ft store is spread across two floors and is styled like a home, with product displayed in each room. Shoppers can scan the items they like and buy them online using tablets. The products will then be shipped directly from the UK to their home within eight to 11 days.
Fespa Eurasia will take place in Turkey from December 7 to 10, 2017. The three-day exhibition will provide graphics and signage professionals as well as textile decoration specialists the chance to discover new opportunities and see the latest product innovations and applications for the screen, digital and textile industry under one roof.
It will feature many leading international and regional manufacturers and distributors. Aleph, Canon, Eray Reklam and Folpa are among the exhibitors. Visitors will have access to a host tofree content at the show including textile printing and signage workshops and Fespa's vehicle wrapping competition, Wrap Masters Eurasia, which will return to this year's show.
The theme for the event is Dare. The aim is to encourage visitors to explore and identify something that has the potential to expand the boundaries of their existing business offering and challenge them to discover new ideas and routes to market.
Textile printing will once again have a substantial presence at Fespa Eurasia 2017, with a number of exhibitors showcasing solutions as well as a dedicated textile feature. Textile printing and garment decoration have always been a big focus in the Eurasian print industry and textile is one of the biggest opportunities for print service providers today.
Everlane and Marks and Spencer (M&S) are two examples of retailers working to transform the denim industry. Everlane, a brand built on ethical and transparent pricing and manufacturing processes, is adding denim to its portfolio of high-quality products. The factory has solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems. The factory also boasts technologies that allow the company to mitigate pollution-producing aspects of the denim production process. So much so it’s perfectly safe to drink the water that comes out of the plant.
M&S too is introducing Sustainable Selvedge men’s jeans that use low-impact technology, which allows the retailer to produce denim with five times less water than conventional manufacturing methods as well as lower energy consumption and chemical use. The jeans require 14 liters of water as opposed to the standard 70. Cotton is sourced through the Better Cotton Initiative and fitted with biodegradable leather patches and recycled thread and zip tape.
The production process of denim generates a considerable amount of waste water, which is often released untreated back into the environment, contaminating water sources and soil with chemicals and heavy metals. Poor practices and lack of regulation are having a negative impact on the health of local populations, with communities near denim manufacturing hubs demonstrating significantly higher instances of reproductive and fertility problems, as well as chemical poisoning.
British retailer John Lewis, the favorite department store of British middle classes, has created a gender-neutral children’s clothing department. John Lewis’ own brand children’s clothing is being labeled Boys & Girls or Girls & Boys (in equal numbers) while all in-store signage is gender neutral. A line of unisex pieces is also in production.
Both H&M and Zara have created unisex ranges for adults, while more high-end fashion names like JW Anderson and Rick Owens have championed unisex designs. Last year, Louis Vuitton dressed Jaden Smith, the 17-year-old son of Will Smith, in pieces from women’s clothing range for an ad campaign promoting its spring 2016 collection.
John Lewis’ aim has been to avoid reinforcing gender stereotypes within its collection and instead provide greater choice and variety to its customers so that the parent or child can choose what they would like to wear.
Gap was accused of being sexist last year by labeling girls as social butterflies and boys as scholars. Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket chain, was recently criticized for putting yellow dinosaurs on its boys’ school shoes and pink butterflies on shoes for girls.
However, John Lewis still sells a wide variety of children’s clothing including traditional clothing for girls and boys.
A conference on the clothing, textile, footwear and leather (CTFL) sectors is being held in South Africa on September 6 and 7, 2017. The point of discussion is the impact of downgrade of South Africa’s debt on its industry and the broader economy. The downgrades by various rating agencies during 2017 (and possible future downgrades) will raise the cost of borrowing for workers, businesses, government and consumers. This will have a negative impact on investments by businesses and on spending by consumers on products made in CTFL factories.
It is feared this could lead to increased factory closures and retrenchments in the CTFL sectors, placing an even greater strain on South Africa and its poor. The country already has high levels of unemployment.
The conference will consider the impact of the downgrades (including of possible future downgrades, especially of local currency debt) and measures to mitigate its impact, including a proper and credible turnaround plan to be formulated immediately and implemented expeditiously.
The event is being attended by 500 delegates, including CTFL factory workers, union officials, factory directors and managers, service providers, government officials, the retail sector, as well as delegates from associated sectors like cotton farming. The whole value chain will be represented.
Oklahoma is the fourth largest cotton producer in the US. A 17 per cent increase in cotton production has been forecasted due to more acreage being placed in cotton. A lot of people are moving to cotton now. As of August 1, Oklahoma had 4,50,000 acres in production, an increase of 55 per cent. Last year the state finished the season with 2,90,000 acres in cotton and was ranked sixth nationally in acres harvested.
In 2003, Oklahoma was ranked 13th nationally in cotton production. The state’s cotton production in the late 1990s and early 2000s hovered at 530 pounds an acre. However, advances in technology and methods of fighting the boll weevil have improved yields dramatically.
Texas leads the US with a forecast of 5.7 million acres, with Georgia second at 1.3 million acres. Mississippi third in forecast acreage. The prospect for cotton crop in the US has been lifted above 20 million bales, an 11-year high. This despite damage from Hurricane Harvey. The forecast for the crop in India, the world's top grower, has been raised to 6.46 million tons and that for production in China to 5.16 million tons.
Yarn and Fabric Show will be held in Sri Lanka from September 15 to 17, 2017. This will be held together with Home Textile Sri Lanka Expo and Sri Lanka International Air Freight, Shipping and Logistics Expo.
The three shows targeted at the entire business community will assemble technology, yarn and fabric manufacturers and the logistics sector under one roof and enable manufacturers of Sri Lanka to get to know of the latest developments and technology available so that they can compete in the world market.
More than 150 exhibitors from over five countries are participating in these expos. The textile and apparel industry of Sri Lanka has been seeing continual and steady growth in manufacturing and exports. With such consistent and enormous growth of its apparel sector, there is a definite need for Lankan textiles and apparel sector to witness latest technologies to upgrade itself.
The exhibitions are being organized by CEMS, a multinational which launched its operations in Sri Lanka in 2009. Based in the US, CEMS is celebrating 25 years in 2017 and has operations in eight countries including south and south-east Asia and South America.
CEMS organizes over 40 exhibitions a year on all important sectors of the trade and economy.
