FW
Amsterdam Denim Days will be held from April 17 to 23, 2017. World class denim stores will present tailored product launches, presentations, exhibitions and special offers geared for the denim obsessive. Denim brands, producers, consumers, insiders and designers will celebrate the indigo world. This year’s brand participation has grown further. Among the confirmed participants are: Tommy Hilfiger Denim, Calvin Klein Jeans, Nudie Jeans, Lee, Kings of Indigo and Wrangler.
Trade show Kingpins Amsterdam will gather top innovators and trendsetters from the denim industry, presenting novelties from about 90 global exhibitors from top-notch mills, wash houses, full package manufacturers and trim providers. Lined up are: denim trends for fall/winter 2018-2019, fits, fabrics and finishes. Invista will present results of its research conducted across five countries to learn consumers’ vision on jeans – what they love, what frustrates them and what they want to see in future.
A seminar will help brands find ways for achieving better fit products thanks to technology and data. Lenzing will launch its latest garment collection under the name of Sustainable Denim Wardrobe as an attempt to develop a denim lifestyle collection that enables ecologically conscious consumption.
Experts will speak about the opportunities, challenges and progress being made toward making the denim supply chain sustainable, from fiber through apparel.
American Apparel is now producing shirts for its wholesale division in Honduras and Nicaragua. American Apparel products will continue to be Made in the US, but it would also manufacture products elsewhere.
Gildan Activewear acquired American Apparel in February after the Los Angeles-based company filed for its second bankruptcy in November 2016. Gildan has manufacturing hubs in Central America and the Caribbean where costs are much lower than anywhere in the US.
American Apparel let go most of its staff in January and began closing stores around the world, including in France, the UK and Germany. The label is still operating 72 locations that are offering 80 per cent discounts, but most of the retail locations will close in April. The retailer has stores in UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Canada, Japan and Australia.
The teen retailer, founded in 1989, was known for its sexually charged advertising. The hoped-for turnaround of the clothing manufacturer and retail chain—which has long grappled with shrinking sales and an outsize store footprint—did not happen. At least eight US teen retailers have filed for bankruptcy in the past two years as the spending habits of young people shift and they visit malls less often.
Apparel brands like Uniqlo, New Yorker and Selfridges are on the lookout for an opportunity to enter Turkey. New Yorker, based in Germany, is a department store chain and is one of Europe’s largest fashion businesses. Uniqlo is a Japanese fashion retailer. Selfridges is a department store chain from the UK.
Galeries Lafayette, a luxury department store in France, which will open a store on the Asiatic side, is looking at possible locations to open two more stores on the European side of Istanbul. Turkey, with its growth rate, young population and increasing per capita income, has come under constant focus of foreign brands over the last decade.
More production from big brands is moving to Turkey. Hugo Boss, Burberry, Donna Karan and Paul Smith, as well as high-street names such as Next and Marks & Spencer, all do manufacturing in Turkey. Turkey’s reputation as the go-to place for designer brands to outsource their manufacturing will remain as long as the brands don’t move to cheaper production venues in Vietnam or Bangladesh.
Istanbul fashion week could become a major fashion week, alongside Paris and Milan, within five years, precisely because it could prove the ideal location for global fashion buyers.
The future of tech lies in textiles, or smart textiles. New technologies allow manufacturers to add extra features to their clothes, curtains and car upholstery. If there’s any secret of success, it lies in the ability to combine functionality with style and comfort.
The global smart textiles market is looking at a CAGR of 33.58 per cent between 2015 and 2020. Growth is mainly driven by the uptrend in wearable devices, increasing demand for sophisticated electronics, miniaturization of electronic components, and a rapid growth of wireless sensor networks.
Smart textiles have numerous applications, such as sports and fitness, defense and military. Currently, the military application of smart textiles is the largest market segment, with a share of around 25.8 per cent of the global smart textiles market. Sports and fitness is the second largest segment in global smart textiles – from smart shirts that record heart rates to intelligent bands that track physical activities. Smart textiles in the form of fitness monitoring devices have a lot of demand from health-conscious people. There is also an increasing demand for smart textiles in the architecture and automotive industries.
Traditional manufacturing industries are turning to highly automated production modes, like intelligent and efficient textile technology, to enhance efficiency.
Sefar is a leading manufacturer of precision fabrics from monofilaments for the screen printing and filtration markets. Sefar is known for screen printing, filtration and architectural solutions. The Switzerland-based company, is developing new types of fabric applications like power sense, corrosion resistant fabric and touch screen sensors. Screen printing contributes around 23 per cent of revenues, filter components around 32 per cent, process filtration 44 per cent and architecture around one per cent.
It offers filter fabric, filter media, filtration media, screen printing, screen printing mesh. It is a leading manufacturer of precision fabrics for customer-tailored solutions.
The materials used are PET, PP, PA, PVDF, PEEK and in thicknesses of 0.019 mm to 2.00 mm. These are used to produce mono- and multi filaments, prints, tinsel, stripes, non-trans-conductive fabrics and transparent conductive electrodes. Customers are the opto/electronic industries and the lighting industry.
Sefar products are used in a wide variety of industries, reaching from electronics, graphics, medical, automotive, food and pharmaceutical applications to aerospace, mining and refining and architecture. With its understanding of the applications Sefar helps its customers achieve optimum results in their industrial processes. The group operates weaving plants in Switzerland, Romania and Thailand.
Tirupur is facing a labor shortage. While there is a demand for labor, it is mainly for skilled jobs including tailoring. At the same time, attrition remains high -- as much as 15 to 17 per cent for women. In recent years, the sector has been managing with migrant workforce.
Now, Tirupur knitwear sector will get skilled workers from Orissa rather than untrained laborers. Tirupur will get specifically trained manpower from Orissa for apparel production. Training will be provided by the Orissa Skill Development Authority. The organization already imparts various knitwear industry-specific lessons through institutes in Orissa.
Experts from Tirupur will visit Orissa to oversee training programs and suggest changes that need to be incorporated to suit knitwear production. The initiative will thus provide an impetus to the apparel cluster in Tirupur, which does not have to train a rookie worker to cater to the specific needs in the production process and at the same time the trained workforce in Orissa will gets quality employment.
Tirupur is India’s largest textile exporting hub. It employs six lakh people and is looking to add more. Its export turnover is about Rs 25,000 crores. The knitwear hub is targeting a turnover of one lakh crore rupees by 2020.
Huntsman is seeing positive trends in the first quarter of 2017. Based on current market conditions, the firm expects first quarter 2017 adjusted EBITDA to exceed adjusted EBITDA during the same quarter in 2016.
It expects the first quarter EBITDA impact to be less than previously anticipated. There was a fire at its titanium dioxide facility in Finland with no injuries. The site has 1,30,000 metric tons of capacity, representing 15 per cent of Huntsman’s titanium dioxide capacity and two per cent of global demand. The plant will resume full operation by 2018 end.
Huntsman remains focused on delivering more than $350 million of free cash flow in 2017 and growing its downstream businesses such as differentiated MDI polyurethanes. It is working toward the separation of its pigments and additives business and is targeting the end of the second quarter of this year for this to take place.
Huntsman Corporation makes differentiated chemicals. Its chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. It operates more than 100 manufacturing and R&D facilities in 30 countries. The company has five business divisions.
Myanmar is attracting FDI in RMG sector. Besides traditional investors from Asian countries like: China, Japan and South Korea, investors from the US and Canada have chosen Myanmar as their destination. The soaring investment, especially foreign direct investment, has also helped increase garment exports of Myanmar. The total value of garment exports was $1.5 billion in 2014, $1.7 billion in 2015 and $2.2 billion in 2016.
Better infrastructure facilities like power, communication and availability of land to set up industries have encouraged foreign investors to choose Myanmar as their investment destination. With a competitive minimum wage, GSP trade privileges in the EU market and a strategic location at the China-India intersection, Myanmar is becoming increasingly popular among manufacturing companies burdened by the upward cost spiral in China.
The country has a five-year plan to boost textile and garment exports. Economic development has been further supported by internal change. New financial laws are reshaping the economy and increasing mobile banking. Additionally, 2016 saw the lifting of all remaining economic trading sanctions between Myanmar and the US after more than two decades. The country saw historic growth in 2016 and exported more than a billion dollars in garments and tactile goods.
Eastman Chemical is a global specialty chemical company that has been a supplier of filament yarn for the last 80 years. The company’s Avra yarn has exceptional moisture management, which means that fabrics can dry up to 50 per cent faster than conventional polyester fabrics, enabled by a proprietary spinning technology. The patented spinning process delivers additional functions like easy-care and stain resistance.
Eastman has now introduced another yarn, called Naia. This cellulosic fiber combines sustainability and performance with a natural touch. As a filament yarn, it is anti-pilling, but the cool-touch performance makes it perfect for the performance sector. Made from wood pulp derived exclusively from sustainably managed and certified forests, the Naia cellulosic yarn is a fiber that enables luxurious, comfortable and easy-to-care-for fabrics and garments.
Avra’s ultra-thin polyester fibers are extruded and held together by a proprietary removable polymer, enabling easy knitting or weaving. Once the fabric is made, the removable polymer completely washes away in hot water, resulting in ribbon-like fibers that are smaller than existing polyester fibers. The result is a distinctly silky fabric that keeps wearers drier and more comfortable than ever before.
The performance benefits delivered by Avra include exceptional moisture management and a chemical-free cool to the touch sensation.
UK-based fashion chain Jaeger is in trouble. Founded in 1884, Jaeger has counted actresses, royalty and Arctic explorers among its fans. However, its now faced with intense competition on high street and a dipping sales graph. It has struggled to keep up with rivals such as Burberry and fast fashion chains including Zara and H&M.
Jaeger's problems are partly because it has struggled for years to truly understand its core clientele. The firm also relied too heavily on special offers. Discounts account for over three quarters of Jaeger’s sales. Constant stream of sales and offers discouraged shoppers from paying the full price and lessened their trust in the quality of the Jaeger product.
Last year Jaeger’s annual sales fell four per cent. Jaeger started by selling woolen long johns and its clothes were worn by the explorer Ernest Shackleton on an Antarctic expedition.
In the 1950s and 1960s its celebrity fans included the actress Marilyn Monroe and the model Twiggy, before more recently being worn by the Duchess of Cambridge. Jaeger has 46 stores, 63 concessions, a head office in London and a logistics centre in King's Lynn.
The situation is such that most of Jaeger’s stores are moving towards closure, although the brand is likely to survive as part of the EWM stable, which includes Jane Norman, Peacocks and Austin Reed.
