Lycra brand owner Invistahas announced the 13 semi-finalists for the ‘Lycra Future Designers Award’a part of the WGSN Global Fashion Awards ceremony. The announcement was made at St Martins Lane, London (UK), at a reception co-hosted by singer and style innovator Kate Nash. This year, the winner will be announced at a star-studded, gala event at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on October 30.

India’s Himani Harish has been shortlisted. others in the list include:Alison Vincent, Eva Lai, Irina Lazova and Lucy Gardner from UK; Hanna Lucatelli from Brazil; Han Zhongshu, Chow Bohan and Shixuan Zhao, from China; Alejandra Perdomo and Daniela Larrea from Colombia; Silvia Silvia from Singapore; and Patty Clariza, from the United States.

The 5^th edition of Lycra Future Designers will offer one outstanding student or graduate designer the chance to work with expert mentors at Invistaand overall consultancy. The winner will also receive fabrics with Lycrafibre, a package to help with the development of a collection to help kick-start their careers.

“The WGSN Global Fashion Awards offers the perfect international platform for Invista, owner of the Lycra brand, to celebrate young and upcoming design from across the globe with shortlisted candidates entering from countries such as UK, Colombia, Brazil, India, China, Singapore and the United States,” says Denise Sakuma, Invista Apparel Global Director of Brand and Communications. “We are so excited to be able to use this platform to launch new creative talents that will help lead and design the apparel industry.”

Japan’s import of cotton yarn has declined by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 140,784 bales during the first half of 2013. This was revealed from data by Japan Spinners’ Association. However, the data reveals Japan’s imports of combed yarn grew by a sharp 18.4 percent to 69,562 bales from January to June.

Its cotton yarn imports from India shot up by 19.8 percent year-on-year to 22,141 bales during the period under review, which included 18,973 bales of combed yarn, showing a rise of 17.6 percent year-on-year.

Japan’s cotton yarn imports from Indonesia also surged to55,093 bales during the six-month period, registering a growth of 19.2 percent year-on-year. However, Japan’s cotton yarn imports from Pakistan dropped by a significant 41.3 percent to 30,478 bales during the same period, according to the data.

Spanish company Jeanologia, a world leader in the development of sustainable technologies for finishing garments, and its partner in China, Prosperity Textile, have launched a sustainable technology Demo Centre in Guangzhou (China). The aim is to transform the Chinese textile industry into a sustainable and environmentally friendly one.It is being conceived as a referral centre in Asia for demonstration and training, specialized in sustainable technologies, such as laser and ozone that allows automation of the production process by reducing production costs while saving water, energy and chemicals and avoiding unhealthy processes of operators.

Jeanologia’s President, Enrique Silla, has expressed his commitment to ethical and responsible industry with the use of technologies that respect the environment and health of workers and has underlined that these technologies “are the future of the textile industry”.

On Demo Centre, Jeanologia’s President says that it will be an example of a factory of the future and will keep on training Chinese companies that want to apply these new technologies. “In this line highlighted that Jeanologia and Prosperity are aware that the industry is changing and we not only need to invest in machinery and technology, but it is necessary to train people in the new methods.”

He has forecasts that the production of jeans will not move from China to Bangladesh or Cambodia, but it will just change. "In just five years, China will remain the world's leading producer of jeans but this time thanks to the efficiency of sustainable technologies like laser treatments or the use of ozone instead of water" he said.

In his opinion "The times of shifting production from one country to another seeking lower labor costs are over. We are entering an era of technological efficiency. In a few years, no pants will be manufactured without the use of green technologies, China has the opportunity to transform their industry”.

Sri Lanka’s non-BOI apparel exporters have been integrated into the global network, Asycuda World (of UNCTAD). Apparel exports are now back on track having overcome global recession, a Ministry of Industry and Commerce spokesman said.He said that Sri Lanka’s apparel sector has entered a new phase. As a result of Sri Lanka’s non-BOI apparel manufacturers directly integrating into the online ‘Asycuda World’ system, the country has cleared a major bottleneck in apparel exports. “Our apparel exporters are joining the global network set up by UNCTAD in which 85 countries are members,” said minister of industry and commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen.

“With this integration, non-BOI apparel manufacturers can directly submit declarations to the customs and the process has become partially paperless,” he said. “The result is that travel time is reduced, less bureaucracy and less document processing by the non-BOI apparel exporters for every shipment. In fact, they can now submit customs declarations directly from their factories thereby paying more attention to their manufacturing process,” said Bathiudeen.

The Proposed Shipment Declaration (PSD) documents too will go online in due course. Overall garment exports which include apparel and other woven fabrics increased in the first half of 2013 by 1.5 per cent to $1,994 million compared to $1,964 million in the corresponding period of the past year. For the first half of this year ‘apparel only’ exports totaled $1,873 million compared to $1,874 million for the corresponding period of the past year.