H&M has launched its latest Conscious Exclusive AW20 collection that features garments made from Eastman’s Naia Renew Cellulosic Fiber. The fiber is made from 60 per cent certified wood fibers and 40 per cent recycled waste plastics such as carpet fibers and plastic packaging.

The collection includes fabrics and processes that transform food crop waste into a natural fibre, as well as fabrics made from sustainably sourced wood pulp or that use a unique garment-to-garment process. The result is a series of “opulent evening gowns in black and green jacquard taffeta, yellow jacquard, festooned with dusty green flowers, mingling with voluminous tops and tailored suiting”. In other words, a regular fashion collection designed to show that sustainability doesn’t mean materials have to be second-best.

It also includes a selection of accessories with a pair of sunglasses crafted from Made of Air, a material partly that comes from waste biomass. And there are shoes made from Vegea, a vegan leather partly made from wine by-products.

H&M has also reached a multi-year agreement with Swedish textile recycling company Renewcell to supply it with thousands of tons of its pioneering virgin quality Circulose fibers made from unusable textile waste.

Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL) has raised Rs 47,265 crore by selling a 10.09 per cent stake valuing the company more than 4.2 lakh crore. Since September 2020, RRVL has raised billions of dollars from Silver Lake, KKR, Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), GIC, TPG, General Atlantic and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The company currently operates 12,000 brick-and-mortar stores and has in May launched its e-commerce venture JioMart that seeks to marry the vast Reliance Retail network of outlets on its technological platform and plans to enrol legions of kirana outlets as last mile delivery and selling agents.

In all, Reliance Industries plans to raise about Rs 60,000-63,000 crore by selling a 15 per cent stake in Reliance Retail and has offered stakes to all the firms that had earlier this year injected capital into Jio Platforms.

Value fashion retailer V2 Retail is witnessing a gradual pickup in store operations. The retailer has narrowed its net loss to Rs 7 crore ($1 million) in the second quarter ended September 2020, as against a net loss of Rs 10 crore it reported in the corresponding period last year. Sales during the third quarter declined 44 per cent to Rs 85 crore, as against Rs 151 crore it had posted in the year-ago period. However, V2 Retail is confident of returning to profitability due to its sustained focus on customer experience, merchandise selection, strong brand recall, and omnichannel presence

Launched in 2001, V2 Retail is one of the fastest growing retail companies in India and also one of the most experienced. The company has more than 37 stores of which three are in Delhi-NCR, 14 in Bihar, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, 2 in Odisha, Uttarakhand and Assam, 1 each in Jharkhand, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. It mainly retails womenswear, menswear, and children’s wear.

Artisans of Walmart-owned Flipkart, who are part of its Samarth program and participated during its annual festive sale saw a 2.5x increase in sales compared to their usual non-festive sale days.

Over the last year, Flipkart Samarth has seen a 12x growth in the number of partners who joined the program. These artisans saw a 2.5x increase in comparison to their usual non-festive sale days," a statement said. Flipkart had hosted its annual 'Big Billion Day' sale from October 16-21, and continued to offer deals to woo customers during the festive season.

The company said 'Samarth' programme is designed with the intention of democratising e-commerce and building a sustainable and inclusive platform for under-served, domestic communities to empower them with greater opportunities and better livelihood.

Through the initiative, Flipkart's aim is to provide greater visibility to the Made-in-India products on its platform.

Flipkart Samarth also saw artisans, craftsmen, and weavers from new cities (7x growth from last year) join the programme, it added. About 60 per cent of Flipkart Samarth's partners are from tier-II and beyond, including cities like Dharampuri, Palanpur, Ernakulum, Palghar, and Ambala.

One of India’s most acclaimed renowned designers Manish Arora known for his eponymous brand has announced bankruptcy as they have been unable to pay worker wages and its website has been shut for maintenance. The former creative director for French luxury fashion brand Paco Rabanne, Arora currently is a member of the advisory council for the International Woolmark Prize. Earlier this year, he collaborated with Amazon India to launch an affordable fashion line and also presented his latest collection at Lakme Fashion Week in the spring.

This year, Arora also parted ways with his long-time business partner Deepak Bhagwani. The global coronavirus crisis also contributed to the brand’s ongoing financial issues. The brand currently stocks its River collection with Amazon India besides retailing online on multi-brand Indian boutiques including Aza and Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop among others.

Wrangler has taken a futuristic design approach to its new Monochrome collection by blending greys, whites and blacks that have helped it create an uber-modern look.

The Monochrome collection features tees and shirts with asymmetrical designs, HD prints, reflective prints and accentuated blurred print styles. The men’s denim range feature reflective elements and pocket detailing. The collection is exclusively designed to make a statement in the day or light up the night.

With prices starting from Rs 2995/- for jeans and Rs. 995/- for top wear, the collection is available in all exclusive Wrangler stores in India.

First launched in the US, Wrangler is known for its five-pocket jeans that was test-fitted and endorsed by real-life cowboys. Since then, the brand has continued to inspire freedom, independence and adventure in its wearers.

In India, the brand has evolved to meet the needs of the ‘urban cowboy’ with a range of fashion apparel that is contemporary and fashionable yet rugged.

As per an Economic Times report, India's antitrust body, the Competition of India(CCI) has approved oil-to-telecom giant Reliance Industries' bid to buy Future group's retail assets even though Amazon opposed the potential deal, alleging contractual violations by the latter.

The approval is a setback for US giant Amazon, which has argued that a 2019 agreement it inked with Future prevented the Indian group from selling its retail assets to certain parties, including Reliance - led by Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

Amazon has also approached the country's market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), urging it to consider the arbitration order and not approve the deal.

However, Future Retail, said the agreement in question was not with the company, but with the company's largest shareholder and the arbitration order was not valid in India. It has also taken Amazon to court in an effort to prevent it from sending letters to regulators.

Walmart-owned Flipkart is negotiating with the American clothing company Kontoor Brands to acquire the brand rights of Lee and Wrangler in India.

If the materializes, Flipkart will acquire manufacturing and distribution rights of these brands. Earlier this month, Flipkart had announced a House of Brands initiative to bring together Flipkart Fashion Originals, Myntra Fashion Brands and Myntra Brand Accelerators under one umbrella.

Reports suggest Flipkart has already bought a significant minority stake in Arvind Youth Brands that owns the Flying Machine brand. When Arvind was running Lee in India, in the late ’90s, it was the top denim brand in terms of sales.

But after VF Corp took over, it started selling Lee and Wrangler in the same stores which led to a decline in the sales of these brands.

Despite the COVID-19 disruptions, footwear major Liberty Shoes remains optimistic about its future and foresees sales picking up again during the autumn/ winter season due to its festive and marriage seasons.

As per Fashion Network, the brand’s second quarter net loss widened to Rs 2 crore ($2,68,715) against a net profit of Rs 6 crore it reported a year-ago. Revenue declined by 28 per cent to Rs 97 crore against Rs 134 crore it had posted in the corresponding period last year. Liberty Shoes’ reported a fall of Rs 650 crore in revenues for FY2020 and expects it to decline by 45 per cent this financial year due to sales disruption and altered customer demand caused by coronavirus and the pan-India lockdown.

Liberty Shoes has 400 flagship stores across India and is present in over 5,000 multi-brand outlets. It also retails from own e-commerce store and has plans of adding 50 to 100 new stores every year. However, offline expansion are deferred due to the pandemic.