Reliance Retail has dropped out as a potential bidder to acquire for British department stores Debenhams. Debenhams had filed for a bankruptcy in April as the UK locked down. The retail chain is currently owned by a consortium of lenders, including US hedge funds and its bankers. If the sale process fails and it’s forced to liquidate, Hilco Capital has been lined up to handle that process.

The company has already closed a number of stores, with successful rivals, such as Next, taking advantage of that to snap up the spaces. It may soon close its flagship store on Oxford Street owned since 2016. It intends to exercise a break clause in the lease at the end of the year and has appointed property agents to find a temporary tenant while it works up plans to redevelop the site.

Though the site is suffering from low footfall at present, it remains a big draw during normal times and is important for the prestige beauty sales that are crucial to Debenhams. If forced to exit the store, the retailer plans to downsize the site’s retail space and sell it to Mike Ashley, CEO, Frasers.

Dollar Industries has blazed a trail with a new campaign to promote its existing range of Dollar Bigboss and Dollar Missy. Developed by Lowe Lintas Kolkata, the campaign reflects the brand's alacrity to adapt to changing consumer trends and break existing stereotypes when it comes to fashion, both for men and women.

The quirky and enigmatic campaign explores many aspects of self, audaciously embracing and proudly showcasing a collective individuality and shattering of the status quo. The Dollar Missy campaign film, featuring Bollywood star Chitrangada Singh contradicts the popular philosophy of women prolonging to dress up, the campaign showcases how Dollar Missy enables today's Gen Y woman to get ready in a jiffy so that she may seamlessly juggle between her personal, official and social lives.

The Dollar Bigboss commercial starring Akshay Kumar reveals the actor's perfect clone effectively devised, failing in one final and most vital test. Unlike the Dollar Bigboss vest worn by Akshay, his clone's vest gets easily ripped off portraying only the original brand can stand up to the test of advanced strength and durability.

Fabindia has launched its annual festive collection - Rajwada. In this collection, Fabindia has focused on fabrics that celebrate the textile tradition of India, and slow fashion by creating pieces that are timeless and classic.

The garments used in this collection explore archival motifs inspired by records found in museum records in textiles such as Benarasi silk, tanchoi silk, cutwork brocade and zari-embroidered Maheshwari. The color palette is vibrant and captures the mood of the season with shades such as panna green, rani pink, moga and neelambar blue. The collection includes Kanjeevaram silk saris, Benarasi phool jaal saris, kantha-embroidered jackets and Maheshwari dupattas. It also includes extra weft jamdani saris in black and indigo, which is a collaboration with Karomi, an organisation that works with artisans in West Bengal.

The collection draws on India’s shared heritage, while creating opportunities for sustaining livelihoods. It is designed to create a sense of luxury and to tap into timelessness.

To fulfill the ever-evolving demands of its consumers, Flipkart is continuously working with footwear brands and sellers to ensure they are able to benefit from the opportunities that e-commerce presents.

During the pandemic, it has been working closely with a growing number of national, international, and regionally-renowned fashion brands and sellers for identifying opportunities to connect them with consumers across India through its online marketplace, scale their online presence and diversify existing product portfolios. The etailer is facilitating this through an insightful collaboration which is based on a very deep consumer understanding.

According to recent reports, the Indian footwear market is growing at a CAGR of 4.5 percent in India; however, owing to the current pandemic, 2020 witnessed changing consumer needs. India's homegrown e-commerce player Flipkart, observed some interesting trends on the platform.

With people placed a greater focus on being fit and healthy, the demand for athletic shoes has grown. Running shoes emerged as the top searched items under the sports footwear category. The platform also witnessed a spike of 1.5X times in the sale of sports footwear compared to pre-COVID times and the revenue of this category saw a spike of 20 percent from July to August. Additionally, running and walking shoes searches for women marked a 2X growth.

Experiential storytelling ad platform for small screens, mCanvas, has created an interactive mobile ad for Rupa to promote the reopening of its physical retail comfort stores in Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal after the lockdown.

Using the gyroscope and accelerometer motion sensors, the ad promotes the reopening of Rupa’s physical retail comfort stores with an inauguration-style announcement through their ‘Udghatan’ campaign. The ad enables viewers to be a part of the virtual inauguration, which involves the ribbon-cutting ceremony and entry into the virtual store.

The ad opens to a copy ‘Hamari Nayi Shuruat ke Udghaatan Mein Aapka Swaagat Hai!’, with a visual of a red carpet leading up to a Rupa storefront and a ribbon in front of it. Instructing users to swipe across the screen to cut the ribbon, the ad then prompts users to physically take a step forward to enter the store. Using advanced motion sensors, as the user walks, the doors swing open, revealing the message ‘Jab milke karenge nayi shuruat, toh phir se ban jayegi baat!’, along with the campaign video.

The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) has appealed to the Centre to resume normal train operations to enable migrant workers to return so that the factories can run with 100 per cent workforce. According to figures available with the Tiruppur district administration, around 1.27 lakh migrant laborers working in various parts of the district and sectors – not just knitwear -- left for their native states due to COVID-19 scare. Roughly 50 to 55 per cent of them have returned so far.

The local workforce is also not turning to work completely as many live in near-by villages and they fear to report to work even if there is one Covid-19 positive patient in their hamlet. Though the number of people reporting to work from rural areas has increased there is still a shortage of labour, said KG Ganeshan, Partner, Swell Knit.

If the situation remains the same and migrant labourers do not return soon, exporters might not be able to deliver orders on time, he added.

Another exporter who deals with the lucrative EU market said their doomsday prediction has fallen flat with orders from buyers in the past one month even crossing the pre-COVID levels.

Besides the regular apparel orders, several units are still engaged in stitching personal protective equipment (PPE) and face masks which are being exported to other countries.

According to Raja M Shanmugham, President, COVID-19 has presented a wonderful opportunity for exporters in Tiruppur to make further inroads into the international market as many players would be looking to move away from Chinese suppliers without making it public. v Exporters’ also feel they should grab the opportunity that has come knocking at their doors and try to tap the market that might move out of China due to the COVID-19 fear.

A top apparel industry watchdog, Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) has launched an investigation into Jockey International's Indian partner Page Industries following allegations of human rights abuses at one of its factories. The investigation follows Norway's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund dropping Page from its investment portfolio due to concerns of human rights violations at "Unit-III" in Bengaluru.

Page has denied these allegations and called them outrageous. However, Seth Lennon, spokesperson, WRAP, said, such violations could normally result in a factory losing certification. The Page site under investigation is certified until November 15.

Bengaluru-headquartered Page is the exclusive licensee for Jockey wear in India and six other countries. The company also makes apparel for Britain-based swimwear maker Speedo, but in a smaller capacity. Its unit-III factory in Bengaluru employs about 1,000 workers. Page, which reported roughly $400 million in revenue in the fiscal year ended March 31, did not disclose what proportion of sales came from Unit-III. It has engaged with the Norwegian wealth fund's Council on Ethics - the body which recommended the fund exclude Page from its portfolio after its investigation.

Women’s fashion retailer, Madame, expects 75 per cent business recovery by the third quarter of 2020. So far, the brand year-on-year business recovery amidst COVID-19 stood at 65 per cent and is steadily growing to the previous year’s third-quarter figures. Madame also opened three new stores across India since April 2020 and will launch three more in this quarter, reiterating its faith in a full recovery of buying sentiment.

Akhil Jain, Executive Director, Madame said the brand is seeing a spurt in sales from large format retail stores (LFR), where 70 per cent of customer footfalls have returned by this September. The high safety precautions taken by LFRs have encouraged customers to shop without worries. The online sales through Large Format Stores have also witnessed a 25 per cent growth over the last year. The eCommerce extensions of LFRs like Shoppers Stop online are seeing high growth, and others like Lifestyle have recreated a new shopping experience for online buyers.

Madame has a nearly 55 per cent sales contribution from its winter collection. The brand expects to have appreciable business this winter season, considering that customers might foray into revenge buying. It has also doubled the touch points with Reliance Trends stores.

Streetwear brand Gully has joined hands with the Indian Premier League team Rajasthan Royals as their official partner for their merchandise. The collaboration will see the creation of unique and exclusive merchandise. The partnership will see both partners promote the brands through their digital properties, official sites, and social media channels.

According to Arjavi Shah Marwaha, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Designer, the brand has successfully created a fashionable take on cricket merchandise. These clothes are smart and can be worn casually outside the cricket match atmosphere.

Gully was launched by cricketer KL Rahul in partnership with Zeko Online and Cornerstone Sport during the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League. The brand is targeted mainly at the youth and the brand is hoping to cash in on the huge fan following of the IPL teams to boost its sales in the coming months.