India’s fastest growing retail company V2 Retail posted 82 per cent revenue decline to Rs 370 crore in its first quarter ended June 30, 2020. It had posted revenue worth Rs 2,023 crore in the same period previous fiscal. The company incurred a loss after tax Rs 89 crore during the quarter compared to profit after tax of Rs 114 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal

Ram Chandra Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Directors, attributes this loss to changing consumer sentiment from positive to cautious. According to him, a slowdown in the economy has badly impacted the retail sector with most people shifting consumption to only essential products.

The company’s gross profit for the quarter was Rs 110 crore. Its EBIDTA reported a loss of Rs 2 crore compared to earnings of Rs 276 crore. The company expects an uptick in consumer demand with the onset of festive season starting from Durga Puja and Diwali. It believes that its growth and profitability will continue to accelerate on the back of sustained focus on customer experience, merchandise selection, strong brand recall and our omnichannel presence.

On September 20, womenswear designer Dolly J presented a traditional wear collection titled ‘Gulenaar’ as a digital showcase as part of the Fashion Design Council of India’s India Couture Week.. In lieu of a traditional runway show, the couturier showcased her designs through a fashion film which was broadcast on the FDCI’s Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The film showed models walking through an opulent mansion, twirling to show their intricately embellished lehengas and gowns. Dolly J harnessed the digital nature of the showcase to use sweeping camera angles to show off every angle of her designs and to zoom in on delicate embroidered details which would only be seen from afar on the runway.

The collection had a color palette of pastels and rich jewel tones and featured a few fusion wear elements such as stacked bows and ruffles. The showcase featured an array of jewellery by Archana Aggarwal, the official jewellery partner for India Couture Week.

The showcase featured videography and creative direction by Imran Khan Filmz, photography by Raju Raman, hair and makeup by Amanender Sidhu, and models Sonali Sharma, Dayena Erappa, and Vartika Singh, the brand announced on its Facebook page. The film’s soundtrack was composed by Jacob Gurevitsch.

The brand also reopened its Mumbai flagship store in Kala Ghoda on September 21, it announced on Facebook. Dolly J shifted the store to a new location in the city and reopened it with a display of her latest designs.

Raisin, a contemporary fusion fashion brand has deployed a phygital strategy to reach out to more consumers across India. In the next 18 months, the brand plans to enter many more large-format stores to reach its target of 300 shop in shops. It also plans to launch jewelry and ethnic wear ranges.

Founded by brothers Vikash and Vishal Pacheriwal, Raisin has more than 2.5 lakh customers. For the financial year 2020, the company’s revenue was at Rs 20 crore. It aims to hit Rs 40 crore in 2022 with a pandemic-free world.

With Bollywood actress Bhumi Pednekar as the face of the brand, Raisin was launched in over 120 shop-in-shops across the country, with a loyal customer base building with each purchase. In the first year, the brand experimented with various styles and evolved from contemporary fusion fashion to ethnic wear, offering sarees, contemporary jewellery, and even masks amidst the pandemic. Its ounders focused on a three-pronged strategy: launching an ecommerce channel for their D2C brand, 120 shop-in-shops located in malls and high street along with selling on ecommerce aggregators like Amazon.

Designer JJ Valaya showcased ‘Bursa’, his latest collection for men and women, at India Couture Week’s first ever digital edition with the Fashion Design Council of India, reports the Fashion Network.

The couture show this season revolved around the three key silhouettes of Indian weddings and celebrations: the lehenga, the sherwani and the sari. The collection showcased Valaya’s signature opulent embellishments with a colour palette of deep jewel tones, metallics, bright red, and splashes of bright yellow. Looks were styled with jewellery by Archana Aggarwal and the rich, traditional aesthetic was kept current with the addition of simple leather belts with gold monogrammed circular buckles for both men and women.

Valaya’s showcase saw models walk around a traditional interior, decorated with flowers and candles. The dim light highlighted the collection’s metallic embellishments and the film was a celebration of maximalism.

The collection was created for the 2020/2021 festive season and launched on the brand’s dedicated e-commerce store and on Whatsapp messaging service after the showcase.

Designer Amit Aggarwal unveiled his digital store with the showcase of his new Couture 2020 collection at the first digital India Couture Week organized by the Fashion Design Council of India.

The digital store will feature Amit Aggarwal’s signature textiles from sarees, lehengas to dresses and also include his luxury prét line.

The FDCI decided to hold India Couture Week online this season, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The fashion week kicked off with designers Suneet Verma and Gaurav Gupta showcasing their collections on the opening day.

The 13th edition of the fashion week will conclude on September 23 with digital shows by Anju Modi and Manish Malhotra.

Rahul Mishra presented an Impressionist inspired menswear and womenswear collection titled ‘The Lotus Pond’ as a digital showcase as part of India Couture Week.

Mishra’s latest couture collection, inspired by Impressionist artists including Monet, used a nature theme to explore the relationship between humans and the environment and promote a more eco-friendly approach. Mishra’s showcase took place of day two of the Fashion Design Council of India’s virtual edition of India Couture Week.

The collection was presented through a film and lookbook shot at the Tijara Fort-Palace and features traditional wear garments including lehengas, sherwanis, and sarees. Intricately embroidered natural scenes of ponds and vegetation evoke Impressionist paintings and 3D butterflies and flowers add a touch of whimsy.

Mishra was also asked by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to present a couture film as part of Paris Couture Week, which will feature digital showcases this season.

The pandemic has encouraged many Indian textile and apparel brands, including Reliance, Arvind, Aditya Birla, Donear Group, Raymond Siyaram and few start-ups to enter the market for anti-viral clothing in India. Peter England, a menswear brand from the Rs 8,743-crore Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail recently launched a range of antiviral shirts and masks. The company has launched many products across categories such as work from home collection, disposable masks, reusable cloth masks, antiviral shirts & masks and the latest offering is Neem Tulsi Collection. The company is now gearing up to launch trousers, denims, T-shirts & loungewear.

Donear Industries launched anti-viral fabrics in April this year. The group has collaborated with men's wear brand Zodiac to launch anti-viral shirts called Securo. The cost of products ranges from Rs 250/m onwards.

However, Dr C Jagadeesh, Senior Consultant -Internal Medicine, Apollo Hospital, has doubts about the use of these garments. There is not enough scientific data on whether people using these clothes get less infected compared to others, he says. According to him, it is doubtful that these fabrics are able to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases.

In turn, companies confirmed that their products are tested at various labs in India and outside and they have virus resistant properties to ensure safety by inhibiting the persistence and growth of viruses and bacteria on its surface.

SvaKatha, a fashion technology start-up incubated at IIT Gandhinagar, has created India’s first 3D fashion show that can help fashion brands and designers become more sustainable. This fashion show does not need actual sampling and production of garments thus eliminating the need for resources like pattern making, fabric production and stitching, while reducing the timeline of a concept collection and its presentation.

It also helps designers and product teams as well as buyers/retailers to make decisions well in advance. According to Svakatha, virtual fashion shows and 3D designs can replace the roadshows as here sampling can be done virtually and production can be initiated based on the buyer response.

Virtual fashion shows give fashion artists, designers and brands new dimensions to work and communicate their stories with customers in a much more efficient way. Moreover, they allows designer to test a concept without actual sampling and it can be highly sustainable. The firm wishes to democratize the fashion show similar to what social media did to content. Every designer can now create a fashion show of their own or team up with fellow designers and put up a fashion show.

The Indian Government has conducted a study on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Indian silk industry’ to ascertain the crisis caused to the sector and it has been observed that there was a production decline and monetary loss at every stage of the value chain.

The industry has faced various problems like loss in production, crash in cocoon and raw silk prices, transportation problem, non-availability of skilled workers, problems in selling raw silk and silk products, working capital and cash flow problems, non-availability of raw materials, reduction in demand for silk fabric, cancellation of export/import orders besides export and import restrictions.

Since textile sector is one of the highly unorganized sectors, the Government has not made any formal assessment with regard to the losses incurred by the sector. The global pandemic of COVID-19 has affected the existing modus operandi of various textile sectors by posting restrictions of social gathering, migration of laborers as well as affecting all the stakeholders right from farmers to traders/exporters in the value chain of textile sector and at the same time it has opened new window of opportunities which were previously less explored.

As on September 13, 2020, a total of 1.42 crore PPE kits had been supplied to HLL Lifecare for use of health professionals in Government hospitals. Apart from supply to MoHFW, more than 1 crore PPE coveralls have been supplied by indigenous manufacturers to State Governments and private hospitals.