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Odds Are Stacked Against Indian Apparel Sector

13 July 2022, Mumbai:

Decode: Indian T&A impact on the global supply chain

Post-MFA global sourcing status

As per India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) report," India is the sixth largest exporter of textiles and apparel products in the world with a massive raw material and manufacturing base".

The Indian apparel sector is preparing for tough times in the international markets, where it will lose customers to competitors and see reduced unit value realization.

India's apparel exports registered more than 30% growth during April-March 2021-22 to $16.02 billion compared to the same period last year, official data showed & industry faces a severe danger from failing to prepare for global competitiveness in the post-MFA age.

The Indian garment sector lacks internationally competitive capabilities, international quality, healthy FDI (foreign direct investment) flows, and progressive government policies even though MFA got abolished in January 2005 & notwithstanding 100% FDI is allowed in the textile sector under the automatic route.

ALSO READ  Urban consumers cut back on apparel spending amid rising inflation: Survey

Analyzing the impact on the global supply chain​​

According to a report by Icra, while China has maintained its dominance in the global markets, other competitors like Mexico and Bangladesh have made quick progress.

Exports of only $5.2 billion in 2000, compared to $36 billion for China and $8.7 billion for Mexico, place India in a precarious situation. Smaller competitors are vying to surpass Indian exports, including South Korea ($5 billion), Indonesia, Thailand ($3.9 billion), Bangladesh ($3.8 billion), and Sri Lanka ($2.3 billion).

 

ALSO READ  CMAI: Covid19 made apparel brands & consumers price conscious 

Changing global trade dynamics

On the back of quota policy concessions from the European Union and the US, the two biggest markets for this sector, even Pakistan has raised its exports to $2.1 billion and is striving hard for faster growth.

The South American nation of Mexico had exports of only $0.6 billion ten years ago, and it has experienced phenomenal development. Icra estimates that Mexico's market share in the US increased from less than 1% a decade earlier to approximately 15% in 2001.

Mexico's fortunes have improved recently thanks to the North American Unrestricted Trade Agreement (Nafta), which grants free access to the US market. Similar to this, Bangladesh has made significant progress as a result of quota concessions. 

RELEVANT NEWS  Consumers look to buy cheap garments from Bangladesh

In Brief

The size of a manufacturing facility that can create a product is critical in determining its success.

The main elements that affect every industry's production scale are labor, land, and machinery. India is fortunate to have inexpensive, plentiful work because of its large population and high unemployment rate.

What plagues the trade is that we are in an inflationary environment posing multiple challenges viz cost of raw materials which have increased unfundamentally due to unpredictable market conditions, weather, policies, and other factors.

 

RELEVANT NEWS Persistent Inflationary Forces Playing Out & Its Impact On T&A

State of Affairs

The Majority Of Apparel Firms Plan To Increase Supply Chain Transparency By 2027 But Obstacles Remain, A Global Survey By KPMG & SERAI Finds.

As per India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) report," Textile trade is the second largest employer after agriculture, providing direct employment to 45 million people and 100 million people in the allied sector".

India has a significant edge over wealthy nations because of its lower pay rates.

RELEVANT NEWS  GST MAY DRIVE CONSUMERS AWAY FROM VALUE BRANDS FEAR APPAREL RETAILERS

Missed boat in perpetuity

India's textile and apparel sector may be compared to a rocket that took off towards the stars but lost its thrust somewhere along the way.

India ranks as the second-largest exporter of textiles and accounts for 5% of the world's textile and apparel market, but smaller nations like Vietnam and Bangladesh have a good chance of unseating it.

As per India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) report," India’s textile and apparel market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10% from 2019-20 to reach US$ 190 billion by 2025-26". 

 

RELEVANT NEWS E-tailer Sales: Going Strong Despite Inflation & Low Consumer Sentiment

Moving the needle

Besides, assessing the coronavirus impact on the country's micro, small and medium enterprises, one of the KPMG studies noted that contractual, wage labour will get impacted more leading to layoffs, unrest, and lowering of purchasing power.

India is now only second to China in manufacturing, although it is highly uncertain whether this ranking will remain the same or change.

The Cushman and Wakefield 2021 Global Manufacturing Risk Index stated that India could benefit from relocations from China to other parts of Asia.

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Apparel

What Is Driving Consumerism In Apparel Industry

12 July 2022, Mumbai:

An Overview

Post-Covid optically the consumer buying attitude towards apparel buying as a societal behavioral change is promising a huge potential & has bearing on the impending shift in the way the fashion industry used to work, quite optimistically which would cascade through the supply chain and drive a sea perceptional change towards putting the circular economy at the center stage of the fashion industry’s approach.

One of the growth pillars in recent years has been 'Fast fashion' construed to be a linear business model with the caveat of faster fashion turnaround clearly on the back of a rapid supply chain, all along the line.

The great majority of consumer fashion is caught in a linear paradigm, with most old clothing being discarded at an ever-increasing rate since it is believed to have little value.

A significant shift in the fashion business, which would ripple back through the supply chain and propel a step toward placing the circular economy at the core of the fashion industry's strategy, might result if customer attitudes regarding purchasing clothing significantly shift.

ALSO READ  Urban consumers cut back on apparel spending amid rising inflation: Survey

Consumers may promote better knowledge, comprehension, and transparency by using their purchasing power to demand progressive change and circular models that aim to boost quality, reusability, recyclability, and recycled content.

To tackle the difficult problems posed by this complex business and advance toward a more socioeconomically and ecologically conscientious fashion industry, building trust and collaboration along the supply chain will be vital.

 

ALSO READ  CMAI: Covid19 made apparel brands & consumers price conscious 

Around 150 billion pieces of clothing are produced annually worldwide, and their average price is steadily declining.

Customers wear products fewer times before deciding to throw them away as a result, which lowers the quality and value attached to that item. Clothing manufacturing increased twofold between 2000 and 2014, whereas wear rates fell by almost 40% between 2012 and 2016.

RELEVANT NEWS  Consumers look to buy cheap garments from Bangladesh

Planned obsolescence and overproduction have recently increased as a result of modern civilization. Fast fashion is a linear business strategy that prioritizes a short supply chain and works to create, produce, and distribute new clothing products quickly.

This strategy succeeds because of the low cost of labor, the constancy of fashion trends, and, most crucially, the rise in consumer demand and spending power. People are assessed by the brands and fashions they wear, which has been a long-standing and underlying theme.

As a result, vast sums of money are spent on marketing the newest, ever-evolving trends.

 

RELEVANT NEWS  Shapewears popularity decline in India as consumers adopt body-inclusivity

Recently, though, there has been a growing trend toward wanting to consume more responsibly, which we can only hope will eventually become more relaxed than wearing the newest quick fashion fads, as seen in stores like PrettyLittleThing or BooHoo. Businesses are making significant progress toward a more circular business model, and Defra's Waste Prevention Programme encourages this. 

RELEVANT NEWS  GST MAY DRIVE CONSUMERS AWAY FROM VALUE BRANDS FEAR APPAREL RETAILERS

For instance, Arket promotes considering the long-term when shopping, and clothes should only be reused if they maintain a certain quality over time, and borrowing from others to decrease waste. 

 

RELEVANT NEWS  Fashion rental booms in India as consumers become more brand conscious and internet savvy

Pulse Check

To promote sustainable apparel purchasing, this study suggests style consumption. We achieve this by identifying style consumption's explanatory and outcome factors and looking at how these variables fluctuate according to gender.

We discovered that thrifty apparel consumption, fashion consciousness, and ecologically conscientious consumption increase the chance of style consumption based on an online survey with 586 consumers.

According to Oxfam, there are approximately 11 million items of apparel sent to landfill per week in the UK, and only 12% of the material used for garments is from recycled sources.

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Consumerism

How Much Is Indian Apparel Self-reliant When Needle To Sewing/Stitching Machines All Been Imported

05 July 2022, Mumbai:

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship's Apparel, Made-ups, and Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council has been vital in the sector's skill-transfer process. After agriculture, this industry employs the most people.

A sewing machine operator is one of the job roles/qualification packets in the AMHSSC that is mainly common in the manufacturing units across many sectors in the garment industry. He is also known as a Stitcher or Machinist, and his primary duty was to sew or stitch cloth composed of many kinds of natural and synthetic fibers.

ALSO READ Piyush Goyal: Invites Australian businesses to Make in India 

Since its foundation, the Council has rigorously taught almost 5 lakh employees and students in this job function under various programs. When the training is complete, it places about 2.5 lakh individuals in the sector.

The job function covers about 70% of the sector's total personnel. He is in charge of delivering the designer's vision of an aesthetic yet comfortable outfit for its diverse consumers' shapes, whether in the export or retail industries.

The instruction for operating a sewing machine is provided in various NOS conversions modules (National Occupational Standards).

 

ALSO READ Reliance Retail boosts its “Handmade in India” program

The training material familiarises the candidate with various raw materials, tools, and equipment, including different sewing machines, sewing supplies, fabrics, trimmings, and accessories. The candidate is familiar with the steps involved in sewing clothing, accessories, and home furnishings.

Qualified trainers deliver the training of the Apparel, Made-ups, and Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council who work or are hired at approved training facilities across India.

He has received training in soft skills, computer basics, customer service, and other business abilities that will be useful for opening a small shop.

RELEVANT NEWS Ministry of Textile: Gets many applications for PLI in Man-Made Fibres, Techtex

Following completion of the training, certified assessors from the Council-accredited assessment organizations perform the assessment.

The exam has three parts: practical, theory, and oral. It provides a chance for someone with schooling up to the fifth grade to receive training in this employment capacity and develop independence. It enables them to overcome the obstacles they confront in pursuing formal education on a personal and economic level.

 

RELEVANT NEWS Ethnic Wear: Truly Fledgling Make In India Story

The textile sector has dramatically influenced the Indian economy. Currently, the organized manufacturing sector in India employs over 28 percent of its workforce in the textile industry alone. This industry employs around 93 million people both directly and indirectly.

The fact that the Indian textile industry is nearly self-sufficient, from producing raw materials to delivering completed goods—from cotton farming, ginning, spinning, and weaving to the creation of clothing—gives it an inherent comparative advantage

RELEVANT NEWS Ikea India to make products more affordable through increased local sourcing

The traditional method of producing apparel from ready-dyed pieces is interestingly supplemented by dyeing prefabricated clothing components. 

 

RELEVANT NEWS The CII makes suggestions to improve textile and clothing exports 

This is particularly true because conventional production entails significant risks regarding the accuracy of the color shade and usually results in a wide range of colors with higher storage costs.

When dyeing garments after manufacturing, there is a more significant potential for harm if there are issues with the dyeing process. In the worst-case circumstances, irreversible error-related value losses are made worse by failing to fulfill a delivery pledge.

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How Much Is Indian Apparel Self-reliant When Needle To Sewing/Stitching Machines All Been Imported

Ethnic Wear: Truly Fledgling Make In India Story

30 June 2022, Mumbai:

Jotting down a few fascinating make-in-India stories with the ethnic wears. There have been several start-ups and growing trends in the Indian ethnic wear industry.

There has been an intangible outgrowth and increased popularity of these budding businesses. There have been exciting duos working in this direction in growing companies in the apparel sector.

ALSO READ  'Global Ethnicwear Market' register 6% annual growth

The Indian Ethnic Co., a firm with headquarters in Mumbai, has grown to employ 1000 artisans from all across India across its three locations.

By celebrating its dance marketing clips, the ethnic brand is differentiating itself.

 

ALSO READ  Ethnic wear brand Soch focuses on ecommerce to drive up growth

Hetal and Lekhinee Desai, a mother-daughter team, went to a handloom expo in 2016 hoping to go on a shopping binge but instead returned with a great business concept and 50 meters of cloth with the ajrakh print.

They had their local tailor sew the fabric into Kurtis in various shapes and sizes. Then, while seated in her Mumbai apartment's bedroom, Lekhinee made a Facebook page, uploaded a few images of the finished ensembles, and shared the link with her pals. And thus, The Indian Ethnic Co.'s adventure got underway.

RELEVANT NEWS  Reliance Retail poised to foray into saree, ethnic wear stores

Coming from a tiny hamlet in Rajasthan, Ravi Khandelwal had lofty goals and a burning desire to achieve them.

Being a licensed chartered accountant, he has a decade of extensive experience in the business sector in India and abroad and has held several executive roles with well-known MNCs. Every successful guy has a woman at his side (not in the background), and Ravi is no exception.

 

RELEVANT NEWS Biba’s upcoming collections includes trendy outfits with ethnicwear

Ravi and his adored Vandana, co-founder and head of the creative team at Yufta are partners both in real life and in Yufta. Daksh, their kid, is a ball of energy that keeps their excitement at its highest.

Two friends and their spouses came up with Yufta after deciding that Jaipur was the ideal location for women's ethnic apparel and that e-commerce was booming at the time. While the partners worked hard to cover every possible angle, Yufta serviced more than a million women worldwide in just four years and won several awards for Best startup / Business.

RELEVANT NEWS Ethnic and innerwear focus helps ABFRL grow despite COVID-19 disruptions

From fiber, yarn, and fabric to garments, India's textile and apparel sector has strengths along the whole value chain.

The traditional handloom, handicrafts, wool, silk items, and the organized textile industry in India make up a large portion of the widely varied Indian textile and apparel market.

 

RELEVANT NEWS Dolly J presents ethnic wear collection at India Couture Week

The organized textile sector in India, which encompasses spinning, weaving, processing, and garment manufacture, is characterized by the employment of capital-intensive equipment for the mass production of textile items.

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Ethnic Wear: Truly Fledgling Make In India Story

Ludhiana, A Hosiery Town: Challenges & Opportunities

12 July 2022, Mumbai:

An Overview

Ludhiana is one stop destination for woolen sweaters and cotton apparel. The hosiery industry here is since donkey years now. The city boasts of a rich history of Winter Hosiery Products Pan-India. According to a Business Standard report," The relevance of hosiery industry in Ludhiana could be gauged from the fact that 90% demand of the woolen market in India is fed by Ludhiana industry".

Ludhiana which is situated in the North Indian state of Punjab is an important industrial town noted for its textile and related businesses. 

LUDHIANA OFFERS, HOSIERY, WOOLEN GARMENTS, WOOLEN KIDS SUITS, QUALITY PRODUCTS, FIXED PRICE, FACTORY MANUFACTURER UNIT, AND WARM SUITS.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic and continuous farmers' protests are making it difficult for Ludhiana's hosiery sector to satisfy demand this winter, which prevents traders from Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh from traveling here to purchase the material.

A glimmer of optimism was provided by the early beginning of winter for the producers of woolen clothing. Still, they cannot meet demand due to the epidemic and the current farmer demonstrations at Delhi's borders.

ALSO READ Ludhiana MSME Association: Apparel Sector seeks tech upgrade from the next Punjab government

Anuj Bahal, a store owner at a wholesale market, told ANI, The traders from neighboring states could not come here and acquire the material because of the ongoing farmers' protest.

He added that the wedding season is a little off because of the outbreak. Sales this year are down. The current environment has altered traders' perspectives. He added that sales have decreased by 30 to 35 percent compared to last year, as he said.

 

ALSO READ Prime Minister, Narendra Modi: Ludhiana (Punjab) would emerge as a textile center

According to Akhil Sachdeva of Pinnacle Fashion and Retail in Ludhiana, despite good demand brought on by the early start of the winter season, sales have been impacted by farmer protests.

However, sales started declining in December due to the continued farmers' protest. The peak season for the woolen business is in November and December since this is when demand peaks typically. However, the city's recent curfew has negatively impacted production and the industry severely.

RELEVANT NEWS Garden of Eden by Inayat-Spring to be held in Ludhiana, Punjab 

The previous several days have been a nightmare for units supplying the local demand, according to Charanjit Singh, Secretary of the Knitwear Club. He said that customers from other locations usually travel to Ludhiana on weekends, or Saturday and Sunday, to acquire the stock of woolen.

Still, the unstable situation in the city caused enormous losses for the hosiery companies. He also said that because woolen hosiery was a seasonal product, incidences like these would not bode well for the sector.

Ludhiana apparel industry growth story/history has been on the back of attaining attractiveness to entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds in search of a job and economic/business opportunities.

 

RELEVANT NEWS  The dyers' union of Ludhiana has joined forces with CICU

The lockdowns most negatively impacted smaller firms since the bulk of Ludhiana's garment manufacturing facilities are in the unorganized, cash- and credit-based sector.

This, combined with the recent labor shortage caused by migrants returning home in significant numbers, gave the industry a severe hit. 

RELEVANT NEWS  GMMSA Expo India to happen on 23 - 26 Jan 2022, Ludhiana (India)

Owner of the city's Silver Arc Mall, Ajay Nayyar, predicted that as more people enter the clothing stores now that the hours have been extended to 8 p.m. More than 80% of people who visit malls nowadays want to make a purchase.

This proportion was lower before the Covid era as more people engaged in window shopping. He added that we request permission from the government to be open on Sundays as well. 

 

RELEVANT NEWS Ludhiana hosiery industry hopes business will revive with unlocking

Bird's Eyeview

According to Amit Thapar, president of Ganga Acrowools and vice chairman of the Punjab branch of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the shutdown caused losses in the industry of almost 30%.

But now, he said, "we are on the road to recovery." Casual clothing continued to be in demand even if total sales were down since most people stayed home.

Vinod Thapar, chairman of Knitwear Club, claimed that pajamas were sold in significant quantities during the shutdown.

Historically USSR was the epicenter of Ludhiana Hosiery Exports in the 1980s & 1990s. However, with the fall of the USSR, the Russian market for Ludhiana is almost closed as of now. Therefore the hosiery units over here are constantly looking for ways to inroad into other markets to get a toehold.

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Ludhiana

Can Indian Apparel Sector Become The Design House Of The World!

01 July 2022, Mumbai:

The Indian fashion scene wasn't entirely colorless throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It was thrilling, chic, and quite elegant. The nation could not showcase any designers, stars, models, or fashion design labels.

A garment's worth was determined by its design and materials, not by the maker. Approaching any unknown tailor who could manufacture apparel for a few rupees and provide the ideal fit, quality, and design was viewed as ever so fashionable.

The high-class woman who wore it was pleased with herself for finding a good deal and lending her name to the finished product.

ALSO READ  At the FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week, Satya Paul by Rajesh Pratap Singh introduces carbon-free TENCEL fibres

In the 1960s, women wore tight kurtas, churidars, and high coiffures. As a result of the removal of restrictions and the acceptance of novel materials like plastic film and coated polyester fabric, it was a time of mischief and celebration in the arts, music, and movies. Traditional materials were increasingly exported both domestically and abroad throughout the 1970s.

As a result, foreign fashion, with its bright colors, floral designs, and bell-bottoms, reached India far earlier than the MTV culture. Disco culture and the use of synthetics both had an impact on the fashion scene.

 

ALSO READ Designers support 'FDCI X Lakme Fashion Week' new format

During the 1990s, the final decade of the millennium, a trend toward radical matching down with ethnic clothes was seen. Today, the ethnic wear market in India is accounted for Rs. 9000 crores.

As a result, there was a downturn and a desire to sell at any cost to maintain the spotlight. The inevitable happened due to fierce rivalry and careful client awareness.

The price tags started their descent after once reaching their apex.

RELEVANT NEWS  Happy conscious dressing @ FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week

The Indian garment and fabric industries are competitive on the global market in many fundamental ways, including the cost-effectiveness of production, availability of raw materials, quick turnaround for sales, and a wide variety of preferred designs for clothing, including those with sequins, beadwork, aari or chikkon embroidery, etc., as well as a more affordable skilled labor force.

India offers these fashion items to foreign fashion companies with fast lead times, reasonable pricing, and a design monopoly that includes intricate hand embroidery that is well recognized.

 

RELEVANT NEWS  Manish Malhotra's another 1st as he joins forces with Wazir X NFT Marketplace and FDCI x Lakme Fashion Week to foray into the untapped NFT universe

The variety of textiles available in India may entice and perplex buyers in terms of the market for fabrics. The current trend in the global market is a fundamental expectation of judgment in fabric selection.

Most of the production work is done in Chapa, a little town in the eastern state of Bihar that most people have never heard of. 

RELEVANT NEWS Lakme Fashion Week & PETA India, Indian fashion designers pledge to go leather-free on the World Fashion Day 

The variety and caliber of raw silks, including tussars, matka silks, and phaswas, all belie the primitive production techniques and machinery employed. Fabric manufacturing is a family business here.

 

RELEVANT NEWS Dolly J presents ethnic wear collection at India Couture Week

Between April 2000 and December 2021, the textiles sector (including dyed and printed textiles) attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of $3.93 billion. Federico Salas, the Mexican ambassador to India, visited the India International Trade Fair 2021's Khadi India Pavilion in November 2021 and recommended that India and Mexico work together to promote Khadi internationally.

Home textile companies are using technology to optimize the value chain.

To track textile raw materials throughout the supply chain, Welspun India, for instance, developed Wel-Trak 2.0 in October 2021.

This updated version of the patented end-to-end traceability system is used.

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Can Indian Apparel Sector Become The Design House Of The World!

Ethnic Wear: Truly Fledgling Make In India Story

30 June 2022, Mumbai:

Jotting down a few fascinating make-in-India stories with the ethnic wears. There have been several start-ups and growing trends in the Indian ethnic wear industry.

There has been an intangible outgrowth and increased popularity of these budding businesses. There have been exciting duos working in this direction in growing companies in the apparel sector.

ALSO READ  'Global Ethnicwear Market' register 6% annual growth

The Indian Ethnic Co., a firm with headquarters in Mumbai, has grown to employ 1000 artisans from all across India across its three locations.

By celebrating its dance marketing clips, the ethnic brand is differentiating itself.

 

ALSO READ  Ethnic wear brand Soch focuses on ecommerce to drive up growth

Hetal and Lekhinee Desai, a mother-daughter team, went to a handloom expo in 2016 hoping to go on a shopping binge but instead returned with a great business concept and 50 meters of cloth with the ajrakh print.

They had their local tailor sew the fabric into Kurtis in various shapes and sizes. Then, while seated in her Mumbai apartment's bedroom, Lekhinee made a Facebook page, uploaded a few images of the finished ensembles, and shared the link with her pals. And thus, The Indian Ethnic Co.'s adventure got underway.

RELEVANT NEWS  Reliance Retail poised to foray into saree, ethnic wear stores

Coming from a tiny hamlet in Rajasthan, Ravi Khandelwal had lofty goals and a burning desire to achieve them.

Being a licensed chartered accountant, he has a decade of extensive experience in the business sector in India and abroad and has held several executive roles with well-known MNCs. Every successful guy has a woman at his side (not in the background), and Ravi is no exception.

 

RELEVANT NEWS Biba’s upcoming collections includes trendy outfits with ethnicwear

Ravi and his adored Vandana, co-founder and head of the creative team at Yufta are partners both in real life and in Yufta. Daksh, their kid, is a ball of energy that keeps their excitement at its highest.

Two friends and their spouses came up with Yufta after deciding that Jaipur was the ideal location for women's ethnic apparel and that e-commerce was booming at the time. While the partners worked hard to cover every possible angle, Yufta serviced more than a million women worldwide in just four years and won several awards for Best startup / Business.

RELEVANT NEWS Ethnic and innerwear focus helps ABFRL grow despite COVID-19 disruptions

From fiber, yarn, and fabric to garments, India's textile and apparel sector has strengths along the whole value chain.

The traditional handloom, handicrafts, wool, silk items, and the organized textile industry in India make up a large portion of the widely varied Indian textile and apparel market.

 

RELEVANT NEWS Dolly J presents ethnic wear collection at India Couture Week

The organized textile sector in India, which encompasses spinning, weaving, processing, and garment manufacture, is characterized by the employment of capital-intensive equipment for the mass production of textile items.

Join our community on Linkedin

Ethnic Wear: Truly Fledgling Make In India Story

The Role Of Visual Merchandising In the Apparel Industry

06 July 2022, Mumbai:

Visual merchandisers present, arrange, and display goods in shops and storefront windows, which are essential locations where buyers may view, choose, and purchase goods. The position was created in the 19th century, but it has only lately expanded and become crucial in the fashion sector.

Maintaining a store's image requires understanding how to give clothing and other items a neat, organized finish while respecting the brand's identity through a careful balancing of elements, including visual communication, aesthetics, sales analysis, and the planning of sales and promotional activities.

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With the growth of department shops in significant American cities in the latter half of the 19th century, window dressers became visible.

Organizing clothing and other things in the household or cultural contexts would inspire department stores to develop the first visual display strategies and the first actual window displays.

Large storefronts transformed into inspirational city screens in the 1930s, making passing allusions to the movie industry and the star system.

 

ALSO READ Fashion continues to dominate India’s e-commerce space with new inventions

Over the years, practical abilities and academic understanding were improved, and the conventional window dresser eventually evolved into a contemporary visual merchandiser.

It is no accident that some of the most well-known fashion designers in the world began their careers as visual merchandisers because the position calls for a variety of talents.

While working as a window dresser at Milanese department store La Rinascente, a young Giorgio Armani had his first exposure to the fashion world.

At Brooks Brothers in New York City during those same years, Ralph Lauren worked as a sales assistant, organizing merchandise with the same meticulous attention to detail that he subsequently used to layout his own stores across the world.

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A visual merchandiser requires a solid technical foundation, visual culture, creative flair, and some understanding of marketing and psychology.

A successful business display should appeal to more senses than just sight. Direct touch with clothing and textiles, smells and odors, and music selections should all be in keeping with the brand, store type, and target demographic.

The ability to analyze client behavior, however, is a crucial talent. Every Visual Merchandiser keeps track of and watches consumers using specific performance indicators and behaviors.

 

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Given its recent and dynamic history, visual merchandising is typically studied at specialized institutions and creative academies, which can foresee the future of a field that is turning storefront windows into soundstages for installations and performances.

The Istituto Marangoni Milano's fashion styling curriculum includes a three-year course in visual merchandise.

It begins with thoroughly examining the fashion retail industry and all factors affecting a brand's placement on sales and marketing channels. 

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The visual merchandiser gives each product ample shelf space. 

 

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The items are arranged so that they are easily accessible. Signage and fixtures are to make it simple to find the products. The product is adequately stocked on display, thanks to the visual merchandiser.

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The Role Of Visual Merchandising In the Apparel Industry

Textile Industry & Sustainability

02 July 2022, Mumbai:

India is one of the biggest manufacturers and exporters of textiles worldwide. India's domestic textile market was worth $100 billion in 2019–20, while its growing exports were worth about $50 billion.

The Indian government gives the textile sector the tools to compete internationally, draw sizable investments, and create jobs.

In addition to being a person's basic needs, textiles have evolved into a fashion statement that generates enormous revenues for businesses in India and worldwide. The quest for sustainability and continuous strides in pursuing excellence thus unlocking value in this sector drives sustainable business models.

ALSO READ  Bridal fashion embraces sustainability with local materials and designs 

These colorful, unusual clothes do, however, have a terrible side since their hues hurt the surrounding environment. Processing textiles produces a sizable amount of wastewater, which exerts significant environmental pressure. It presents a significant chemical challenge to handle fabrics. It makes use of several ecologically scarce, non-biodegradable substances.

When handling materials, the textile industry uses a variety of colors, synthetic mixes, and helper synthetics. Around 17 to 20 percent of all current water contamination, according to World Bank assessments, is purely due to coloring and finishing patterns. 

 

ALSO READ  As Sustainability Concerns Increase: Organic Apparels Acceptance Grows

It is said that about 72 different hazardous synthetics are exclusively found in water to color patterns.

The industry is like a two-edged sword, requiring intense monitoring and adherence to regulations to lessen its adverse environmental effects.

The goal of incorporating sustainability into the textile business is to establish thriving ecosystems and alliances through initiatives like raising the value of local goods and produce, cutting waste, and lessening the damage that production and consumption do to the environment.

RELEVANT NEWS  BGMEA President mentions the impressive progress of RMG industry in terms of sustainability 

Leading Indian firms have made significant progress in integrating sustainability into the value chain of the textile manufacturing industry. Many have focused on input management rather than only tailpipe management as a preferred approach to sustainability. The business regards cotton as a crucial ally.

 

RELEVANT NEWS  The Woolmark Company: New online course on sustainability & wool 

By implementing the Regenerative Organic Farming technique to expand their sustainable cotton portfolio, they are creating a sustainable ecosystem from farm to fabric.

As steadfast friends, they ensure sustainable manufacturing energy, its suppliers, and regulators. They are combining biomass supplies with solar roofing to make their energy mix more environmentally friendly.

RELEVANT NEWS Forever New unveils new sustainability campaign

Some businesses are incorporating sustainability and circularity into every aspect of their supply chain, including trash recycling and the procurement of raw materials.

They focus on pre-and post-consumer waste as they transition from linear to circular operations.

By using recycled LDPE in place of virgin polyester for packaging, they are committed to plastic recycling. By recycling industry waste and using textile scrap, they also consume less plastic.

 

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The Indian government is undertaking various programs and measures to advance the textile sector. One of the Ministry of Textiles' main plans is to create Mega Investment Textile Parks.

This plan will provide a top-notch infrastructure with plug-and-play capabilities to enable international exporting champions. This project would make India a popular destination for domestic and foreign divers looking to enter the textile and apparel industries.

Over three years, the government plans to build seven textile parks. Increased production and export of Indian technical textiles are the goals of the recently introduced Production Linked Incentive plan.

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Textile Industry & Sustainability

Apparel Sector: Data Is The New Oil

22 June 2022, Mumbai:

These are the words of famous British mathematician and data science entrepreneur Clive Humby, who coined the phrase “data is the new oil”.

Many individuals are unaware that oil is the basis for several market items. Because it serves as the basis for so many other things, including gasoline, plastics, fertilizers, aspirin, crayons, gum, textiles, solar panels, etc., it is essential.

Thus, oil and the understanding of how to refine it provided the basis for our current physical product manufacturing system. Our current method of service products will be built on data and AI.

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How an AI enhances things with data won't be self-evident. The majority of AI's benefits will be inconspicuous and improve everything we do with data, particularly in pattern identification, prediction, and automation.
Since many businesses still view their data infrastructure as a cost center, they should use the data to continually enhance every aspect of their operations to turn it into a profit center.

Majority of apparel firms plan to increase supply chain transparency by 2027 but obstacles remain, a global survey by KPMG and Serai finds.

 

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Companies must start managing data locally inside business units and treating it as an enterprise-wide corporate asset.

This makes it possible to share information on products and customers, which opens up the potential for upselling and cross-selling and enhancing customer service and retention rates.

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Serai, an online B2B platform that simplifies global trade, in collaboration with KPMG, has launched a global report which finds that two-thirds (66%) of apparel industry insiders see supply chain transparency as an “extremely important” issue. This number is even higher for Indian companies, at 83%.

There is a tremendous possibility for any firm in the world to develop new goods and services across business lines by combining internal data with external data.

 

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The technologies assisting the industry are artificial intelligence, big data, cloud, digitalization, Internet of Things, mobile, and robots.

Over the past ten years, the oil and gas industry has seen a significant increase in the effect of new technologies like IoT and AI to solve numerous strategic concerns throughout the sector value chain.

For instance, they are using AI assists in resolving several challenging sub-surface engineering issues.

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Data is a crucial tool for predicting fashion trends, deciding how to organize the supply chain, and examining consumer behavior and preferences. In the competitive, ever-evolving fashion sector, where demand is constantly shifting, and there is an increasing amount of rivalry, retail analytics, also known as Big Data, is crucial.

It may be gathered via sales, market analysis, online marketing, user reviews on social media, purchase analytics, and other sources. Retail analytics has the potential to revolutionize both physical and online commerce.

 

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When setting prices for items, it is essential to consider the target market's comfort level with price and purchasing power.

In the retail market, an overpriced product may simply go unnoticed, but, if it is underpriced, the firm may suffer losses.

The target audience's complete profile, including information on their age, height, and ethnicity as well as preferences, behavior, and engagement, is provided by retail analytics.

These elements can assist a business owner in understanding the reasons influencing the purchase and the times and locations where users are more likely to become customers.

Ajay Banga, Mastercard’s CEO, added that data is even more valuable than oil, considering that oil is a scarce and finite resource, while data is inexhaustible and only increases.

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