Designers David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore’s namesake label has launched their Spring/Summer 2021 collection titled ‘Renewal.’ The collection features separates and saris in playful design. Its color palette includes the brand’s signature monochromes, pink, saffron, haldi and lime green shades One of the highlights of the collection is the Chilli sari which infuses a sense of humor to the collection. Priced in the rage of Rs 3,000-Rs 15,000, the collection has received a positive response in the pan Indian online market.

Abraham & Thakore is one of India's most successful and respected brand for fashion, accessories as well as home textile products. This design label was initially established by David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore, graduates of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad who were later joined by Kevin Nigli, a design graduate of NIFT New Delhi.

Each Abraham & Thakore collection explores the development of a quiet and modern design voice while simultaneously drawing on the rich traditional vocabulary of Indian design and craft. The brad reiterates the belief that real luxury lies in specially crafted product in limited numbers of high quality.

The boost provided by the US-China trade war to India’s cotton exports in marketing year (MY) 2019-20 was offset by the spread of pandemic. However, the country was able to control the pandemic’s impact through lockdowns and vaccination, reports SRTEPC. This also boosted area under cotton cultivation by 5.56 per cent to 13.30 hectare and production by 14.34 per cent to 29.50 million 480-lb bales in MY 2019-20.

Increase in cotton production to boost prices

India’s area under cotton cultivation is expected to reach 13.40 hectare while production is expected to increase to 29.50 million 480-lb bales in the year. Cotton exports are expected to increase 42.86 per cent in the MY 2020-21 to 500 million 480-lb bales while imports are expected to decline by 56.14 per cent to 1.00 million 480-lb bales.

Prices of Indian cotton fibers have been growing considerably since January 2021. For example, price of DCH-32 from Karnataka and V-797 from Gujarat increased 20.14 per cent and 22.87 per cent to Rs 71.23/candy and Rs 33.89 candy in March 2021 up from Rs 59.29/candy and Rs 27.58 /candy in January 2021, respectively. Price of other cotton varieties such as J-34-RG from Bhatinda, MCU-5 from Andhra Pradesh, MECH from Maharashtra, Mech-I/H-4 from Madhya Pradesh and Shankar-6 from Gujarat have also increased by 4to 7 per cent.

Growing demand for value added cotton textiles

There is increased demand for value added cotton textiles since the beginning of MY 2020-21. Most demand is being generated from countries like China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. In the first half of MY2020-21 India’s monthly average yarn exports surged 15.67 per cent to 89.64 thousand metric ton and is further expected to increase 6.64 per cent from January to July 2021.

Meanwhile, fabric exports are expected to remain stable at a slightly lower value from January to July 2021. In the first half MY 2020-21, fabric exports surged 36.61 per cent to 169.52 thousand metric tonne from the monthly average exports of 124.10 thousand metric tonne in the MY 2019-20.

Levi’s®’ new spring campaign — “Buy Better, Wear Longer” raises awareness about the the environmental impacts of apparel production and consumption. Featuring an inspiring group of changemakers including Jaden Smith, Xiye Bastida, Melati Wijsen, Xiuhtezcatl, Emma Chamberlain and Marcus Rashboard MBE — this multi-platform global ad campaign combines Levi’s® longstanding commitment to making quality clothing with the passion of six icons and activists working on issues critical to the future of our planet.

As per Economic Times, the campaign also encapsulates Levi’s® ongoing efforts to drive more sustainable production practices: by driving ambitious climate and water action and by investing in materials and technologies such as Cottonized Hemp and Organic cotton, and scaling Water<Less® manufacturing. Around 76 per cent of all Levi Strauss & Co. products, and 70 per cent of all Levi’s® bottoms and trucker jackets are now made using our Water<Less® technology — built on a series of finishing techniques and water recycling guidelines that have saved more than 4 billion liters of water and resulted in the recycling of nearly 10 billion liters of water since they were first introduced.

India’s leading women’s apparel brand, W’s new Spring Summer Collection 2021 offers an extensive range of apparels in Whites on White, with soothing tonalities. As per Indian Retailer, it also offers a range of LivaEco and also includes Workwear Dobbies, offering fashionable yet comfortable workwear options to modern Indian women.

The collection also features all-day rompers layered with long sheer resort shirts and vacay dresses with clever cutouts, cropped Jumpsuits, easy-tiered dresses, resort sets, and holiday tunics.

With this new collection, W has also unveiled its new campaign ‘Hope is Trending’ that calls for rejoicing life by celebrating the positivity, strength, and happiness amid the unforeseen challenges of the pandemic.

The all-new Spring Summer Collection 2021 reflects the campaign theme well, featuring unique silhouettes, colors, and patterns imparting timeless, minimal, and functional looks while adding style and functionality to the wardrobe. The theme is projected through the displays at the stores as well with the minutest of the details crafted with the utmost attention.

The pandemic has transformed work patterns across all industries in India. No industry has remained unaffected by the crisis; more so the retail industry. Overnight, Indian retailers were forced to redefine their supply chains as a contactless process. They had to move inventory from centralized warehouses to local stores, says a Economic Times report. Fashion retailers, in particular, had to pivot their entire operations to online platforms and transform their stores into micro-fulfillment centres.

This led to the rise of a new retail in India as the industry began to embrace new technologies. Retailers no longer rely on outdated data to predict future trends. They are adopting new tools like AI and machines to improve their relationships with suppliers. ServiceNow’s Now Platform helps these retailers maximize visibility across supply chain through intelligent workflows.

Ensures clarity of expectations

Retailers are benefiting from digitization as it helps them onboard new suppliers besides ensuring clarity of expectations in terms of product deliveries. Digitization also helps suppliers connect with vendors and monitor their performance regularly. This further helps control costs, alleviate risks, drive continuous improvement and boost customer satisfaction. Retailers can also measure the impact of vendors on their operations with information on service management information assessments and reports.

Rising consumer expectations has made it crucial for retailers to identify and mitigate pain points across supply chain. They need to be equipped to identify flaws immediately in supplies for downstream stakeholders to respond and front-end agents to access accurate information.

Reduction in production and supply costs

The pandemic has also reemphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy retail supply chain. Digitization can help retailers manage operational risks through only a clik of a button. Digitization has helped ServiceNow customers reduce production and supply chains costs by around 10-20 per cent. Retailers have been able to reduce their working capital costs by around 15 per cent while increasing revenues by 6 per cent. They are reporting more inclusive growth by enrolling kiranas and MSMEs into their supply chain. ServiceNow’s industry-wide digital transformation helps these retailers smoothen their workflows across India.

India’s largest value e-commerce company, Snapdeal, has launched a new brand campaign “Brand Waali Quality, Bazaar Waali Deal. The campaign highlights Snapdeal’s position as a shopping destination for inexpensive good quality products. It features Bollywood actors Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia Deshmukh Using humour, the campaign takes a lighthearted dig at a mindset that feels that anything can be good only if it is branded.

Through a series of videos, the campaign draws attention to the depth of high-quality choice that is available online and showcases great quality is also available at affordable prices. It targets smart, value-conscious buyers, who are not obsessed by brands and look for good quality, high utility items including fashion, accessories, homeware, etc

Bollywood film actor Jacqueline Fernandez has been roped in as the brand ambassador by formal wear brand Van Heusen for its new sub-brand Denim Labs. As per Economic Times, the launch of this sub-brand also marks Van Heusen’s entry into the denim segment.

Denim Labs will sell functional denims, shirts, trousers, layering pieces like truckers, jackets and blazers for men and women. Its collection will be retailed at brand outlets, multi-brand retail and e-commerce platforms.

With revenue of Rs 8788 crore, ABFRL has a network of about 3,000 stores that sell clothes and accessories from Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England, among others. The company holds online and offline rights to the India network of California-based fast fashion brand Forever 21. Its international brands portfolio includes select mono-brands such as American Eagle, Ralph Lauren, Hackett London, Ted Baker and Fred Perry.

Two years ago, ABFRL bought Finesse International Design, which sells bespoke apparel retail brand Shantanu & Nikhil. It also acquired artisanal etailer jaypore.com to enter a largely unorganized market of traditional and ethnic products.

Covid-19 has slowdown India’s apparel retail market once more. With malls and stores under lockdown in metros business is at its lowest this year. In fact, the scenario was different just a few weeks ago. Footfalls in stores had increased and ecommerce players too were doing good business after few bad months in 2020. Walmart owned Myntra and Ambani owned Ajio two of India’s largest fashion e-commerce firms saw a recovery in 202o after taking a hit during lockdown.

Sales recovery augurs well

Myntra and Ajio had both seen a fall in nationwide sales due to the lockdown in 2020. With no outing and socialisation, people did not feel the need to buy new clothes. Then there were supply constraints and deliveries slowed down. The festive season however, brought some cheer and both fashion etailers surpassed pre-Covid reach by the end of the year, as indicated by market intelligence firm Kalagato’s study.

The study revealed, while athleisure category was the only one that continued to grow during the lockdown period, other categories lagged behind. However, the festive season gave them a sales boost as well. The Kalagato study indicated tech-savvy youngsters make up the bigger share of buyers, however older customers too have shopped online during the pandemic. For example, Myntra shoppers in the 45-plus age group went up almost 12 per cent in 2020. And Ajio, recorded a huge 98 per cent increase in 45 plus category shoppers. What’s more it’s the Tier II, III markets that clocked in more orders for both firms.

Kalagato’s data on monthly active users highlighted, similar patterns for both players. By December, nearly 60 per cent Ajio and Myntra app users were opening the apps at least once each month. Incidentally, the percentage of customers who transacted on Myntra was nearly four times that of Ajio in January 2020. However, by December 2020, both players had similar range. “The even-ing out of order patterns and loss of momentum is a direct result of the lockdown,” Kalagato’s report said.

Bug bears on the way

However, the study also showed despite the recovery, there have been several bug bears on the way. While the recovery looks good on paper, there have been struggles. As in the months following the lockdown, both had to offer huge discounts to boost sales. They even began levying additional fees on low-value orders to stay afloat. And then their were logistical issues like of return deliveries had to be quarantined for 48 hours.

Now with the second the wave, curfews and lockdowns, how both etailers manage their business and sales will be watched as it will be a reflection of the online fashion segment as a whole.

Lenders to Kishore Biyani’s Future Group plan to withdraw the debt recast plans that offers the company easier repayment options, if its Rs 24,713 crore asset sale to Reliance Industries (RIL) materializes within a reasonable time frame.

Lenders have also agreed to extend repayment of loans by up to two years, while converting unpaid interest into a funded interest term loan. The penal charges too will be waived under the recast plan.

The debt recast plan of the company will help it stay afloat. However, the plan will be implemented only if the deal to sell Future's retail, wholesales, warehousing and logistics assets to Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) does not go through.

So far, the consortium of lenders has approved the debt restructuring of Future Retail Ltd (FRL), Future Enterprises ltd (FEL) and Future Supply Chain Solutions Ltd. The restructuring plans of FEL and FRL have received approval from the RBI-constituted expert panel, sources said.

The Rs 24,713 crore deal between RIL and Future Group was announced in August last year but it is getting delayed as e-commerce major Amazon is contesting it at several forums, including an arbitration at SIAC and before the Supreme Court.

SGS Softlines has extended its testing facilities in the East India by opening a new state-of-the-art laboratory in Kolkata, West Bengal.

As per reports, the laboratory is equipped with the latest technology and equipment and specializes in a comprehensive range of quality tests for fabrics, garments, jute bags, HDPE bags, knitted fabrics and PP Bags.

It provides an easy access to textile and jute manufacturers from the east region of India who can now access a range of world-class quality testing services at close proximity.

The laboratory has received NABL and BIS accreditation and is in line with SGS commitment of quality and excellence in service delivery. It is expected to meet the increased demand for inspection and testing services for textiles, jute and jute products.

This laboratory boosts SGS Softlines’ continued support of the textile and jute industry with various quality tests including Physical, Chemical & Performance tests as per applicable standards for different markets - Indian market (IS standards) and International market (ISO standards).

With a global network of testing facilities, SGS delivers a full spectrum of services to the textile and footwear industry, at every stage of the value chain, from raw materials to the manufacture of finished products and their packaging, with services to help them meet the requirements of regulators, distributors, retailers and consumers around the world. SGS experts devise unique service plans tailored to the customer needs and delivered in the local language.

Amidst all the disruption it has caused, COVID-19 has provided Indian textile industry with an opportunity to rid itself off its dependency on offline operations involving the wholesaler, semi wholesaler, retailers, middle persons etc. As per YourStory, the online textile industry has witnessed a massive surge in the past one year with many retailers’ revenues inching towards the $1 billion mark. In future too, this trend of increased sales in the online textile industry is likely to persist, giving rise to many online retailer unicorns.

Textile e-tailers to benefit from government schemes

Post-COVID-19, domestic consumption in the Indian textile industry is likely to increase with the government introducing many new policies to facilitate growth. In Budget 2021-22, it introduced a scheme to set up mega textile parks in the country to attract large investments and boost employment generation.

The scheme, called MITRA, entails the government setting up seven mega textile parks over the next three years. Equipped with all integrated facilities, these parks will help minimize transportation losses through quick turnaround time. Online textile retailers will emerge as the biggest beneficiaries of these developments.

Rise of new technology trends

Technology plays an important role in the Indian textile industry by facilitating all its right from sourcing raw materials to giving final shape to the products. In future, the industry is expected to witness the rise of new technology trends such as an increased demand for natural fibers, shifting focus towards non-woven fabrics, etc.

Need for more policies

Endowed with an immense potential to contribute to India’s economic development, textile industry needs more support from the government in terms of new policies and a crackdown on red tape. Additionally, the government needs to introduce more export promotion policies for the sector. It needs to launch new initiatives to take the sector on a growth path.