03 March 2022, Mumbai:

adidas announces the appointment of Alasdhair Willis to Chief Creative Officer.

The Chief Creative Officer is the lead within the adidas design community and is responsible for shaping, defining, and shepherding the creative direction for the global brand and its three major labels – Performance, Originals, and Sportswear – to deliver a unified adidas brand experience.

Willis will begin his contract beginning of April, reporting to Executive Board Member of Global Brands, Brian Grevy. Willis is a creative visionary with a long-standing connection to adidas that dates back to 2005, most notably through his role in the concept and development of adidas by Stella McCartney in partnership with Stella McCartney.

He has remained integral to the growth and development of the partnership since its launch.

ALSO READ: Adidas launches new campaign for Indian women athletes

Beyond adidas by Stella McCartney, Willis has built a strong understanding of the company’s consumers, brand, labels, and categories through his work on a number of breakthrough projects, including a lead role in developing some of adidas’ most iconic material innovations.

Outside of his work with adidas he is revered for his tenure as Creative Director of British fashion heritage brand, Hunter, transforming what was a small single product business into a multi-category global fashion brand, and as co-founder of the trailblazing Wallpaper* Magazine.

It is through this diverse experience that Willis brings not just creative expertise, but the ability to deliver across commercial, strategic, and leadership functions. As Chief Creative Officer at adidas, Willis will provide global creative leadership, develop and nurture the brand’s creative culture, and empower teams across all design functions.

“Stepping into a permanent role at adidas and evolving our partnership is a great privilege and feels like an incredibly exciting and natural next step,” said Willis.

“The power and influence of the brand on sport, sports culture, and beyond is immeasurable. I welcome the opportunity to help establish a new era of design and brand leadership at adidas and, together with the team, take adidas to even higher levels.” “Alasdhair is a true icon of the industry and together we have produced some of adidas’ most innovative work, so to now have him lead our design community and set the future of our brand expression is a wonderful thing,” said Executive Board Member of Global Brands, Brian Grevy.

“We are looking forward to seeing the influence of his unique creative vision, experience and expertise from developing and establishing some of the world’s most recognised brands.” 

RELATED ARTICLE: Adidas ropes in Manika Batra for new marketing campaign

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*CREDITS: news.adidas.com.

24 February 2022, Mumbai:

C&A, a leading European retailer, and RecoverTM, a material sciences business, have formed a new strategic four-year relationship to bring high-quality recycled cotton to everyday wear.

The two firms' strong commitment to circularity will be seen this spring, with C&A's Clockhouse brand releasing the first collection – manufactured with RecoverTM fiber – in April. C&A is one of Europe's major fashion retailers, with over 1,400 outlets in 18 European countries and over 25,000 workers.

The alliance is pushing transformation to make recycled cotton a fundamental element in a more sustainable fashion sector, with RecoverTM serving as the primary cotton source thanks to its considerable experience and scaling capabilities. Recover(™) will incorporate its fiber into C&A's supply chain and provide technical support to help spinners and weavers improve their yarns and textiles.

C&A, as one of Europe's biggest retailers, carries with it the required demand to create a long-term effect on the sector.

ALSO READ: Despite the high cost of yarn, Indian garment makers choose recycled cotton yarn

The relationship with RecoverTM establishes C&A, which recently constructed a facility for textile innovation in Monchengladbach, as a forward-thinking company that values sustainability and accelerates its progress toward its 2028 Global Sustainability Strategy. "More sustainable clothes must not be a niche product," Aleix Busquets Gonzalez, Director Global Sustainability at C&A, stated. Our partnership with RecoverTM is a watershed moment in our journey to a more sustainable future marked by high-quality, low-cost clothes."

"In keeping with our act-as-one concept, we are thrilled to contribute Recover's knowledge and tech support to our cooperation with C&A through the integration of our fiber into their supply chain," stated Alejandro Raa, Chief Business Development Officer, RecoverTM.

We are assuring a significant and enduring influence on the industry by combining a long-term commitment with large production quantities."

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*Figures mentioned in the above article have been sourced from c-and-a.com & Apparel Resources article.

05 March 2022, Mumbai:

Target, the well-known American retailer, just posted its 19th consecutive quarter of growth, thanks to an impressive 8.1 percent increase in traffic in the fourth quarter. The retailer's fourth-quarter comps increased by an amazing 8.9%, following a year-over-year increase of nearly 20%.

On a comparable traffic increase of 12.3 percent, comps increased by 12.7 percent for the year, adding to the previous year's gain of 19.3 percent.

Despite supply chain and freight expenses apparently cutting into the retailer's margin, the US retail behemoth saw its operating income climb by 36.8% to the US $ 8.9 billion for the full year. 

ALSO READ: Hermès reports results

Target's CEO, Brian Cornell, has credited the company's success to customers as well as investments made in the company's shops and digital capabilities - a move that was met with skepticism when it originally began five years ago.

According to reports, Target's actual shops also serve as fulfillment centers, with 95 percent of its fourth-quarter sales being completed in some fashion by the company's locations.

Target is the United States' ninth-largest retailer, with sales of $ 99.6 billion in 2021.

RELATED ARTICLE Gap Inc. Reports Q4 FY21 Results

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CREDITS:cnbc.com & Apparel Resources.

02 March 2022, Mumbai:

Sri Lanka’s apparel exports in January 2022 achieved the highest level for that month in the last five years. This performance demonstrates the industry’s underlying strength as it bounced back from the sustained shocks from the impact of the pandemic over the last two years.

Sri Lanka’s apparel export earnings rose to US$ 487.6 million in January 2022, overtaking the US$ 452 million recorded in January 2019, prior to the pandemic, by 8%. Growth over January 2021 export earnings was 23%.

“Amidst significant turbulence, this strong performance is testimony to the resilience of Sri Lanka’s apparel industry and augurs well for the industry’s progress towards realising its goals for 2025,” said Yohan Lawrence, Secretary-General, Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), the apex body of the Sri Lankan apparel industry.

The industry’s 2030 vision is to transform Sri Lanka to a global apparel hubby that year; an intermediate goal is to increase annual export earnings from apparel to US$8 billion by 2025.

ALSO READ: JAAF appoints industry veteran Yohan Lawrence as its new Secretary General

“Through close cooperation between all key stakeholders, the apparel industry can further increase its already-strong contribution to the national economy, as a major generator of vital foreign exchange and high-quality employment,” Lawrence added.

The industry’s January 2022 performance also reflects the success of rigorously applied safety measures adopted by the sector, in close cooperation with health authorities, to minimise the spread of the pandemic among employees to zero.

“January’s impressive performance was also made possible by strong demand from buyers and the healthy pipeline of orders for upcoming months, which are grounds for optimism,” Jafferjee added.

“The international outlook remains challenging, however, considering growing tensions in Europe.”. About JAAF The Joint Apparel Association Forum is the apex body which guides Sri Lankan apparel towards its ultimate goal of being the world’s number one apparel sourcing destination.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Joint Apparel Association Forum,(JAAF), Srilanka :Apparel Industry to continue dialogue with Government on forex crisis

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22 February 2022, Mumbai:

Business situation and expectations remain very favourable along the global textile value chain.

In the 2 nd half of January 2022, the ITMF conducted the 12 th ITMF Corona-Survey among more than 270 companies around the world in all segments along the textile value chain.

For the fifth time since May 2021, companies were asked the same set of questions about their 1) business situation, 2) business expectation, 3) order intake, 4) order backlog, and 5) capacity utilization rate. On average across all regions and all segments, the business situation is still very favorable with +23 percentage points (pp), albeit lower than compared to November 2021 (+28pp).

ALSO READ: ITMF Awards 2022 Extension of Deadline until April 30th, 2022

This high level is remarkable given the fast-rising infection number of the Corona-variant “Omicron” since the 11 th ITMF Corona-Survey. The fact that a rising number of companies find themselves in a satisfactory business situation (48%) is an indication for a strong and broad recovery.

When it comes to the business expectations in six months, the global textile value chain remains very optimistic.

While the balance between more favorable and less favorable has fallen from +33pp to +25pp, it needs to be considered that these expectations are built on a very favorable business situation.

Or to put it differently, only 14% of companies are anticipating a less favorable business by July 2022.

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04 March 2022, Mumbai:

Notwithstanding the industry support to the sanctions in place against Russia, EURATEX highlights that companies are at risk of stopping their production if energy and gas prices continue to rise. The energy crisis that started at the end of last year has been worsening in the last week.

Prices of energy, gas and oil has been skyrocketing. According to Reuters, Benchmark European gas prices at the Dutch TTF hub rose by 330% last year, while benchmark German and French power contracts have more than doubled. The textile and clothing industry is facing an unprecedented situation. Many companies are considering shutting down production because of energy costs.

EURATEX supports the measures taken by the EU in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, but asks the European Union and Members States to compensate the situation by supporting their industries.

ALSO READ: EURATEX: BETTER COLLABORATION CAN SMOOTHEN EU-UK TRADE FLOW

Companies need access to energy at reasonable prices, may those be subsidies, removing environmental levies or VAT from bills and price caps. The transfer to renewable and cleaner sources of energy needs to speed up, so to guarantee less dependency. But it is a long process that cannot be achieved in the forthcoming months.

That’s why Europe should urgently look at the available options to control such market shocks.

About EURATEX

As the voice of the European textile and clothing industry, EURATEX works to achieve a favourable environment within the European Union for design, development, manufacture and marketing of textile and clothing products.

RELATED ARTICLE: European textile industry needs to grow its role on global markets

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26 February 2022, Mumbai:

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan met Alke Boessiger, Deputy General Secretary of UNI Global Union in Geneva on February 25. betterment.

ALSO READ: The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Faruque Hassan: Bangladesh’s garment export to India will continue to grow

Where both BGMEA and UNI Global Union expressed their intent to work together to carry forward the achievements made by the garment industry of Bangladesh in workplace safety and labors’ rights through an unprecedented collaboration of the global brands and retailers, manufacturers, government, ILO, development partners, and local and global unions.

They had discussions on different issues pertaining to the Bangladesh RMG industry – particularly workplace safety, workers’ rights and welfare.

RELATED ARTICLE: BGMEA president, Bangladesh Apparel Exports Expected to hit $50 billion

BGMEA Vice President Miran Ali and Directors Asif Ashraf, Tanvir Ahmed and Abdullah Hil Rakib were also present on the occasion.

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*Credits: Textile Today

21 February 2022, Mumbai:

Lineapelle takes place with a clear focus on ecological sustainability.

In terms of organisation and content, a visit to Lineapelle has long been a must for the leather and shoe industry. From 22nd to 24th of February 2022, exhibitors will be showing their trade visitors the latest trends - so it is not surprising that sustainability, Eco-design and resource conservation are also developing as focal points here.

Sympatex will be exhibiting at Lineapelle for the 13th time in a row. For the company, this platform is a fixed key date twice a year with the opportunity to show the latest trends to a broad specialist audience and to jointly further develop innovative material and production concepts.

So for the experts at Sympatex, there's no question that this February everything revolves around their presence at the trade fair. Dr. Rüdiger Fox, CEO of Sympatex, comments: "This is a milestone this year, especially in COVID-19 times.

ALSO READ: REEBOK: ZIG DYNAMICA 3 SHOES

Shoe technology has made an enormous leap forward in the last two years. With the Sympatex membrane, the sister company Utmospheric developed a technology in which an inner shoe is produced in one "cast". No seams, no waste, no tapes - available in all heights and sizes and produced in Germany.

About Sympatex –

The climate-neutral and recyclable membrane As one of the worldwide leading producers, Sympatex® Technologies has been a synonym for high-tech functional materials in clothing, footwear, accessories and technical fields of application since 1986.

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04 March 2022, Mumbai:

The Lenzing Group, the world's largest provider of wood-based speciality fibers, has completed a major lyocell expansion project in Thailand.

The firm stated in a statement that the new plant, the world's largest of its kind with a nameplate capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year, began production on time and would help the company fulfill rising customer demand for TENCELTM-branded lyocell fibers even better.

Recruiting and onboarding new staff, in particular, have proven effective. This effort required around € 400 million in capital expenditures (CAPEX). "We are quite proud of this accomplishment. 

ALSO READ: HIGH FASHION GROUP RECEIVED AWARD FROM THE LENZING GROUP REAFFIRMED ITS POSITION AS A SUSTAINABILITY LEADER!

Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to the whole Lenzing team, particularly our Thai employees, as well as many external stakeholders who came together in the midst of a worldwide epidemic to make this critical initiative a reality. Given the obstacles of the worldwide pandemic, completing such a large project on time and on budget is an extraordinary success," stated Cord Prinzhorn, CEO of the Lenzing Group.

According to the firm, it will continue to grow its lyocell fiber production capacity as part of its sCore TEN strategy, which intends to produce 75 percent of its fiber income from environmentally responsible speciality fibers such as TENCELTM, LENZINGTM ECOVEROTM, and VEOCELTM by 2024.

RELATED ARTICLE: CDP, the gold standard of environmental reporting, names Lenzing as one of the most sustainable companies worldwide

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*CREDITS: lenzing.com & Apparel Resources.

26 February 2022, Mumbai:

LPP and CCC, Poland's two largest fashion stores, have suspended their operations in Ukraine, according to corporate executives, after Russia's war on its neighbor.

LPP and CCC, two of the region's fastest-growing garment firms, handle a number of fashion brands, including Reserved, HalfPrice, eobuwie.pl, Modivo, and Sinsay.

At 1230 GMT, LPP shares were down 23%, making them the worst performance on Poland's blue-chip index. The stock of CCC was down 13%. LPP transferred its administrative offices from Kyiv to Lviv in response to Russia's aggression on Ukraine, according to Monika Wszeborowska, the company's public relations manager.

Both shops ceased all business in Ukraine and said that their storefronts would stay closed, as well as all shipping to Ukraine.

The press office of the LPP stated that employee safety was its top priority. 

ALSO READ: C&A x RecoverTM sign a 4-year partnership

"Because the situation is changing, we are actively monitoring all reports from the eastern border, including information from our Ukrainian office, and we are taking action," Wszeborowska said.

"One thing is certain: our intentions to expand our network in Ukraine this year have been canceled," Wszeborowska added.

According to LPP's financial statement, Ukraine and Russia were two of the major international sales performance drivers in the third quarter.

Ukraine and Russia account for around 3% of CCC's business and 1% of the entire group's activities, according to an emailed statement from a CCC spokeswoman.

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*Figures mentioned in the above article have been sourced from Reuters & Fashion Network article.

19 February 2022, Mumbai:

This year, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit has adopted a new name in what is part of the organisation’s manifestation of a further global outlook and reach.

Now entitled the Global Fashion Summit, the forum will continue to build on its 13-year history “by strengthening its representation and connections with diverse perspectives from across the world”.

To further this mission, the summit is now to take place in various international cities in the future, in addition to its home base, Copenhagen, where the first edition is to be held.

ALSO READ: Copenhagen Fashion Week publishes Annual Sustainability Report 2021

Presented by nonprofit Global Fashion Agenda, the rejuvenated summit will host a selection of the organisation’s core stakeholders across fashion and parallel industries, each following the central theme ‘Alliances for a New Era’. Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2022 will look to examine cross-industry alliances next to the formation of “previously inconceivable” ones, all with the ultimate mission of accelerating towards a net positive reality.

The organisations will work collaboratively to elevate awareness about the urgent environmental and social issues in the fashion industry and inspire leaders across the world to drive impact.

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*Figures mentioned in the above article have been sourced from Global Fashion Agenda article.