Fibre2Fashion

A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them. — Horace The earliest known shoes are said to be a pair of sagebrush bark sandals that date from 8000 BC—found in a cave in the US state of Oregon in 1938. The world's oldest leather shoe, on the other hand, that was possibly handcrafted from a single piece of cowhide laced with a leather cord along seams at the front and back, was unearthed from another cave...

The easing of sourcing norms in single brand retail trade (SBRT) by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday last will considerably alter the retail landscape in the country. Even though, under the new norms, the compulsion on single brands to open brick-and-mortar stores before venturing into online trade has been moderated, it will now be easier for them to test the waters before going the whole hog. The SBRT announcement came along with a flurry of other decisions related to foreign direct investment...

Has GenNext of the Indian textiles-apparel industry changed the way business is done? I strongly believe the newer generation of India’s fashion/apparel industry has changed the industry narrative in many ways. For instance, we have embraced the online business model in a much wholehearted way from the start. Traditionally, the apparel industry (along with other sectors of retail such as groceries) prioritised the offline mode and organic growth. The internet changed this and brought about a...

Subir Ghosh spoke to eight dynamic personalities who have remained in the news for the cutting-edge initiatives they have been taking, bringing about a change in the way business itself is done. There were two questions they were posed: * Has GenNext of the Indian textiles-apparel industry changed the way business is done? * How much do you think India's GenNext is geared up to changing things in the global context? The responses. Dhiraj Agarwal CEO and Co-Founder Campus Sutra Dhiraj Agarwal is...

Clothing, as we know, came into being when human beings learnt to sew. The art of sewing remains at the core of garments thousands of years later. It remains labour-intensive as things stand, and it is on this front that the sewing machinery industry is likely to see the most cutting-edge developments in the immediate future. Manufacturers of sewing machines—of the industrial scale, obviously—are possibly among the most under pressure from apparel manufacturers to help the latter cut costs. In...

The import and the scale of the event was such that even as it was palpably drawing to an end, no one was talking of the goings-on at ITMA 2019 Barcelona, but ITMA Milan 2023. Indeed. Textile technology—textile innovation, if you may—is moving at such a frenetic pace that what you would have seen today in Barcelona might just as well be obsolete by the time you are home. That, of course, is a hyperbole, but you get the drift. Themed around ‘Innovating the World of Textiles’, the 18 th edition of...

The negotiations between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) over a free trade agreement (FTA) was keen watched by many other countries and blocs, particularly India. When the talks eventually led to a deal being signed on the last day of June, it came somewhat as a double whammy for India—mostly from our textiles-apparel point of view. First, Vietnam’s textiles-apparel industry has decidedly gained an advantage over India as far as exports to most European countries are concerned. And second...

How did your story / journey start? What exactly were you trying to do, or achieve when you set out? Looking back today, how much of your goal do you think you have been able to achieve? Fabric Monde was born out of the idea of catering to the demand and love of the urban markets towards indigenous handloom products. Evolved from there, today we are working on a global supply chain for the fabrics to support and enable fashion brands to source fabrics in a sustainable way. Part of our success...

To look at South India from the standpoint of the textiles and apparel industry would be a fallacy—for one might invariably start with the idle assumption that it is a composite ecosystem on its own. But then, it is anything but that. The five states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana differ from one another in innumerable ways—right from having their own respective textiles policies to the multifarious sectors of the industry that contribute to the overall Indian...

Every four years, the global textiles-apparel-fashion industry converges at ITMA. If there are a number of #mustattend events out there, this would be the mother of them all. It is an event that in many ways not only shapes the future of industry, but just living as well. And as the ITMA Services, which is organising ITMA 2019 at Barcelona this month, says on its website: “ITMA is the trendsetting textile and garment technology platform where the industry converges every four years to explore...