Fibre2Fashion

The ongoing hostilities between the United States (US) and China can upset existing equations and force new alignments in the global textiles and apparel industry. Assuming, of course, both countries stick to their guns till the end of May when the new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese imports set in, and the counter-tariffs of China come into play. Till then, the global textiles and apparel industry would have little to do but wait and watch the game of who-blinks-first...

How do you look at your brand's growth since your launch? Has it been according to (i) your expectations, and (ii) your own plans? Roshan Baid: To be honest, the growth of Alcis Sports has surpassed all expectations. I am very happy with the way Alcis Sports has been received by the audiences. We are currently selling over 30,000 items every month through various channels of sales. In the first year of our inception, we had revenue of about ₹6 crore and by the end of the financial year 2017–18...

It had been coming for a while. And when the Union government announced that India would now be open to 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail through the automatic route from the forthcoming fiscal year 2018–19, it was a prelude to the Prime Minister’s interactions with chief executives of top multinational companies at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Among other things, Narendra Modi was expressly there to woo investors. FDI: At a...

A new amendment to a European Union legislation has modified several provisions related to textile fibre names and associated with labelling and marking of the fibre composition of textile products. It has also accepted the nomenclature of a new textile fibre called polyacrylate. The new law, Commission Delegated Regulation 2018/122, which entered into force on February 15, amends a number of sections and definitions of the existing legislation, Regulation 1007/2011. According to the preamble to...

The Rana Plaza disaster of 2013 has been cited so often when talking about the state of Bangladesh’s garment industry, that it has almost become a cliché. It has also, for the same reason, remained a blot on the industry—one that refused to go away. But four years since the global textiles-apparel-fashion industry was shook to its very core, things are probably beginning to look up, and the bloody stains of 2013 that resulted in the official death toll of 1,134 is slowly starting to fade into...

Cotton Council International (CCI), the export promotion arm of the National Cotton Council of America (NCC), is a non-profit trade association that promotes US cotton fibre and manufactured cotton products around the globe with the Cotton USA trademark. CCI has 60 years of experience promoting US cotton fibre and products to trade and consumers, and works with spinning mills, fabric and garment manufacturers, brands, retailers, textile associations, governments and the USDA to facilitate the...

Not always do big-ticket events or headline-grabbing incidents dominate the developments over a calendar year; more so in the textiles and apparel industry where the throwing of a stone into a pond creates ripples years later. On the other hand, quite often in fact, there are silent developments that tend to have a bigger long-term impact on the fashion scheme of things. The year gone by was one such phase, with many key developments of 2017 not causing a stir. # 1) Digitalise, or be done with...

How concerned are you about copyright over your creations and the problem of piracy? Shilpa Agarwalla: We are very much concerned about the issue of copyright and IPR at large. While as a business, we own overall trademark as well copyright for our creations, I am appalled at the blatant imitations by many players in the fashion industry. I would not like to quote any specific instance, but if you look up the web for our designs as well as those of any leading designers, you will find copycats...

On current challenges Every industry needs three key components that give it the impetus of evolving into a significant and organised contributor to the economy, namely (i) education / R&D / skill training, (ii) association, (iii) government regulation / empowerment. The Indian fashion industry (albeit the status is more of a sub-sector of textiles) is relatively young from an organised perspective considering that its pioneering educational institutions and associations are less than three...

On current challenges This (violations of intellectual property rights) is one of the biggest problems because piracy or even copying of designs on a mass production scale hurts the business a lot. It is a stealing of ideas, which leaves one with a very bad taste. It is a threat to the brand name, and at the same time it also becomes a threat from buyers who might have bought a handcrafted, beautifully-created piece. But a similar kind of piece might be available with a brand in a printed...