Fashion

The subject of sizing is much-discussed nowadays. Why has this topic suddenly gained currency? Discovering clothes and shoes that you love and that fit you has always been a fundamental hurdle for purchasing digitally. There’s an increased urgency to solve for both style discovery and sizing because of the rapid increase of digital consumption where try-on happens at home and people have to place their bets prior to the real moment of truth, when they finally unbox an item, try it on, and find...

Little Yellow Bird, a company based in New Zealand that produces ethical and sustainable workwear and basics, recently raised $1.2 million to develop a technology platform which will verify the origins of apparel in the garment industry in a quest to end modern-day slavery. The tech platform, called Origins, will use NEM blockchain technology to trace garments from origin to sale. Founder-CEO Samantha Jones became the first woman globally to have a project funded via the NEM community fund...

It’s a story that began in the back of the beyond at the start of the millennium—somewhere in Peru. The abject poverty, that he might have only have heard of till then and was only to now witness first -hand, shook the bespectacled young man to his core. That set him thinking, and travelling. He took to a path less travelled, and is today showing the world that it can indeed be done—when the entire world of textiles-apparel-fashion is caught up in lofty theories on how to go about it. Barely...

The global apparel trade is made up very broadly of two types of countries—the big brothers like China, India and the United States, and the much smaller ones like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and others. The latter bloc constituents are similar in nature: they are sure-shot small and hardly grow any cotton worth the name; and their economies are heavily dependent on exports, and in turn on the West. Of these small countries, there is one that stands out: Sri Lanka. The tiny island nation off...

Luxury as Ethics Designer: Amilani Perera Launched: 2013 Website: amilaniperera.com With a doctor as mother and an engineer as father, for Amilani Perera fashion almost didn't happen. The parents gave in to the daughter's flair and passion to paint and draw, but not before she had studied statistics and economics. Yet, even after she had done fashion design from Singapore's Lasalle College, Amilani's parents were wary about her jumping into the industry straight away and launching her own brand...

The innerwear/intimate wear sector has changed drastically over the last one decade. What factors according to have contributed to this? Karan Behal: Over the past decade, the average woman in India has gained exposure from social media, the ways of the West and similar sources. This has led innerwear and intimatewear to no longer remaining a hush-hush discussion, but rather one wherein women openly have a say in their choice and preferences. Women no longer accept lingerie as casual innerwear...

Those were once perceived as only functional elementary necessities that no one needed to talk about or give second thoughts to. But today, they are used to assert style statements. That's how much the sheer concept of intimatewear itself has changed. These days, the term ‘intimatewear’ connotes one of those handful of product ranges that are both a necessity and luxury. The once-traditional intimatewear market that was underlined by abysmal production quality and desultory promotions is now...

Five years is often not enough to gauge the impact of any movement. But in this case, the early signs of change are there for all to see. The Fashion Revolution movement, that first coalesced as an emotive idea and then gathered revolutionary zeal worldwide in the aftermath of the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy that resulted in the death of over 1,000 workers, observed the fifth Fashion Revolution Week from April 23 to 29 this year. The week kicked off with the launch of the 2018 Fashion Transparency...

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...

Certain events serve as weathercocks—they tell you which way the wind is blowing, or, at times, beginning to blow. Textile machinery fairs are something like that. Since textile machineries call for huge investments that need to be planned years ahead—and given that no company would want to pump in monies unless they were sure those would not blow away in the wind—the interest generated in these events can vouchsafe be taken as indicators of the shape that industry may take. The ITM Istanbul is...