Interviews

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...

The 18th Shanghai International Textile Machinery Exhibition this year will focus on the world’s latest innovative textile technologies, high-growth application sectors and cross-border technologies, thereby assisting industry to overcome challenges and trigger off new opportunities on the way to Industry 4.0. The four-day bi-annual signature event of the textiles industry of China, ShanghaiTex 2017 will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, in the city of Sanghai from November...

It's been about a year and a half since the World Apparel & Footwear Life Cycle Assessment Database (WALDB) was launched. How do you personally see the progress so far? Rainer Zah: Since we launched WALDB the interest in environmental footprinting in the apparel industry is strongly growing. Some important players joined the initiative this year like SAC (Sustainable Apparel Coalition) and LVMH. This allows us to develop even more data for the members. What has been the response of industry so...

F2F: Please tell us about the backdrop to this new product. Robert van de Kerkhof: We launched the new sustainability report in April. So the story was about how important sustainability is about Lenzing; how it is integrated into the Lenzing corporation. What are the four pillars of our sustainability strategy. And that resulted in what we call 'innovating for balance'. That's the background about what we are trying to do by driving new innovations into the market. We are trying much more to...

Professor Dilys Williams is Director of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, (CSF) a University of the Arts (UAL) Research Centre based at the London College of Fashion. Williams’ work draws on her extensive experience as a lead womenswear designer with international collections including Katharine Hamnett and Liberty alongside an internationally recognised teaching and research portfolio. Trained at Manchester Metropolitan University and holding a UAL professorship, Williams publishes widely on...

How do you see the Indian textiles and apparel industry as a whole shaping up over the next few years? Do you think things look good? Neelesh Hundekari: Things look good, but they could be better. If you look at the upstream part of the value chain, which is yarn and fabric, India has a solid competitive advantage, maybe more in yarn and less in fabric. In garmenting, we have lost the plot. In terms of retail, it is an attractive market, one that will evolve on its own. I think there are quite a...

What percentage of your products (manufactured and/or retailed) are made of cotton fibres (both in terms of units as well as the number of product lines)? Aditi Somani: Depending on the season and theme of the collection, we alter the use of cotton fibres from 40–70 per cent of the collection. In my spring summer collection, 80 per cent is cotton-based. Siddhant Gupta: About 45 per cent. Manish Tripathi: The major amount—90 per cent of the product line—is cotton-based. Pankaj Anand / Anil Arora...

What are the trends in sportswear / activewear / outdoor wear purchases that you have been noticing over the last few years? What are the changes? Jennifer Kapasi: The Indian casual and sportswear market has evolved significantly over the last couple of years. The industry has witnessed rapid growth, driven by growth in income levels, changing lifestyles and the entry of foreign players. Over the past few years, the Indian market has seen a drastic change with respect to global fitness trends...

Bud Kilby: CEO and President, Renfro Corporation Please tell us more about this new deal with Walmart. After all, if I am not wrong, Renfro has been selling socks to Walmart since the 1970s. Yes, we have sold Walmart since the 1970s and have grown with them. We provide Walmart a variety of products, both branded and private label, across all departments, all genders. We have participated in Walmart’s US manufacturing initiative since its inception several years ago. Renfro was one of the first...

Let's start at the beginning. What's the story behind Fashion Matrix Overseas (FMO)? Vipin Sethi: I entered the industry in 1996 after completing my business training. I worked for an export house for about seven years. She (Seema Sethi) joined me in 2001; we worked in the same company. in 2003, one of our customers gave us the encouragement to move on our own. That's how Fashion Matrix Overseas (FMO) came into existence. When we left all our customers with whom we were working, they wanted to...