Rebekah Wing
Manuella Lupascu
Lola Mansil
Martine Falk Andersen
Mallory W
This June edition of Men's Footwear (except Athletic) Manufacturing Industry report is the comprehensive market research guide for the industry. It publishes the latest information on the industry's key financial data, competitive landscape, cost and pricing, and trends during the current economic environment.
In 2009, the value of imported products within this industry into the U.S. was relatively high, at approximately 510% of U.S. production. Because of this reliance on imports, the report covers the foreign trade statistics including the top 25 countries the U.S. imports from and their respective import values. This industry exhibits a high amount of trade activity, because in 2009, the value of exported products within this industry into the U.S. has also been relatively high, at approximately 30% of U.S. production. This reliance on exports is also covered in the report's foreign trade statistics. The downstream analysis section of this industry reveals a large dependency on personal consumption. Understanding the recessionary effects on consumer consumption for products within this industry is essential.
At 156 pages with over 150 charts and tables, the report's extensive coverage includes topics such as current macroeconomic trends, granular product data, global trade, channel mix, government demand, and labor structure. It relies on over a decade of historical data and enhanced forecasting to project industry trends through 2014 on the domestic market, global market and overseas growth opportunities.
This current report contains shipment data, inventory levels, international trade volume, and industry specific price indices through April 2010. Industry analysts and Fortune 500 customers rely on this quarterly report to make accurate forecasts and planning in today's uncertain economy.
Wimbledon Championships kicked off on 21st, June. Except those fascinating Aces, what else can attractive your eyes? Probably players' trendy outfits.
It is known to tennis fans that Wimbledon has strict rules over players' outfits. It is said that players are asked to wear white tennis game gears so as to show their respects to the British Royal Family. During last few years, organizing committee slightly changed those strict rules. As a result, those sponsors for player's outfits add more fashion elements into them. Nike is especially outstanding. Let's take a look at these Nike sponsored outfits.
Carbon tax is a kind of environmental tax decided by the amount of carbon emission during product processing. In practice, it also takes the form of energy tax, in which circumstance the fuel price will increase and the cost will be taken by the end users. During the investment of enterprises, carbon tax has a fixed reference cost.
It is learned that carbon or energy tax has already been implemented in the North European countries: Denmark, Finland, Netherland, Norway and Sweden. France will also put it into practice in 2010.
According to some officers of Ministry of Finance, China might deepen the reform of resource tax and began environmental tax this year. The reform of resource tax may focus on expanding the tax scale and raising the tax rate, turning lump-sum tax into progressive tax. Meanwhile, the taxation would cover both producing and consuming process. Officers of Ministry of Environmental Protection say that China would turn the current resource tax into carbon tax. Currently, every province is preparing energy-saving fund for local enterprises.
It was announced by John Rigas, Chairman of Asprey International, that Bruce Hoeksema has joined Asprey as Creative Director to oversee all product design, interiors and creative. Asprey is focused on expanding its jewellery, leather, silver, china and crystal product lines.
London based Mr. Hoeksema looks forward to working with the historic brand and bringing a modern take to the rich archives of designs as well as introducing new collections. He takes great pleasure in working with the famed Asprey workshops located above the New Bond Street store, where his designs will be brought to life by the skilled Asprey craftsmen.
V Bruce Hoeksema grew up in both Europe and the United States, and has spent more than 20 years working in the international fashion business. In 1984, he was recruited to join the world-renowned Italian fashion house of Valentino, where his positions included Executive Vice President of the International Group, President of the US Operations and President of the French Group during his 16-year tenure. In 2000, Hoeksema left Valentino to devote himself to the founding of his own brand, VBH an Italian Luxury accessories house whose initials form the company name.
Asprey was founded in 1781 and has developed over generations into the finest British jeweller and luxury goods house. This grand tradition of offering the best in craftsmanship, quality and design continues today at the Asprey workshops and around the globe as timeless treasures are created for the exclusive Asprey clientele. Asprey is renowned for fine jewellery, watches, clocks, leather goods, silver, china, crystal, rare books and its unrivalled bespoke service.
The international Lindström Award 2010 workwear design competition has been won by Finnish Kati Joki, student at Lahti University O.A.S. Institute of Design. This year the participants designed a workwear collection for KONE Corporation’s maintenance personnel. The winner of the world’s only international workwear design competition for students was announced at the Lindström AWARD ceremony on Thursday, June 3.
Textile service company Lindström arranged the Lindström Award workwear design competition for clothing design students for the fifth time. Students from all over Europe and Asia took part in the competition, which is held every other year. Four of the finalists were Finns and one was a Czech student. For the first time, the competition was held for individuals.
The competitors’ task was to design for KONE Corporation’s maintenance personnel a workwear collection that strengthens the company’s brand. The finalists developed the workwear they had designed into prototypes together with Lindström’s design team.
Innovative ideas from young designers
The winner of the Lindström Award is Kati Joki. According to the jury, her workwear collection emerged victorious thanks to its functionality and approachability.
‘The winning collection was very functional. We paid attention to the fact that it corresponded best with the judging criteria given in the assignment’, says the chairman of the jury, fashion design professor Mascha van Zijverden from ArtEZ, Arnhem School of the Arts.
The winner will receive a traineeship at Lindström’s Design Department and a scholarship worth 5,000 euros. If the student cannot accept the traineeship, she will receive a cash prize of 4,000 euros.
‘The best part of the winning collection is that it is safe and practical, also providing a good reflection of the KONE brand. This gives ideas for the future’, tells Vice President Anna Hyvönen from Maintenance Services at KONE Corporation.
Lindström leads the way in global workwear design
Through the competition, Lindström wants to offer young and talented designers the opportunity to learn and create something new.
‘The Lindström Award was arranged for the fifth time. For us, this is an important way of inspiring a discussion between designers, the media and various companies. This dialogue will lead to the best possible end result for the user, in other words workwear that is functional and comfortable and represents the brand of the company’, states Juha Laurio, Lindström’s President and CEO.
The next Lindström Award competition will be held in 2012.
Dirty Pretty Things Jewelry (DPT) is hosting an exclusive fashion event introducing the dangerous designs of the Medea Maple/Marie Neville collections. The event will be held at Suite Sixx Nightclub in Cleveland on June 24 from 7:00 pm to 11:00pm. The evening will entail a night of high fashion and cutting-edge jewelry. This jewelry has been nationally photographed with Beyonce and Kim Kardashian and featured on the TLC Network.
"We have celebrities wearing and loving our jewelry and have had great success in other cities, but we have not yet made a formal introduction into the Cleveland market. This event will remedy that glaring omission," said Annemarie LoConti, CFO of Dirty Pretty Things Jewelry, LLC.
Hair salons will be a primary channel of sales for the jewelry so DPT is making a huge push to invite salon owners from across Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Co-sponsor Restore Hair Salon is displaying their hairstyles on the walking models along with the Dirty Pretty Things jewelry line. The event will showcase and incorporate the power of the DPT collection and how these exquisite pieces can help grow a salon's business. Grey Goose Vodka is an event sponsor and will have drink specials all night.
"What better way for their clientele to show off their new hairstyle and highlights than by purchasing a pair of unique earrings or necklace? This is an opportunity for the individual salon owner to grow their day to day sales and attract more customers by having artisan crafted jewelry in their salon," said Ms. LoConti.
Married women dressed in fancy dresses pose for a picture during the 3rd "Parade of Brides", with students of Russian Railways summer school standing in the background, in the centre of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, June 20, 2010. About 100 young married women took part in the parade to experience their wedding day again.
Imbuing the new Gianfranco Ferré collection is a scent of the Orient. A sensual quality, smooth manner, where elegant luxury has an easy recherché slant, reflects a calm distinctive attitude through the simplicity of colors, lightness of constructions, excellence of cuts and details in the tradition of fine Italian tailoring.
The man is authentic, unique, real. His wardrobe is multifarious, crossover mode, rich in references, yet with an exclusive basic feel to meet the needs of an easy urban style that rediscovers the essence of comfort and pure sophistication in the great outdoors, somewhere between Indian sensations and safari moods.
The palette is about warm natural hues, from golden beige to dove, powder green to sand khaki, all the way to ethereal sky blue and to an intense dark lapislazzuli.
High-tech linen, silk and cotton fabrics, ultracool and airy light, give definition to perfect body-skimming shapes.
Signature Ferré stripes recur throughout the collection – marking fabrics, imprinting piping on collars, sleeves and lapels, or adding a special touch to high waists.
The double-breasted suit alternates between precise expressions of classic men’s tailoring and the easiest of fresh revisitations, as in the dressing jacket. Pinstripe patterns, both in jacquard form and on rough-hewn cottons, identify superlight jackets for everyday, to sport with pants in a range of soft and slim fits.
Shorts are absolutely versatile, make for a quick silhouette also in the season’s city suits.
Shirts are loose fitting, often collarless, with T sleeves. Intricate embroidery becomes an integral part of the fabric texture or the tie-dye treatment.
Loose-openwork sweaters in silk/linen blends and other superfine yarns make a quasi decorative statement under shirts and jackets.
For evening, the new tuxedo comes in shantung – black, white, dove, navy – all chromatic inflections underscoring the principle of relaxed elegance.
Accessories feature a pure minimal design. The bag rethinks the classic briefcase in a superb selection of materials: chamois suede, luxurious alligator and faux-print hand braided leather in shades of brown and dove. Then to match there’s the latest in a shoe, a moccasin-slipper with round elongated toe, equally fine for day and evening.
The sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone has put garment exporters in doubt who are getting ready to grab fresh orders from major Western markets. It has been anticipated that 27 countries in the European Union (EU), where around 40 percent of the Indian garment exports are shipped, will reduce their orders for the quarter.
Depreciation of Euro hit profits of the exporters, as this depreciation has made shipments to the EU more expensive. In such situations, pricing the products to fetch orders and maintaining margins are the major challenges for exporters, said analysts.
As per an official, any currency depreciation directly hits the bottom line, so around 15 percent depreciation in Euro would hit exporters’ bottom line by 10 percent. The crisis in Europe definitely hit Indian exports, as Europe is a biggest market for Indian export items and orders from this market are imperative for Indian businesses.
Due to such situations, the export orders from European markets may shift to bigger nations, who are able to control their currency as per the situation, said an expert. Since 2008, the garment industry of India has been in tight corners, as appreciation in rupee affected the earnings of the exporters.
In the year 2009-10, exports of India fell down to Rs 459.71 billion that is by 9 percent. US accounts for almost 33 percent of the Indian clothing exports. Overall retail sales of the US had gone up in the month of March by 2.1 percent and merely by 0.4 percent in April. However, sales in 27 countries of EU slipped by 0.6 percent in the month of February and similar were the case in the month of March.
Now, the situation in the US is quite better, as its retail market has started witnessing improvement. Exporters in the industry are expecting that, they will again start receiving orders, since they have raw materials at better rates compared to their competitors.
Twenty-three garment and apparel agreements signed at the SAFSA Global Forum this month in Singapore (above and
below) came after an increasing number of successful ASEAN regional apparel and fashion events.
BANGKOK, 15 June, 2010 -- Eight leading fashion brands from Europe and the United States have signed 23 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with Southeast Asian suppliers at an inaugural textile and apparel industry event in Singapore, June 3-4.
SAFSA Forum
"My VVF partner and I are confident we can fulfill the buyers' expectations and become long-term partners and stakeholders in their future," said Mr. Chris Koh, Director of Singapore-based SL Ponie Pte Ltd. AFTEX Chairman Emeritus Mr. Phongsak Assakul from Thailand said: "The brands I met at the Forum were enthusiastic about the potential benefits of the SAFSA program." Seven of the eight brands at the event said they were very confident that they would form long-term relationships with the VVFs they met at the first SAFSA Global Forum.
SAFSA was initiated and developed by USAID's ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE) Project in cooperation with the ASEAN Federation of Textile Industries (AFTEX). "SAFSA is a key part of our strategy to enhance the competitiveness of ASEAN's textiles and apparel industry," said ACE Project Director Mr. R. J. Gurley. "It's about teamwork," he said. "SAFSA members must commit to work closely with other companies within one or more VVF partnerships to produce and deliver quality full-service products on time and at reasonable prices.
High-level sourcing personnel from AVON Products, Debenhams, Guess?, MANGO, M&S (Marks &Spencer), Max Mara, Polo Ralph Lauren, and VF Corporation participated in the one-to-one meetings format. The brands collectively account for more than US$32 billion in global retail sales annually.
They met with the owners and senior executives of 14 "virtual vertical factories" (VVFs), which are partnerships between textile mills and garment factories based in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.
As members of the Source ASEAN Full Service Alliance (SAFSA), the VVF partnerships aim to set new international standards for production quality, speed-to-market, and value-added services in the textile and apparel sector.
SAFSA is a three-year pilot program with the objective of maximizing efficiencies along ASEAN's textile and apparel industry supply chain and offering a valueadded full-service product to global customers. The global brands have agreed to work with the VVF partnerships through SAFSA. The MOUs are expected to develop into lucrative commercial partnerships.
Mr Gurley said that SAFSA would work closely with its VVF members to facilitate introductions and meetings with global buyers. AFTEX Chairman Mr. Van Souieng said: "The end of the quota era and the global economic crisis has necessitated new ways of doing business."The move toward an ASEAN Economic Community, the strong support of our governments, and the unified commitment of our industry as represented by AFTEX, gives us the confidence to launch a new strategy."
More than 80 people attended the inaugural SAFSA Global Forum, which was organized by the ACE Project and AFTEX member the Textile and Fashion Federation of Singapore (TaFf), with the financial support of Singapore's Ministry of Trade and the Economic Development Board.
The SAFSA Global Forum is designed to be an annual event.
