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Table of contents Single-user licence edition Copyright statement Incredible ROI for your budget--single and multi-user licences just-style.com membership Table of contents Introduction Setting the scene: What can the apparel and [...]

Contents Single-user licence edition Copyright statement Incredible ROI for your budget--single and multi-user licences just-style.com membership Contents Introduction Are new EU curbs likely on Chinese apparel imports? Will Vietnam import [...]

The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) intends to work hard in 2007 to convince US Congress and the Bush administration to support the elimination, or at least significant reduction, [...]

Emma Ormond believes that rumours of compulsory origin labelling--an EU proposal to require all textile goods to show their country of origin, regardless of where they are from--in 2007 are [...]

With thanks to the following, who shared their time and thoughts: * Alan Brooks, president, New Generation Computing * Jim Brownell, vice president of business development, retail, Manhattan Associates * [...]

Another emerging trend is the ever closer links between technology and fashion, from the introduction of electronics into footwear and smart fabrics, to enhanced performance characteristics such as water and/or [...]

Internally, many companies are working hard to improve their gross margins by making the supply chain more efficient and getting the right products from the factory to the consumer as [...]

Mike Flanagan also notes that some mass apparel retailers never seem to learn from experience when it comes to setting up operations overseas, and asks whether 2007 will be the [...]

Having the right information at the right time is also key to the manufacturing methodology known as 'mass-customisation'--the process of constructing a product on a mass scale based on individual [...]

Because of the ongoing uncertainty around China, apparel sourcing patterns will continue to change in 2007. 'I believe counterbalancing China sourcing will be top-of-mind for most retailers; how they translate [...]

At the moment, retailers' strategies seem to be focused on increasing the amount of own-label apparel they sell and increasing the amount of merchandise that is sourced directly from suppliers. [...]

Another issue that keeps raising its head, and is likely to continue to do so in 2007, is that of green and ethical sourcing. Most retailers have policies on ethical [...]

The collapse of the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) Doha Round of multilateral trade talks in July 2006, and the lack of progress in kick-starting the negotiations, is an issue likely [...]

Despite the promise of free trade after the abolition of quotas between World Trade Organization (WTO) members at midnight on 31 December 2004, international trade issues and restrictions are still [...]

A successful outcome of the Doha Round is also jeopardised by the fact that negotiating complex trade agreements could be a slower, more arduous process in the US from 30 [...]

Without any end to the Doha Round in sight, there has already been a revival of bilateral or regional free trade deals--a trend that is likely to accelerate. 'Bilaterals will [...]

On 31 December 2004, quotas restricting international textile and clothing trade between member countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were eliminated in accordance with the 1995-2004 Agreement on Textiles [...]

The EU imposes new quotas against China In contrast to the US, the EU seemed keen at the start of 2005 to distance itself from safeguard action. Instead it instituted [...]

The abolition of global textile quotas at the beginning of this year has switched attention to other ways in which textile and clothing producers in the developed world can compete [...]

It can be no coincidence that the own label groups such as Zara, New Look and Mango all champion the fast fashion near-to-market buying model. This combination of up-to-the-minute fashion, [...]

Emerging new technologies like RFID, which promise lower costs and improved service, are tailor-made for smoothing the wrinkles out of inventory management and should make even more of a mark [...]

One of the clearest messages to emerge from events in 2003 is to expect the unexpected. Which, for the apparel industry, means it continues to be prudent sourcing policy to [...]

One of the areas that has definitely upped the stakes in clothing retailing in recent years is the emergence of own or private labels as a new force to be [...]

The end of quotas in 2005 and its potential implications are sending shockwaves through textile and clothing producers across Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean region, and central [...]

2003 was a year of change for the world's apparel industries, and there is no doubt that many of the events that have taken place over the past 12 months [...]

The western world's protectionism of its textile and garment industries is nothing new, but is reaching fever pitch as the end of quotas draws near. The debate on free trade [...]

On 1 May 2004, the 15-nation EU will be joined by ten new countries, resulting in the creation of a European single market stretching from Ireland to Hungary, and from [...]

With all eyes focused on the abolition of quotas in 2005, and the shifting trade patterns that are sure to follow, IMB 2003--the world's largest exhibition for apparel production equipment [...]