http://www.qtag.com/news_archive.php Fri, 18 May 2012 23:20:01 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.qtag.com/images/c2o_logo.gif http://www.qtag.com/news_archive.php http://www.qtag.com/read_news/123/1/Technology_for_uniform_safety.html Swiss materials researchers based at Empa have developed a new form of clothing for police and military personnel that could save lives and increase comfort.

Many individuals need to wear a ballistics vest to protect them from potential gunshot, explosive or stab injuries, and these usually contain Kevlar or a similar para-aramid synthetic fibre, and while these are effective, they are not easy to wear for long periods because they are heavy and because they are impermeable, so sweat cannot evaporate from under the torso area.

Empa technologists have created a vest with inbuilt air conditioning comprising a water-saturated cooling pad, a membrane and a miniature fan which circulates air though the ventilating layer. The fan’s propulsive power comes from rechargeable batteries.

Miniaturised clothing technology is increasingly being used to increase performance capabilities in intensive situations such as war zones or when individuals need to remain on duty for long periods of time.

Tests on the new ballistic clothing are still in the laboratory stage: a volunteer who tested the vest on a treadmill lost 544 grams of weight through sweat, but researchers calculate this is nearly 200 grams less than if he had been wearing the traditional vest. In addition to the stress testing, researchers have developed a ‘filling station’ which is portable and can be fitted to the vest with a quick release system to allow refilling of the water-saturated pads and an exchange of the mini-fan and batteries for a freshly charged unit.

Tests of the new clothing have been carried out by police officers in Zurich, and future developments include adding the panels to rucksacks and waterproof jackets worn by hikers.

Clare Hansen ]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:48 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/123/1/Technology_for_uniform_safety.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/122/3/Golden_T-shirt_controversy.html A primary school in Lincolnshire has become the focus of attention after Key Stage 2 pupils were given a reward for good behaviour that has upset some parents.

The reward in question is a yellow T-shirt, which is worn by children who have demonstrated ‘consistently exemplary behaviour over a period of dime’ and who are give a ‘Golden Cloud Award’ of a gold polo shirt instead of the standard white one. It’s claimed that the golden tops lead to the children wearing them being classed as swots, teacher’s pets and ‘golden children’ and that this leaves other children to be classed as ‘bad’ children. It has been claimed that this is discriminatory and that a complaint to that effect has been made to the governing body and the Ombudsman.

And this week the professional basketball team the Indiana Pacers will be supported by fans wearing golden T-shirts too. More than 20,000 garments have been printed by an Indianapolis merchandising company to support the team in their bid to reach the finals of the NBA. The ‘gold out’ refers to the team colours which are white, blue and gold and the logo which features a golden basketball.

The T-shirts have ‘Gold Swagger’ printed on the front, and will be placed in the stadium so that each home fan will be able to pull them on over their clothing as they take their seat and the stadium will show a sea of gold for the televised game. The same promotional printer is supplying blue and gold towels for game 4.

Clare Hansen ]]> Wed, 16 May 2012 15:20:40 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/122/3/Golden_T-shirt_controversy.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/121/1/Global_cotton_markets_round_up.html The Cotton Futures market has taken a hammering recently, and a deeply pessimistic report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has further contributed to the decline in futures trading.

The value of the cash crop has plummeted around the world, in many developed economies, economists claim that it’s just below the cost of cotton production which may be manageable for the larger producers who are likely to already have pre-sales on their order books that will cover the price drop on previously agreed prices but for the year ahead cash crop prices are likely to continue to vary, making it increasingly difficult for smaller producers to feel confident about advance crop sales. It’s a complex problem for farmers, who are observing the good rainfall of recent weeks and making judgements about the likely future of a crop that requires high rainfall for good productivity, which may, in turn, tempt many subsistence farmers to gamble some of their acreage on the rains continuing and prices rising, leading in turn to a glut on the market.

In the USA, good rainfall levels across the Cotton Belt have contributed to a commodity price reduction and the USDA report has further weakened the prospects for good sales prices for the 2012 harvest, leading to a drop in futures pricing. In Zambia, 35 leading producers have refused to accept the national Cotton Buyers’ Association price being offered for the coming season in the belief that it was being held down artificially and that government intervention might help increase the price being offered by textile manufacturers.

Volatility in the cotton market is fairly standard, especially at this time of year, and prices are likely to recover somewhat over the three months ahead, giving the futures market more stability. Unfortunately, the position of prices in relation to demand is likely to remain stable too: and part of the underlying problem is that supply is likely to exceed demand by nearly 7 million bales.

Amrita Malik ]]> Tue, 15 May 2012 14:37:37 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/121/1/Global_cotton_markets_round_up.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/120/4/Gulf_attracts_clothing_retailers.html There are many retail companies claiming that their fortunes will be restored by their expansion into new markets: Russia, China and the Gulf states.

The United Arab Emirates has become an attractive destination and the Gulf as a whole is very appealing to retailers from Gap, which has a ‘new global marketing campaign [revealing] … summer's favorite wardrobe staple is an effortless way to convey individual style’ in other words – new T-shirts make you feel good, through to M&Co, a Scottish brand that currently has several hundred UK outlets and is now opening the first of a dozen shops across the UAE.

Saturated markets or weak sales at home are driving established brands to try and create new loyalty groups in far flung parts of the globe: beginning with a relatively captive audience of well-heeled ex-pats and expanding that brand recognition out to new customers is the idea, and it’s being pursued by companies as diverse as M&Co, W H Smiths, the stationery and book retailer and supermarkets with clothing lines such as Asda and Tesco.

The Dubai Mall has been a magnet for flagship stores from the USA and Europe, and claims to be the biggest mall in the world (based on total area) although it may only be fifth or sixth largest based on actual leasable area. The latest addition to the Dubai Mall is Charanga, a Spanish children’s fashion brand which has just opened an outlet at the mall. Like M&Co, Charanga has several hundred stores in it home country and is now pursuing an aggressive outreach strategy. And the strategy may be well rewarded for those who succeed. Clothing sales in the UAE and Saudi Arabia may top US$11.5 billion this year.

Amrita Malik ]]> Mon, 14 May 2012 09:33:50 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/120/4/Gulf_attracts_clothing_retailers.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/119/2/Italian_Olympic_Squad%92s_Armani_look.html The Italian 2012 Olympic squad have revealed their 50 garment strong Armani designed clothing. The kit, received with enthusiastic applause in Milan, comprises not just sportswear and formal wear for the opening ceremonies, but also Armani-designed suitcases in which the squad will be able to carry their clothing.

Giorgio is up against serious competition though: his designs are up against those of established sportswear designer Ralph Lauren and new rival Stella McCartney.

In an interesting development, Armani’s designs have a similar theme to those of McCartney in that they move away from the Olympic designs for the past three games, which have tended to the gaudy use of deconstructed national flags, into a more sober and streamlined clothing array, based on deep blue as a colour that suggests professionalism and seriousness. It may be controversial, as most Italian national sports teams bear the informal nickname Azzurri or ‘light-blues’ and wear that shade to bring them good luck.

In a very traditional patriotic response, Armani has embroidered the first lines of the Italian national anthem in bullion thread on the back of the team polo shirts and across the lining of the jackets to be worn at the opening ceremony.

The grand master of Italian haute couture may or may not make a winning contribution to the Italian team’s success in track and field, but his winning ways with a contract have cost another Italian firm dear. Spectacle manufacturer Safilo has announced planned job losses of over a thousand people because of the loss of a contract with Giorgio Armani to the rival Italian company Luxottica at the end of 2011. Unions are involved in the decision-making process about employment terminations and an announcement will be made on 28 May. First quarter sales for Safilo fell 4% as a result, the company says, of the phasing-out of the Armani contract.

Amrita Malik ]]> Sat, 12 May 2012 20:38:18 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/119/2/Italian_Olympic_Squad%92s_Armani_look.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/118/4/Amazon_enters_high_fashion_market.html According Retail Consumer Experience Amazon.com’s highly focused strategy for moving into ‘high fashion’ retailing is going to be tough on traditional retailers.

It’s not an unexpected development: it’s just the timing that is a little surprising – given that consumer spend on clothing is low and getting lower. Amazon has been selling clothes, shoes and accessories for years, but the new plan includes a definitive focus on marketing the garments of established designers like Vivienne Westwood and Michael Kors and on seeking out new talent to add to its online roster.

To do that, Amazon has to revamp its clothing website, which is currently based on the ‘stack ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap’ model with high functionality but little or no eye-candy appeal. And, as in all things, Amazon is approaching the issue with its usual efficient ruthlessness. Stylists, photographers, models and widgets are all being used to create a broad-based customer experience that combines consumer-to consumer-interactivity and after-sales service in a way that boutiques and salons simply cannot provide.

And there is a good reason for this new focus. For Amazon, as for all online retailers, the cost is in the shipping, not the shopping. Without rent prices for location, the company can warehouse wherever it’s cheapest to do so, and the cost of sending out either a pair of designer jeans or a simple polo-shirt from a mass manufacturer is pretty well identical – but the margin on the jeans is hundreds of times higher.

Amazon is also willing to work with brands on offering certain items online while others are only available through physical outlets, something designer’s value as it allows them to ring fence certain items that won’t be sold at a lower price on Amazon.

Individuality, mark-down and peer reviews of what you want to buy … it sounds like another Amazon winner – for everybody except High Street retailers.

Amrita Malik ]]> Fri, 11 May 2012 08:57:14 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/118/4/Amazon_enters_high_fashion_market.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/116/1/April_retail_spending_gloom.html The May Bank Holiday has been one of the wettest since the day was instituted. In 2011, 23 C led to barbecues, heat stroke and a spending boom at holiday resorts around the UK. This year there were no queues for toilets or ice-creams, no traffic jams heading for beaches or theme parks, and precious little spending. Average temperatures of just 9 C and heavy rainfall contributed to a lack of interest in travel, tourism or retail splurging. 2011 benefitted from more than just good weather: the Royal Wedding spiked expenditure on party clothing and party foods, and many retailers are hoping for a similar result from the Jubilee holiday. If so, the weather could be a make or break scenario.

It’s a real concern for DIY shops, nurseries and garden centres, who expect to make around 5% of their annual sales in the May Bank Holiday weekend. The British Retail Consortium’s April figures were bleak indeed. 3.3% was wiped off year on year sales – the worst performance for 12 months, and largely a result of substantial declines in clothing sales and a complete slump in the footwear market, which performed worse than at any time since January 2008, in the depths of the recession.

Poor weather depresses consumer interest in summery clothing, and gyms are also hit by the lack of concern about ‘bikini bodies’ when people are wrapped up under many layers of winter clothing. Online retailers and department stores are amongst those who benefit from wintry spring weather, as shoppers browse from the comfort of their own homes, or go to a retail complex to be able to spend all day out of the weather without incurring the cost of heating and lighting their own home.

Amrita Malik ]]> Thu, 10 May 2012 15:53:31 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/116/1/April_retail_spending_gloom.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/115/2/US_Navy_attempts_gender_free_uniform.html Since the beginning of 2012, the US Navy has been undergoing a uniform review. There are more than 54,000 women in the ranks of the Navy, and explorations of the value, utility and comfort of female uniforms have produced some interesting questions. Around 400 officers and enlisted women were consulted about the uniform earlier this year and their responses led to a request for random sampling of views from the whole fleet, particularly to look at the issues of how gender-blind the uniform could be, and whether body armour and flight equipment should be tailored to specific body types (not just male and female, but over a range of definitions).

A test of a new unisex ‘coverall’ based on the traditional Navy crackerjacks (navy blue trousers and blouse top, worn by men) will also take place at the Naval Academy, where male and female midshipmen will wear identical coveralls and caps (called Dixie Cups) for a whole academic year instead of the formal suit styled outfit currently supplied to female cadets. Options for maternity wear are also being explored.

There have already been some modifications to the current uniform supplied to female officers and enlisted ranks, based on the feedback from the original survey:

• Women’s service coats will have buttons in the rear of the waist to make them look more like the male dress coats worn on parade occasions

• The trousers supplied to women will have a binding over the interior stitching to make them fit more seamlessly and to prevent chafing in wear

• Providers of service shirts for women will be required to implement double stitching on the bottom hem, seams and front facing as these areas, especially when starched, show signs of fraying in prolonged wear.

Clare Hansen ]]> Wed, 09 May 2012 10:45:04 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/115/2/US_Navy_attempts_gender_free_uniform.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/114/1/Olympic_Uniform_Controversy_.html Once again Olympic 2012 uniforms are causing concern. At the end of last week, the London 2012 LOCOG was embroiled in questions about the supply of commemorative and Olympic branded clothing to retailers in the UK.

LOCOG branding is difficult to obtain and expensive, and at the beginning of this week, the organising committee were criticised on national Radio for sending out what were reported as ‘heavy-handed’ cease and desist notices to people who’d been publicising local ‘Olympic’ sports events at schools and community centres.

Now the issues have moved south. Just as Vogue Australia applauded the 2012 stadium uniforms for the opening ceremony at London 2012, concerns were expressed about its manufacture.

Vogue lauded the new kit as being ‘crisp, clean and suitably iconic’ which is high praise for a team that has previously been sent into the arena wearing jogging bottoms and casual jackets with a ‘jumping kangaroo’ lining. The new ‘design sensibility’ according to Vogue, may be partly the work of Libby Trickett, Australia’s gold medal swimmer who has also won medals for boxing at Commonwealth level. Multi-talented and versatile Trickett has now turned co-designer, helping to create the uniforms.

But the manufacture of the uniforms is also controversial. The ‘heritage rich’ kit is not made in Australia but China. The Australian Olympic Committee claims that it is not financially viable for the manufacturers to make the kit on home shores, and that the sponsor’s decision to choose an overseas supplier for the contract was based on quality.

Amrita Malik ]]> Tue, 08 May 2012 12:51:40 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/114/1/Olympic_Uniform_Controversy_.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/113/4/Models%2C_fashion_and_couture_.html The Health Initiative is an agreement signed by the nineteen editors of the Vogue Magazine editions around the world. Its tenets might surprise those who read fashion magazines, as it’s entirely possible that many readers are not aware, for example, that the preponderance of models featured are not women at all, they are girls under the age of sixteen. So the fact that one of the pledges is to ‘ban’ the use of models who have eating disorders is complicated (who decides if they have an eating disorder? How can they then prove they don’t, if they recover from the condition?) but the ‘ban’ on models under the age of sixteen is simple and practical. Simple, practical and yet, controversial.

In truth, haute couture is designed around the adolescent form, and always has been. Whether you call it willowy, consumptive, anorexic or waif like, the build that best shows off high fashion clothing is tall, thin and elegant. Casual clothing, on the other hand, is often best demonstrated by larger, more defined and more varied forms – that’s what makes it mainstream, because while not every woman can, or should, wear a puffball skirt, there’s definitely a T-shirt shape or pair of jeans to suit every woman – all she has to do is find the right style for her.

More interestingly, designers of fashion clothing used by Vogue are to be ‘encouraged’ to ‘consider the consequences of unrealistically small sample sizes of their clothing, which limits the range of women who can be photographed in their clothes, and encourages the use of extremely thin models’ which is an interesting way to frame a pledge and harks back to a recent report from Australia that claimed retailers were not offering large enough clothes to fit the average Australian woman, despite the fact that the clothing retail economy in Australia is struggling and many shops are closing through lack of customers.

Clare Hansen ]]> Mon, 07 May 2012 14:44:55 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/113/4/Models%2C_fashion_and_couture_.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/112/2/Uniform_Woes_for_Alaska_and_Adidas.html Mystery itching in uniform wearers

Alaska Airlines flight attendants claim that around 10% of their 2,800 number hare having adverse reactions to their new uniforms. The new look, instituted a year ago, is said to be causing itching and hair loss, amongst other reactions.

It appears that the effects from the uniform are not experienced unless the attendant works a prolonged period of five or more days in a row, which is leading to difficulties in identifying the cause of any reactions – one possible culprit is Tributyl phosphate, a plasticiser which is used in some circumstances to add stainproofing and water resistant properties to garments.

Both unions that have flight staff members are working with the company to try and isolate the problem, and in the interim, alternate uniforms have been provided to those reporting the conditions.

Adidas employees mistreated

Next and Adidas have been pinpointed as using mistreated labour in Sri Lanka to produce Olympic branded clothing that is on sale to the public. Those making the commemorative garments report being forced to work longer than permitted hours, mandatory overtime and to only be in receipt of irregular and subsistence level wages.

Next says the claims are inaccurate but has committed to investigating the situations at a factory in Sri Lanka where employees say they are forced to work a day shift in one plant and then night shift in another and are denied access to union representation or laid off if they become a union member.

In addition to the claims about Sri Lankan abuses, Adidas has been cited in research by the Playfair 2012 as exploiting workers in the Philippines and China where exceeding the legal maximum overtime, poor ventilation and failure to provide safety clothing had led to illnesses including respiratory problems. Adidas too has expressed the belief that the claims are untrue but said that it will investigate them.

Clare Hansen ]]> Sun, 06 May 2012 20:18:49 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/112/2/Uniform_Woes_for_Alaska_and_Adidas.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/111/4/Retail_figures_drop.html April sales in the USA are lower than anticipated, with big department store retail outfits missing their sales projections after two months of solid retail activity that promised, but did not deliver, an economy showing signs of upswing.

Despite an early Easter, the chilly weather and long term concerns about the state of the economy seem to have depressed the spending urge in Americans. Investors shivered, giving the cold shoulder to retailers, and several of the biggest traded stocks dropped between 1.4 and 2.8% driving down the retail index which covers retailers who have been trading for more than a year (so pop-up retailers are excluded) and who have a physical presence (so online retailers do not count) or who are in the car or petrol sales business.

And it’s interesting to note that while Americans limit their own spending, they are also closely scrutinising the clothing expenditure of the wives of the Presidential candidates. Ann Romney appeared on breakfast time television wearing a screen printed silk T-shirt by Reed Krakoff; priced at nearly $1000. It caused quite a stir, with some commentators suggesting she was boosting the American economy and others saying that $990 for a T-shirt was an insult to those losing their jobs and homes in the recession. Michelle Obama who is known for being a bargain hunter and has been seen shopping in J. Crew and Target, both of which are known for their cut-price fashions.

It’s also being suggested that the tendency towards bold prints is in fact a hankering after the certainties of an optimistic future – and that the bright geometrics recently seen at Prada and glowing animal prints of which Reed Krakoff is an exponent - are actually a psychological trend towards combating recession fatigue.

Clare Hansen ]]> Sat, 05 May 2012 21:34:00 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/111/4/Retail_figures_drop.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/110/3/Touchscreen_T-shirt_research.html Most touchscreen devices are made using a spray of indium tin oxide (ITO) onto another surface. ITO has some advantages: it has high conductivity of electrical impulses, it’s transparent and it can easily be sprayed onto other surfaces as a thin film. However, there appears to be an alternative that could contribute to ‘connected clothing’.

The University of Exeter has a research centre in which collaborators from the home university and the University of Bath work together to explore the possibilities and inherent limitations of graphene. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon: it’s a single atom thick and arranged in a coherent hexagon shape. Graphite, the material used in pencils, is the form of graphene in which the atom deep sheets are stacked on top of each other to make layers.

Graphene has two advantages over ITO – it is much more flexible and it is more prevalent than indium, which is becoming expensive to procure, driving up the price of touchscreen technologies. The University of Exeter’s Centre for Graphene Science has found a way to layer ferric chloride molecules with graphene sheets to improve the conductivity of the graphene while maintaining its transparency. The composite has been described as being the most transparent, lightweight and flexible conductive electric film so far created.

It opens the door to a new focus of research: flexible touchscreens that could be more usable by those with limited mobility, wearable electronics such as MP3 players embedded in T-shirts or satnavs and heart rate monitors woven into running vests for athletes, and maybe even wearable impulse controllers for people with heart conditions or epilepsy. There is also the possibility that solar power can be built into casual clothing, using the ability of GraphExeter as it has been named, to power its own, inbuilt, electronic devices when exposed to daylight.

Clare Hansen ]]> Fri, 04 May 2012 08:32:34 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/110/3/Touchscreen_T-shirt_research.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/109/1/Cotton_News_.html The Indian subcontinent is wrestling with cotton issues – in India there’s been a prediction that the unlimited export of Indian cotton this year, following on from a stringent export limitation earlier in the season, may actually lead to the biggest import of cotton into India for at least four decades. At the beginning of the year, the Indian Cotton Advisory Board suggested that around half a million bales of cotton would need to be imported before September 2012 to balance projected consumption in the country’s textile industry, but it is now predicting anything up to 2.5 million bales may be needed.

As a result, certain interest groups are lobbying for the government to reverse its decision on unrestricted export to ensure that a non-exportable core of cotton for the domestic manufacturing market. Many textile mills and gins struggled to repay bridging loans in the previous fiscal year and having to import cotton to fulfil orders already accepted and for which they may incur non-delivery penalties.

Pakistan’s Textile Industry reports that the target for early cotton sowing has dropped by over 5% on the previous sowing season. There are three identified reasons for this drop in planting: low cash prices for cotton in the previous harvest year; water shortages that have led to more drought-resistant crops being planted or planting of cotton-fields being postponed in hope of more rain; lack of certified sowable seed being held by seed merchants and cooperatives.

Already the higher cotton prices are having an effect on international manufacturers: Gildan Activewear has reported a 56% percent drop on the previous quarter’s earnings even after achieving higher sales volumes and increasing prices.

Amrita Malik ]]> Thu, 03 May 2012 14:24:16 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/109/1/Cotton_News_.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/108/1/Uniforms_for_Israeli_court_officials.html The court system in Israel has been undergoing a quiet revolution in recent years, and it has to do with uniforms.

While many areas of the world, the United Kingdom for example, are de-formalising their judicial apparatus, with judges ceasing to wear wigs and gowns unless they choose to, the Israeli legal system is formalising its approach, with a clothing code that began with Bailiffs moving into uniform in 2010 and now it appears likely that the administrative arm of the judiciary will follow suit.

The Haaretz newspaper said that a poll conducted by the Courts Administration revealed over 80% of qualified/admitted court officials (judges and registrars) supported the idea to have uniform clothing for all court staff, while just 63% of the administrative staff were in favour of a mandatory uniform. The research resulted from continuing concern expressed by judges, lawyers and court presidents that the administrative arm of the court system had too lax a dress code which could result in confusion or distress to the public.

The administration workers union is in discussion with the Court about the process of instituting a uniform but has several requirements that must be written into any agreement: that employees not be punished if they turn up without their uniforms for a good reason; that the current uniform allowance, which is classed as a clothing bonus, be maintained; that clothing lockers be established for storage of uniforms; and that any agreement on uniform should included legal offices, not just court building employees. There is also a fear that Israeli court staff may become the target of attacks by the public or by interest groups, if they wear their uniforms in the street. On the other hand, there’s a groundswell to create a more unified court approach, based on uniform supply, so that the public can indentify and approach officials to obtain help in difficult and distressing situations.

Amrita Malik ]]> Wed, 02 May 2012 08:11:23 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/108/1/Uniforms_for_Israeli_court_officials.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/107/4/Does_Visa%92s_Prom_survey_help_predict_clothing_spend%3F.html Visa has released a US-based survey that shows that the ‘average’ American family with teenage children will spend about $1,000 per child, per prom – which is an increase of over a third on the previous figure for 2011 spending.

Why is it significant?

Two reasons:

1. prom spending is definitely discretionary, and it says a lot about where the USA is choosing to invest;

2. prom spending also adds ‘surge’ to spend figures for luxury clothing, shoes, flowers, haircuts and rental of shirts and tuxedos, dresses and vehicles. Stripping out prom spend allows seasonal adjustment to be more accurate. Given that some estimates have prom spend as being around $4 billion annually, it’s a big contributor to one quarter’s clothing spend.

USA Today suggests that prom spend has important social and psychological weight. If parents have encouraged kids to remain at school, so they can get better qualifications and out-earn their peers, then recognising that achievement is important for both parents and children and is the first ‘reward’ for that investment in education. Prom is also a way of demonstrating social affluence and security in a time when children are marrying later or not at all, because of the recession, and so it’s one way for proud parents to try and demonstrate financial ‘prowess’.

It’s also true that teenagers are more focused on their appearance and may feel that prom expenditure is important as it allows them to present themselves as attractive and healthy to potential grad schools, employers or even their peers.

As teens spend their own money on casual clothing, hairstyling products and training shoes, their parents are renting limos and tuxedos and buying or renting designer dresses – it all adds up to a retail bonanza that is spreading from the USA to the UK with graduate parties becoming proms in many Academies and Colleges of Further Education.

Amrita Malik ]]> Tue, 01 May 2012 12:47:26 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/107/4/Does_Visa%92s_Prom_survey_help_predict_clothing_spend%3F.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/106/4/How_Global_is_Retail_-_CBRE_report_highlights.html The recent CBRE report on the reach of retailing, internationally, has some surprising facts that may kick-start some new retailing strategies, while kicking others into touch. An unsurprising statistic is that half of all retailers are now online. But the surprise inside that statistic is that 73% of American retailers are not just online, they have some kind of presence in all three major sectors: the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (the so-called EMEA) and the Asia Pacific region. Another non-surprise is the key overseas target for American companies: London. But again, the secondary cities are not necessarily the ones that would spring to everybody’s mind: Dubai and Kuwait City are second and third choices. The most active area for new shopping centres was China, with Brazil and Russia following quite a way behind.

What the CBRE calls ‘Value & Denim’ retailers made significant advances into all three global trade territories in the past year – finding and stabilising in more new markets than any other sector – even beating computing by growing their presence by more than 4% year on year. It’s claimed that around two thirds of ‘Value & Denim’ retailers are now present in all three territories, although it’s worth bearing in mind that at the top end of this sector, companies like Lanvin, Mui Mui and Seven for All Mankind definitely cross over into the luxury goods category, rather than ‘Denim’.

While delivery websites (browse, buy and have delivered) are run by over a quarter of all the retailers who were surveyed, an astonishingly low 2% operate delivery websites the Latin and South Americas, while those operating in countries like Australia have often chosen to offer free delivery or shipping services to undercut native online retailers as an example, 43% of retailers in Value & Denim over an online delivery service in Australia, compared to ££5 in the Luxury & Business sector.

Amrita Malik. ]]> Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:47:35 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/106/4/How_Global_is_Retail_-_CBRE_report_highlights.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/105/4/Fashion_Trends_Round-up.html Fashion Seminar

Decoded Fashion is going to be a fascinating mashup of clothing, technology and prediction. It’s taking place in New York and is intended to bring the startup verve of hi-tech industries to the slower but more instantly appealing worlds of fashion, beauty and retailing.

So, what can attenders expect to come away with?

1. clearer understanding of the role of real-time analytics in shaping retail responses to consumer demand

2.A snapshot of personalisation as a tool to customer satisfaction and a route map of the ways that customers can become involved in the customisation and even design, of their fashion purchases

3.Multi-focus purchasing appeal – examining the fully-integrated shopping experience via virtual reality, social networking and location-related rewards systems to create a wraparound fashion reality for consumers.

The list of companies attending includes big hitters like Victoria’s Secret and Burberry, who have mastered these technologies, so the networking is likely to prove very productive indeed.

Uniqlo surge

The almost ubiquitous Japanese retailer is about to become even more so – with plans to add a flagship store in London in time for the London Olympics, and to act as a hub store for the dozen retail outlets it already has in the British capital.

It’s more a repositioning than a new strategy – the large format stores in the UK have been outselling their smaller siblings and the closure of several smaller outlets allows the full range of Uniqlo products to be brought under a single, 40,000 square foot, roof. Likely locations are Knightsbridge or Covent Garden. Uniqlo, like several other brands, is looking at the whole customer experience rather than at shopping trips and aims to achieve a Japanese version of the ‘Ikea afternoon out’ for its target audiences: late teen and early twenty singletons and geek and nerd couples with disposable income.

Clare Hansen ]]> Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:35:43 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/105/4/Fashion_Trends_Round-up.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/104/4/Scottish_Fashion_Awards_Shortlist.html It’s become one of the industry events of the year – not as high profile as a fashion week, and definitely not as celeb-worthy as the latest appearance of Pippa Middleton’s derriere in a new peplum or Emma Watson (who has just slipped from first to second place in Glamour Magazine’s ‘Best Dressed Woman’ reader’s poll) in anything – but the Scottish Fashion Awards are a quiet indicator of future talent, and the shortlist is usually closely perused by major fashion houses looking for an injection of new ideas.

Those who attend the awards include industry leaders from around the world, retailers looking for fresh talent and celebrities seeking an exclusive new ‘visionary’ who may help them achieve one of those longed-for top spots in the fashion magazine polls so that they boost their profile through their clothing.

This year’s show is to be hosted by British Vogue Contributing Editor Alexa Chung and includes the already well-established such as Jonathan Saunders and Holly Fulton; key specialist clothing retailers such as Hawick Cashmere and Dashing Tweeds, whose bespoke ‘chav cycling tweeds’ have been lauded around the world, and new names such as Obscure Couture and Edinburgh College of Art graduate Jennifer Morris whose fringed jackets and dresses are making an international stir.

One of the most hotly-contested categories of the awards is the Best Use of Scottish fabric by an International Designer and this year contenders include Mulberry and Brora.

It’s not a poll process, unlike the Glamour award, instead industry giants such as Rankin, Sarah Mower and Eilidh MacAskill will form a judging panel who will announce their decisions at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow on 11 June.

Clare Hansen ]]> Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:24:46 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/104/4/Scottish_Fashion_Awards_Shortlist.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/103/1/Egyptian_cotton_shortages_hit_retailers.html In the USA, the limited supply of extra-long-staple Egyptian cotton has begun to hit retailers, particularly those who market luxury housewares and rely on ‘top-up’ or impulse buys of fine bedding to support the purchase of a new bed or mattress.

Some retailers are claiming that they have had to increase prices by as much as a third because of the high export pricing of the cotton wares. America is the primary buyer of Egypt’s long and extra-long staple cotton which is used extensively in bed-linen but also in clothing. Since the 2011 Revolution in Egypt, fluctuating supplies have led to limitations in manufacturing the highest value-added goods.

The metric tonnage being exported tells its own story: 275 tons in the first week of April, 369 in the second week and 951 tons in the third week: demand is outstripping supply and price hikes are contributing to panic buying and stock-piling of extra-long-staple, which is both softer and stronger than other cottons, contributing to the longevity of the finished product and allowing retailers to demand a premium price for something which both outlasts and outperforms its rivals.

The 2011 Revolution and current elections continue to create an unsettled atmosphere for trade, and corruption is becoming increasingly discussed as a potential road-block to a sustainable trading future. On the other hand, the opening up of Egypt to democratic processes is likely to stabilise the long term future of this prestigious crop by creating a demand-led economy that allows a trickle down of cotton revenue to the agricultural second, and that can only be good for the subsistence farmers who have been growing cotton along the Nile for millennia.

Amrita Malik ]]> Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:36:47 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/103/1/Egyptian_cotton_shortages_hit_retailers.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/102/4/Benetton_down%2C_Victoria%92s_Secret_up.html Alessandro Benetton, son of one of the Benetton founders, has taken over at the head of the struggling fashion house this week. In addition to passing to a new generation, the company is about to de-list from the Milan stock exchange – allowing the family to retake entire control of the empire, which was once one of the best-known and ubiquitous retail outlets in Europe.

Benetton has struggled to overcome systemic problems, including labour issues within Italy and the effect of the Euro on internal price control and exogenous factors such as the recession and the increased prices for both premium cotton and fine wool. There’s no doubt though, that the age of the founders has contributed to the problem – the company has been less sure-footed in recent decades and lacked the aggressive and innovative approach that led to the ‘United Colours of Benetton’ having an allure for the trend-setting, cash-rich teens of the 80s and 90s.

One thing that Benetton has in common with this week’s most successful clothing company is the focus on new markets. Victoria’s Secret is about to open two shops in London, one of them on the prestigious Bond Street.

Racking up a six billion dollar turnover last year, Victoria’s Secret outshone its 'lingerie drawer'sister company La Senza and has expanded into perfume sales – a notoriously difficult market to crack but apparently an easy target for the underwear line.

The Middle East and Russia are in the sights for the parent company, Limited, which has a long term strategy to push its underwear to places where such underwear has not previously been seen!

Clare Hansen ]]> Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:31:56 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/102/4/Benetton_down%2C_Victoria%92s_Secret_up.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/101/3/T-shirt_wearing_business_success.html There aren’t many businesses that succeed by doing less, but the founder of IWearYourShirt.com has developed a radical new approach to his mini-empire.

Jason Sadler became a professional T-shirt wearer in 2009 – yes, in the coldest part of the American recession. His business model is frankly weird. He wore a different T-shirt every day, and made videos and used social media to promote the company whose T-shirt he was wearing. With me? No. Okay – here’s an example.

When he goes to the supermarket, Jason wears a T-shirt for a company he’s promoting. He uses a smart-phone to video himself browsing the produce and the aisles, talking to people he comes across about the company he’s promoting. He uploads those videos, tweets about his experiences, interacts with other tweeters and those using facebook and other social media to create interactions around the company he’s being sponsored by that day. So successful has he been that he is about to do something quite remarkable – he’s going to wear fewer T-shirts!

Yes, instead of expanding his T-shirt wearing, he’s reducing it. He will wear each T-shirt for a week, so he can focus in depth on promoting each client and building deeper engagement with their target audience through the ever-expanding community of watchers, tweeters and social media using individuals who make up IWearYourShirt.com’s own audience.

It’s not all reductionist though: he has four other T-shirt wearers based in Dallas, Modesto, New York and Detroit – Jason himself is based in Jacksonville – and they will be wearing daily T-shirts still.

His process was appealingly simple – on the first day of 2009 it cost $1 to hire him to wear a shirt, on 2 January it was $2 and on 3 January $3. He doesn’t work for a dollar a day now though! The success of the engagement has allowed him to hike prices and create social media campaigns that fully integrate his role with the hiring company’s profile.

Clare Hansen ]]> Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:01:56 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/101/3/T-shirt_wearing_business_success.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/100/2/PM_backs_British_Fashion_Industry.html David Cameron turned up at the David Nieper factory in Derbyshire this week. He was using the company as a springboard for the Conservative Party’s local election campaign and pointed out that it was an example of a local business that had invested in British talent and British values.

It was an interesting dual approach, with the Prime Minister using the opportunity to extol values he considers typically Conservative, and the staff and directors of the company using the opportunity to express the needs of the UK textiles industry and of family businesses in the ‘rag trade’ in particular.

It was a good time for entrepreneurial talent in the fashion industry to be lauded, as the news of Harold Tillman’s relinquishment of Jaeger hit the news, along with Aquascutum’s teetering on the brink of failure, despite having, a couple of years ago, looked like rivalling Burberry for the ‘posh togs’ label internationally. Nieper took a different approach, focusing on niche markets in the fashion industry, such as easy to pack collections that suit women executives who travel, or luxury lingerie and ‘after six’ wear, which is particularly popular with those who visit spas but has also found a strong following in women who have long-term illnesses or medical conditions that mean they spend much time in clothing that most of us would consider bedroom wear only.

Staff asked the PM how he planned to help revive the textile industry in the UK, and he replied that more apprenticeships, lower taxes and lower interest rates would be keys to success.

More than 200 people work at the Derbyshire factory, ranging from designers, through to cutters, seamstresses and finishers and those who hand- pack and dispatch each order.

Clare Hansen ]]> Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:43:33 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/100/2/PM_backs_British_Fashion_Industry.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/99/2/Branded_uniforms_concern_Police_Federation.html For the first time since the creation of a police force in the UK, a police uniform that combines the name of the police force with the branding of a private company is being trialled.

Lincolnshire Police, like most forces, has had to shed jobs as part of an efficiency drive to reduce costs. Around 200 of the 550 former Lincolnshire Police employees who are now working for G4S, a private firm that contracts to provide security services such as communications and support to the police, are wearing the new uniform.

However, the Police Federation has said that the branded uniforms, worn by staff in control rooms and custody suites as well as at the front desks of police stations, would be confusing to the public. The fear was also expressed that the different uniforms would immediately alert criminals to the status of the person wearing the logos, and that they would be able to distinguish between a warranted officer, with the right of arrest and a support worker whose rights to restrain individuals are only the same as those of any member of the public, thus reducing the deterrent effect of having support workers in police uniform.

The Chief Constable of Lincolnshire has asserted that such concerns are misplaced and that ‘…the community is more interested in cops out on the beat rather than a small additional logo on the epaulettes of inquiry office staff.’

It’s an increasing sign of the role of uniforms in strategic partnership activities, and such blending of private security provision and taxpayer funded frontline policing is becoming increasingly common.

Amrita Malik ]]> Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:06:19 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/99/2/Branded_uniforms_concern_Police_Federation.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/98/1/Cotton_exports_and_expertise.html Once again, the global market is betting on bright cotton futures which reached a two week high point on evidence of a drop in Chinese production. China is the world’s largest producer of cotton and also its biggest consumer of bale cotton.

The projection that China’s domestic productivity will drop below 6 million tonnes from midsummer 2012 sparked the futures market interest, as it was made by one of the rising stars of the Chinese Academy, a traditional route to supplying information to outside sources often used by the Chinese planning system.

In a similar process, India has said that it may have a gap between production and export (known in retail economics as an inventory gap) in the year ahead, that will be the largest for a decade. Indian stockpiles of bale cotton are often inconsistent, like Egyptian ones, and that makes the futures market focus on predicted available stocks and possible shortfalls that can cause positive price fluctuations on the markets.

Meanwhile in West Africa cotton growers are hoping to benefit from the expertise that Australian agriculturalists have built. Australia is the third largest cotton exporter, and has managed to increase its inventory without much increasing acreage down to cotton, by the means of advances in soil fertility, pest resistance and harvesting techniques. Of particular interest to African farmers is the Australian experience of finding drought solutions for the crop.

Farmers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali have been visiting Australia in a joint venture that hopes to produce a training package to support farmers for a year as they learn how to balance agriculture, trade, export and storage.

Amrita Malik ]]> Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:35:49 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/98/1/Cotton_exports_and_expertise.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/97/4/British_Retailers_have_mixed_fortunes.html As Marks & Spencer battles on, and Aquascutum succumbs, Burberry is still rising.

One of the UK’s most venerable clothing institutions, Aquascutum, has been bought out, alongside Jaeger, by private equity firm Better Capital. Both companies had an unmatchable pedigree: Jaeger recently created the new Kensington Palace staff uniforms and Aquascutum boasted fans from Winston Churchill to Mick Jagger, via Audrey Hepburn and the royal family, but the sale appears to be designed to protect Jaeger from the fallout of Aquascutum’s continuing retail decline. It was only through pulling out of prestigious London locations and shutting flagship stores, that the two brands hung on to this point.

Part of the problem, for anybody trying to pull Aquascutum around, is that the rights to the most lucrative markets (Asia, and Middle East) are in the hands of a Hong Kong trading consortium, limiting sales to the Americas and Europe.

On the other hand, Burberry is still making growth, although it is no longer stratospheric. Retail sales rose 23%, a substantial figure when compared to M&S reporting of like-for-like clothing and home products which saw a drop of 2.8% in the fourth quarter of last year. M&S blamed buying problems and inventory blunders, saying it could have sold three times as many jumpers as it did, had they been available to shoppers. Women’s clothing, a key indicator of M&S performance, was depressed in relation to its other key indicators – children-swear and lingerie. The retailer has strengthened its stock team and brought in new people to ensure such bottlenecks are not repeated. Online clothing sales bucked the trend, rising 22% to offer the brands some much needed buoyancy via the M&S website.

Even so, Burberry is showing that the British end of clothing retail is not moribund and other retailers need to up their game. In a strong move, Burberry says it will expand its retail space in the UK – making it almost the only top-end clothing retailer to be adding footage in 2012.

Amrita Malik ]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:46:46 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/97/4/British_Retailers_have_mixed_fortunes.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/96/1/Australian_clothing_news.html The Australian clothing market is being hampered by the attitudes of designers and retailers, according to a report by the national consumer watchdog, Choice, which claims that Australian women are being limited in clothing purchases because shops don’t stock clothing outside size 14.

The report identifies potential markets that aren’t being tapped nationally because women’s clothing needs aren’t being met in part because of the lack of standardised clothing sizes and in part because of the failure to manufacture clothing for the ‘average’ Australian women, who, like her masculine counterpart, is somewhat larger, taller and more robust than the average European.

This means that many Australian women are buying clothing online from American or British sites, depriving the national economy of potential sales from sizes 14 upwards.

While the report accepts that any designer or label has the right to design clothing and market garments to a particular kind of client, for those who are struggling to get the footfall into physical retail outlets, depriving themselves of such an extensive market share could mean the difference between meeting rent and closing.

In the short term, Australian wool producers have been amazed at the success of a reality TV show, which brought ten fashion designers from China to Australia to learn about the merino sheep and design wool clothing based on what they discovered. The clothing they created was then worn by a Chinese TV or stage star, to help bring merino wool clothing to national attention within China. The programme ‘Beauty Mission’ was being show on the Chinese business TV network, and on some national carrier airlines.

Amrita Malik ]]> Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:40:12 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/96/1/Australian_clothing_news.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/95/4/_Budget_fashion_has_a_squeezed_retail_middle.html A recent article in theFT highlights the complex situation facing UK clothing retailers: especially those competing for young fashion-conscious shoppers.

Some large stores are managing to hold their own: H&M and Zara fighting for second place in most large cities behind the behemoth of Primark which, with its total mastery of low pricing, is the favourite of both ‘must have a new outfit’ teens and their cash-strapped, bargain-seeking grandmothers. In fact, Primark is likely to be the main cause of a recent spate of ‘pop-up’ snack outlets – where empty shopfronts near the casual clothing giant are rented on short leases by food retailers who sell takeaway treats that will appeal to those queuing in Primark. Soft bagels, smoothies, frozen yogurt, cookie shops and coffee outlets are all vying to grab nearby locations and make a quick killing. As one teen joins the queue with the chosen garments from his or her buddies, the others head out into nearby streets to buy and bring back the snacks and drinks needed to support waiting in line for anything up to 25 minutes to reach the till.

But other retailers, not so popular with the public, are reducing shop size to cope with their overheads. If locations are less than prime: a little too far up the High Street or too distant from other chosen venues such as preferred food shops, hairdressers and accessory retailers, the amount of disposable spend that actually makes it through the shop door can be limited. If shoppers don’t visit, they don’t buy.

On the other hand, it’s essential to run a full range of stock, especially with casual clothing, as it’s becoming increasingly popular for shoppers to buy everything in one shop, so male and female clothing, the requisite underwear, accessories, and children’s outfits will all often be purchased in one outing. Shops that don’t have a large enough volume of stock will lose all the custom as shoppers just don’t choose to travel from shop to shop with bags of garments any more. Instead they browse the shops first, then decide which has the greatest number of potential outfit options from which to choose, and buy everything in that outlet – a behaviour that economists dub satisficing.

Amrita Malik ]]> Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:23:28 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/95/4/_Budget_fashion_has_a_squeezed_retail_middle.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/94/3/T-shirt_news_around_the_world.html Rihanna is very keen on the director of her debut feature film, Battleship. So keen, in fact that she and her co-star Brooklyn Decker have been seen wearing T-shirts featuring him, surrounded by a bevy of beauties. Apparently the whole subject came up in an interview given by the director in question, Peter Berg, who said that he was such a Rihanna fan that he had a T-shirt with her picture on, and Rihanna decided to return the compliment.

Michelle Keegen is or isn’t engaged to boy band member Max George of The Wanted. George went on air to claim he was no longer engaged to the Coronation Street actress, who was seen the next day in a grey T-shirt printed with the message ‘Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken’ – but the PR teams of both celebs have been trying to keep things on message, saying that the wedding is off but the engagement is definitely still on. That’s not what is says on the T-shirt, guys!

In the USA, T-shirts that commemorate those who die in teenage gang battles are under the spotlight. One group of High School students in 2008 chose to wear T-shirts printed with the face of a dead schoolfriend, and the legend R.I.P. to show solidarity and raise money for his funeral, but the school they all attended claims that R.I.P. shirts are often worn, and even produced, by gang members, so they requested the students to change their clothing. When they did not, they were suspended. A federal jury is now considering whether the students’ First Amendment rights were infringed or whether they have the right to self-expression even if it may incite further violence, as it did in this case, where a fight started after the R.I.P. shirts were worn.

Clare Hansen ]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:24:32 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/94/3/T-shirt_news_around_the_world.html http://www.qtag.com/read_news/93/4/Fashion%2C_Chechen_style.html The West may believe it has seen everything, but Muslim fashion houses are influencing many Western designers as well as taking new techniques, fabrics and colours into a traditional clothing culture that is still intensely fashion focused.

The latest manifestation of this trend is the prêt-a-porter line of fashion clothing for Islamic women, founded by Medni Kadyrova, the wife of the Chechen President. The fashion house is called Firdaws (paradise) and is strictly based in Islamic clothing rules, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring. Lead designer, Zarema Yahayeva, has chosen a range of fabrics from the traditional damask through to crepe de Chine, and tight hijabs that are closely coordinated with the dresses, and have a face-fitting front detail that flows out into floaty or deeply incised shapes, giving each outfit a distinctive shape, while ensuring the wearer is modestly covered. The pastel hijabs in floral patterns with a dense stretch fabric lining have attracted much attention from young Chechen women who like the apparent riskiness (pale fabrics can reveal the hair below) while feeling secure that the lining keeps them safe.

Evening gowns with traditional beading and detailing were worked into exciting new patterns, and modern beads reduced the weight of such work, which can be considerable, to stop the outfits being demandingly heavy on the wearer.

The line launched at the Royal Mirage Hotel in Dubai, a high risk enterprise for Islamic fashion, rather debuting a new fashion house in Paris or Milan during Fashion Week. The extent to which Chechen women as a whole will actually embrace this new, politically-supported, dress style is still unclear. Many generations of Russian influence mean that a high percentage of the Chechen population is more used to the headscarf than the hijab, and fashion stores in Grozny report large volume sales of mini-skirts and T-shirts, although such clothing is seen less on the streets of the capital than in former years.

Amrita Malik ]]> Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:47:18 +0100 http://www.qtag.com/read_news/93/4/Fashion%2C_Chechen_style.html