2022 APRIL
iApparel Journal Quarterly Issue
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FROM THE DESK OF
THE PUBLISHER
Andrew Sia
This was written on March 15, and as the saying goes that in the case of the world’s political situation, one day may already be too long, and not to say that there is a war going on in Ukraine that is started by the Russian.
We have to go back to early February and we have reason that China asked Russia in early February not to invade Ukraine until after the Beijing’s Winter Olympic. On February 4, Putin and Xi issued a Joint Statement that described the friendship between the two countries as having “no limits” and not being “affected by the changing of international environment and circumstantial changes in third countries.”
The Winter Olympics closed on February 20 and on February 24 Russia invaded Ukraine.
Xi could have been led to believe that Russia’s military operation would just be a limited gray zone operation as it was in Donbas between 2014 to 2022, or it could also be the one in Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014. In both cases, the international response was minimal.
Also Putin could have believed that this would be a quick victory with no serious consequence.
China also didn’t evacuate its citizens from Ukraine and the Chinese embassy in Kyiv only told its people to stay home.
Now it is clear that the scale of the Russian invasion has escalated, with growing international condemnation. Russia has caught into an uneasy position. And because China hasn’t criticized Russian’s aggression and it would have led the Western world to believe that it is Russian’s associate. Especially after Russia’s asking for China’s support, both for finance and weaponry, many countries are having their thoughts for their next step with China.
Already China’s economy is slowing and uncertainties for the global economy arising from the war in Europe. The scope of sanction is unprecedented that leaves China on its crossroads. Whether Putin or Xi has miscalculated is beside the point now. We can’t see any strategy between the two of them, and what meant by “unlimited friendship” can become so vague. The two of them have also found that they are so alone without any other partners in sight. What is most important is the strategy going forward. And Russia’s growing dependence on China is increasing every day, it is more of a liability and not an asset which is plain to see.
China’s another weakness is that it is easily being agitated about external support for its so called “separationists” in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And very often this is followed by the Chinese diplomats who contorted themselves into awkward and uncomfortable postures, trying to simultaneously defend the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, which become their infamous “warrior diplomacy”. In this case of the situation with Russia, because of the lack of strategy, its diplomacy will hit the wall very hard.
To me, I would say that the two are deserved for one another.
Last and not the least, the larger cities of China have caught themselves in the wide spread of Omicron variant. This has already resulted many cities being lockdown, and the U.S. State Department has just told its citizens not to go to Shanghai, Jilin and Hong Kong. The situation is getting serious.
We welcome you to read our April issue with titles as the following:
– Andrew Sia
Founder & Publisher
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Quarterly Issue !
Special Report
Global Fashion and Exhibition Calendar - April to December 2022 | By Andrew Sia
International trade shows are resuming at this time, but they are held physically and virtually. The world has come to realize that it is necessary to strike a balance between life, death and economy. It is fortunate that the Omicron is less contagious and the time for healing has also been shortened.
We haven’t listed any of the shows in Hong Kong or China, knowing that over there the policy is still the net-zero covid.
Futuristic Shopping Experience in the Metaverse | By Andrew Sia
It was written in the prose form about a virtual-realty space where users can interact in a computer-generated environment. It further brought out in Reykjavik, the Capital of Iceland, where Yoko Ono built the Imagine Peace Tower to commemorate her husband, John Lennon, and on the evening of February 24, she lit the light and in the social media she posted:
Remember, we are all family. Think PEACE, Act PEACE, Spread PEACE, Imagine PEACE. Together, we will shift the axis of the world to PEACE.
This has also been followed by the protest and the condemnation to Russia’s invasion to Ukraine.
This was inspired by John Lennon’s song—Imagine—and its lyrics.
Country Report Ukraine | By Andrew Sia
Like many of us today in the world, we feel angry and helpless at this moment with the war that Russia raised at its neighboring country, Ukraine, whose military capability is so much out of proportion. But under their leadership of President Zelensky, the country is showing the bravery to resist the Russian army and the mercenaries which is admired by the world.
I came across a list of facts and figures about Ukraine and I decided to make a report of the country. Unfortunately that all these information are changing before our eyes as the Russian armies have destroyed a very big part of them.
It makes me more angry at this critical moment to find Putin enforced the censorship for the media in Russia by denouncing the invasion into its neighbor as war. He warned that any violation will result 15 years of imprisonment. Putin has been in power for 22 years and he hasn’t been easy with Ukraine after they have gained their independence in 1991. And eight years ago he took the Crimea Peninsula from Ukraine which remained as a disputed area since then.
My report which I took from Statista, a service that I subscribed, which has been very useful. I would like to show to the readers the kind of country Ukraine was. We pray that the war will be stopped soon and peace and justice being restored to this country. I am surprised to find so many foreign direct investment in the country and also to find that the country can feed 600 million people with their agricultural products.
Commemorate to the International Women’s Day
To the women of Ukraine and Russia who are suffering in these days and we pray that the war will be soon over.
Market Intelligence | By Andrew Sia
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 1
In this writeup, we reported the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, also known as the Fashion Act, which was unveiled in New York. It is really a big deal for the fashion world and I trusted that New York has the power to drive this act.
We are surprised that disregard the pandemic, the fashion business is doing exceptionally well. The prices are able to increase slightly to offset the increased cost. We hope that this trend will continue and will play down the covid which has been haunting the business for more than two years already.
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 2
In this issue we have started to mention about sneakers. This has to do with the changing of the lifestyle during this pandemic. People are looking for comfort and functional footwear and also start to dress down. We found that we have more time for our family than before.
We talked about organic cotton and found that it was used as a marketing tool as people have not been honest. There are a lot of watchdogs—global governmental organizations and non-profit organizations who are tracing the origin of the organic cotton, all for the purpose of environmental and sustainability.
We hope that with this part 2, you will find the contents to be interesting.
Fashion & Design
Brand Intelligence: Elissa Poppy Exploiting New Materials | By InDesign
Elissa Poppy founded her own brand, Elissa Poppy, in 2015 and emphasized on using latex together with the other materials.
It is encouraging to find the use of pure natural latex which comes directly from the rubber trees with silicone and other additives. It is not only sustainable, but also biodegradable.
Some of her series are quite unique and I hope that she will find success moving forward.
Trend: Co-Branding 1+1>2 | By InDesign
In this writeup, we can find several co-brandings, Skims (from Kim Kardashian) x Fendi (the luxury brand), Victoria’s Secret x Stella McCartney, Shock Absorber x Champion, Tezenis x Kappa, Yoox x Les Girls Les Boys, Manner x Neiwai.
I found that it is most impressive to see Manner, the coffee/tea joint for the young generation, to co-brand with Neiwai, who over the years has come out an innovation company for underwear.
I also begin to realize that 1=1 is greater than 2.
Scene To Be Seen | By Terri Fisher
Terri attended the Fifth Anniversary “Scene To Be Seen” fashion show in Naples, Florida and made this report. We are most happy to find that the designs are coming from artists and designers, but also from those young designers that are still in high school. Those bold designs, out-of-the-box concepts that the energy of our fashion industry.
Spring/Summer 2023 Trend Report | By Genevieve Redding
The Spring/Summer 2023 Trend Report comes in the four-color themes. Genevieve is doing this in our April issue and this will give the designers out there to have the ideas about the trends for the season going forward.
It is interesting to see what is out there, especially for those brands who have appeared on the runway show already. They can always be used as a good reference.
Fashion Quote: Mary Quant
Written by : Andrew Sia | Illustrated by : Elita Lam
You can associate Mary Quant with the Mod that began in London and spread throughout Great Britain and elsewhere. It is influencing fashion, music and trends. It all started in the late 1950s and related it to rhythm and blues, soul, and jazz music, motor scooters, Vespa was the most popular. It extended into the mid-1960s when Mary Quant came to the scene, just in time for the Swinging London, and brought in the miniskirt. At the time the British rock bands, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones hit the hype, and conquered the world.
Among so many things, Mary Quant also made the Mini popular, and it became the icon of Britain. It has even extended to nowadays.
Market Report | By Andrew Sia
Market Report Short Read - Part 1
About a third of the global manufacturing companies are struggling with the rising prices for the raw materials and the shipping cost. And already the delivery time for products shipping from Chinese factories to the West Coast of the United States have stretched from less than 50 days at the beginning of 2019 to a record high of 113 days in this January.
Most of the shipments are suffering from serious delays and the shortage of materials have becoming very obvious. Car manufacturers are lacking of the chips, companies like Volkswagen and Toyota are closing their plants at this critical moment.
This new disruptions can depress consumer confidence and exacerbate inflation which is already at a 40-year high, posing challenges for the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve.
Market Report Short Read - Part 2
In this second part of the report, we covered in areas for the sustainability, situation of Covid-19 in different parts of the world and their different approaches, the war in Ukraine and how it would affect our supply chain.
Our heart goes out to the people of Ukraine during this unjustified war, its inhumanity, and its challenge to the free world.
We pray that the world will return to its normal pace and bring our life to a level that we can live and trust one another.
Market Report Short Read - Part 3
This part’s main highlight is the war in Ukraine. Once again, it is telling us how fragile is our globalization and the supply chain that has been supported. We found that we are heavily relying on one another. The more we look into it, we can see that almost everyone is indispensable. It has its good and its bad, but in today’s geopolitical situation, we must admit that it is very challenging.
We have seen that Omicron is raging in China, but it is China’s zero covid policy that has driven the country into this situation. We have already noticed most of the countries in the western world have decided to co-exist with the coronavirus, and their businesses have begun to return to normal.
China the Giant Juggernaut - Part 10 | By Andrew Sia
We found that Xi Jinping has been trying to create his legacy and make himself ready for the 20th National Central Committee’s in November. We can see the importance of making the Winter Olympics successful in February was one of his top-of-the-list image making campaign.
His crackdown of the social media gave him the control over any opinion that can be out of his desire and today only China, Russia, North Korea and Iran has this control over their cyberspace.
ENVIRONMENTAL & SUSTAINABILITY
Progress Report on the Paris Climate Agreement - Part 15
By Andrew Sia
In this report we wrote about peatlands that can be used to store carbon emissions which we only come to know recently. The deforestation in Brazil has been used in businesses, and one of them is cattle raising, and from the cattle raising it derived leather. Leather has been used extensively in fashion and it is only recently that Leather Exchange has tried to track down it process to make it become more sustainable.
We leave the writeups about nuclear waste and the wind power for you to explore.
Diamonds Are Forever
Caroline contributed this article and we have put it under the Environmental & Sustainability column. She told us about the nature of the diamonds and how they made their way to the center stage of the rich and the famous.
We also came to know the sad story behind it and not to mention about those nations that are very politically turbulent. It reminded me about the movie “Blood Diamond” which was shot in Sierra Leone.
Caroline pointed us toward the lab diamonds which are more environmentally friendly and they don’t create any environmental issues.
We have to admit that Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend as sung by Marilyn Monroe, and in real life it is very true.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Globalization Needs Reinvigorate - Part 4 | By Andrew Sia
We have seen the international seaports are under a lot of constrain, especially those that have been developed for quite some time and the infrastructure can be outdated. Unlike their counterparts in Asia which have only been developed in recent years can operate more efficiently. It is time for a study to improve in many areas that will be necessary to strengthen the workflow in order to put the shipping industry back on track again.
The globalization is no longer being challenged by the pandemic, but also by the recent war in Ukraine, where many supplies are coming from that part of the world.
This time we have seen more challenges.
Our study of Volkswagen, an international company for cars, which can be used as a business study. It is going through the global pandemic, parts shortage, rising cost of materials and facing the geopolitical challenge. We can learn so much from their management how they can survive all these adverse situations.
BOOK REPORT
Shoe Dog | A Memoir by the Creator of Nike | Phil Knight
Report by Andrew Sia
I opened the book report by comparing the shoes with the brassieres, something I have done for the larger part of my life. Knowing now the market has moved into sports shoes where comfort and function and designs are less important.
It is a memoir written by the entrepreneur, Phil Knight, who is also the founder of Nike. Through his career path he faced many challenges and some unpleasant circumstances which he was able to overcome. They were through many sleepless nights. Nike’s success has made the story possible. There are many things that are worth our learning.
Coronavirus Regional Report
JANUARY | FEBRUARY | MARCH
2022
Coronavirus Regional Report - January
It was toward the end of December 2021, it seemed that the world turned the tide against the pandemic, but Omicron was soon detected in South Africa. More people were caught with the mutated virus and from our record that the new cases jumped more than five times in the month of January alone.
It added the tremendous pressure on the health care industry but fortunately the new cases are less deadly and the hospitals are able to turn the patients away and tell them to rest at home and recover by themselves.
Coronavirus Regional Report - February
The question I asked at this time is if the Omicron a fact of like? Whether we accept it or not, we are entering into the third year now. Meantime we have found the health officials in the western world have accepted Omicron and lifted a lot of restrictions to allow us to return to our everyday life.
Many countries have reopened their border, the most significant one is Australia.
Except China, who is still practicing its zero-covid policy and this has been extended to Hong Kong. China continues to take the policy and stays away from the mainstream.
I think that we can take our guards down except the face mask which is still necessary if we are in the public transportation and in the crowded areas.
Coronavirus Regional Report - March
Omicron variant BA.2 has dominated the world. BA.2 now represents nearly 86% of all cases according to the WHO. BA.2 is even more transmissible than its highly contagious predecessor, the BA1, however it is less likely to cause severe cases. The booster shot can give protection and prevent from hospitalization and even death.
We have seen this surge in China in particular, which resulted from the different levels of lockdowns. Countries like Germany and Great Britain, there are more cases than the neighboring countries in Europe.
We need to protect ourselves as it is known that BA.2 can re-infect people who had other variants, such as Delta. It doesn’t mean that the immune system has been developed if you were a covid patient before.
Wearing mask is still important when we are in an enclosed area and a crowded area.