2023 APRIL
iApparel Journal Quarterly Issue
Share this post !
FROM THE DESK OF
THE PUBLISHER
Are We Ready At The Starting Point?
For the greater part of the past three years, because of the Covid-19 we have went through lockdown, some of us have been infected by the coronavirus and have gone through the healing stage, were quarantined, suffered from isolations, and saw our beloved ones who were cut off from our community and lost their lives. Now we begin to see some change of things around us. We have some very valid questions to ask ourselves as we prepare to pick up where we left earlier, knowing there is a new environment in front of us.
Our Attitude Towards Covid-19 Pandemic – We are fortunate to have the Omicron variant now, which is less lethal than previous variants. Knowing that it can spread easily, we should always take precautions even though the government will soon lift all the preventive protocols. Let’s bear in mind that we are here to protect ourselves and also protect others. We want a healthy community so we can stay together.
Many of us can return to our workplace where we have our colleagues that we can plan every project together and enjoy to work collectively and effectively. Send our children back to school where they can learn and intermingle with other kids. We want them to grow up like the way we were before the pandemic. Let’s have a life where there is the line separating our public life and our private life. We will all need to breath with some fresh air. We want to talk about our experience at work or in school and those that were fun and about the stimulation we have in our life.
We need to be around with those who suffered emotionally after being separated from the community for so long. We should help them mentally and look after their needs. We have to help them and walk through this period of recovery with them. Human contact and kind words are most useful in this situation.
We have to attend to those who have the symptoms of the long Covid. Whether those symptoms are mentally or physically, we have to find out and make sure that our health system will help patients who are suffering from the disability caused by long Covid. We need to help them overcome their struggle and bring them back into our society again.
Hopefully, Covid-19 will end up like any endemic, just like a variant of flu, and we can take vaccines and boosters to protect us when the season comes.
Remember: This global pandemic has already claimed 6.8 million lives, but the true number will never be known, which is also most unfortunate.
Reinvigorate Globalization – Try to remember what it did for us during the past decades. We swapped our roles and our skillsets with the low-cost countries in order to satisfy our market’s needs. We created products that we never had before with new inventions and opened the eyes of consumers.
On the other hand, we controlled the costs and stretched our spending power in exchange for better and more efficient products. And let’s not forget that the developed countries excelled themselves with better marketing skills, improved their service industry, and created great financial opportunities, all for the betterment of our lives.
We don’t really need to bring back those low-valued added operations to the developed countries like the U.S. as we can’t compete with those developing countries and under developed countries in any way.
We need to be aware of the median age of the population in all countries as follows so we can plan our strategy:
The U.S. – 38.1
Europe – 43.4
China – 37.9
India – 27.6
Africa – 19.4
The world – 30.3
We need to split our roles and help those younger countries to build up their economy by educating them and industrializing them. But we also need to bear in mind how important it is to treat them with fair trade and always treat them as equals.
Our Collective Approach in Climate Change – It is no longer something to talk about among the nations but it is time for some real actions. We have witnessed a very drastic climate condition in 2022 in which one side of the Earth has droughts and on the other side has flood issues, not to mention all the tornedos and the hurricanes.
We have come to realize the brute force of our Mother Nature, and we must not forget the gigantic earthquakes that rampaged Turkey and Syria and claimed more than 40,000 lives recently.
We have to respect our planet Earth and do everything for the benefit for ourselves and not to forget our descendants.
Asking for the World Peace – We have seen the unnecessary killings in the war in Ukraine started by Russia and it was all because of one man’s ego and his motivation to revive the Soviet Union at all cost. As a country, Russia has never been under any kind of threats from its neighbors, and instead it has always posed a threat to the free world because of the nuclear weapons it possesses.
The policy differences in the U.S. and China should be called off, and they need to strive for cooperation and work in the most transparent manner as the world’s two largest economies. .
Again, those authoritarian states are not compatible with Western democracy in terms of their strategic goals and principles in running their countries.
If all the nations can sit down and hold discussions to settle the difference in their opinions and policies, this can make a better and more equal world for everyone.
Finally, allow me to use a passage from the Bible from the Book of Philippians’ Chapter 3 verse 14: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead and press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Preview all articles of this
Quarterly Issue !
About this April 2023 Issue
This general introduction for this quarterly issue has been prepared for you. Please enjoy reading the content of this issue, and we welcome your thoughts and suggestions.
Special Report
Global Fashion and Exhibition Calendar - April 2023 to September 2023 | By Andrew Sia
After China lifted the Covid restrictions, we found that people are beginning to travel again. One of the reasons for their traveling is the business trip. From our past experience that business and trade shows, as well as conferences are mostly planned in the same business trip to maximize the opportunities for international trade.
As usual, starting May trade shows are beginning to pick up until September and October of the year. As our usual practice, we focus on New York, Paris and London where all the most important shows are held. The other cities are more for the regional trade shows.
We try to bring in Hong Kong and trade shows in China, but knowing that this area has been neglected due to the pandemic. We believe that it will take a while before business can become normalized.
Also many changes have taken place and we are sure that there are new challenges and opportunities out there.
Footwear Trade Show Calendar - April to June 2023 | By Andrew Sia
We have found that all the shows that carry the footwear category are showing clothing and accessories, except the Italians who are more dedicated to footwear.
Our interest in the footwear is because of the acceptance of the general public for the sneakers. We have to agree that sneakers are becoming big business especially for the sports brands. In fact they are so big that from sneakers they develop into activewear and other casualwear.
For each of these brands, they can show their whole line of collection that can already be very fascinating and can also cover all types of sports and their different functions. It is a knowledge of its own and also a business that can stand alone in the sports arena.
For this type of report, perhaps we would need to have the specialists for the sneakers to explain us in order that we can expand our knowledge.
How the United States Entered Into This Colossal Debt?
| By Andrew Sia
At this writing the U.S. has come to a technical limit on how much debt it can issue as Wall Street analysts, bank economists and large investors are warning the two parties should come together to cut the expenses. It is important to pay the bondholders and avoid the country to run into defaults on its debts of $31.4 trillions.
Already its Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is telling the Congress to come up with a limit on the amount of debt the country can issue, while observing to its obligations to fund the social safety net programs, interest on the national debt and salaries for troops.
This time the House is held by a slim majority by the Republicans and to push for any radical changes would only lead to disaster.
Retail Meme Stocks | By Terri Fisher
What is a Meme Stock? A meme stock refers to the shares of a company that have gained viral popularity due to heightened social sentiment. This social sentiment is usually heightened due to online and social media platforms. Social sentiment is a big factor in driving this popularity, as opposed to focusing on economic or corporate performance.
As asked why AMC became a meme stock is because investing in AMC, the cinema chain, was a combination of nostalgia, a desire not to see the chain dismantled by bankruptcy, and an attempt to hold the wealthy accountable.
Investors in GameStop, an ailing video games retailer, are often young and inexperienced investors who thought that it would be fun to punish hedge funds and other investors that were betting against them that has fallen on hard times.
Last year, we have seen Bed Bath & Beyond as one of the so-called “meme stocks”. Warren Eisenberg, now 92 years old, and his co-founder Leonard Feinstein were forced off the board by activist investors in 2019 and Bed Bath & Beyond had one time a market value of $2.3 billion and employed 62,000 people. It is now worth less than $300 million and speedily heading toward bankruptcy. Obviously they still have fans who would bet against its outcome and make it also as one the meme stocks.
Retailers to Watch for Possible Bankruptcy Filing in 2023
| By Terri Fisher
This is the second piece from our retail specialist, Terri Fisher, who wrote about those retailers who may file for bankruptcy during the year. Without any question that the Covid pandemic played a very big role in the last three years and we saw a lot of business failures. Shoppers are careful with their spending and the lockdown had made a damage that is still beyond any repair.
There is no longer any success business model or even any formula that can be used at this time except to hold our breath and try to steer the business with full alert.
Terri has used three examples to show to us the reason for their potential failure. We can refer to them as the case studies. She also mentioned those who will perhaps seek for bankruptcy protection in the later part of the year. There are ten of them and it is scary to watch them fail.
I hope that we can bring you more positive news and perhaps we should also look for the successful case study as our reference. I think that the advice that we can use is to be ready to change and to react quickly to the market.
Market Intelligence | By Andrew Sia
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 1
Under this title, we have tried to report about the retail business, about the market place and how the brands are doing. We found that these short-reads can be quite informative.
The main feature here is the last article, where we raised the question for the future of fashion sourcing. Formerly it was all about the cost and for the last four decades China ruled this arena, from manufacturing to supply chain management and it has built their dominance successfully.
But we have found that the behavior of the consumers have changed this time and they have become more fickle. It will take time until everything can be normalized from this darn Covid pandemic and a new life pattern can be developed. Right now we have to keep ourselves alert and ready for any changes.
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 2
This time many of the short-read articles are relating to the different business practices and their scenarios. We have the chance to report them and hopefully that this can inspire you when you are running your business. Not to forget that the business environment has changed a lot after the lockdown during the pandemic.
What else can be better when we can learn from the market and try to improve our situation? I ask you to study these articles and study them carefully just like the way when I was preparing them.
Fashion & Design
Brand Intelligence: Everything About Underdays
| By InDesign
This piece of report is coming from the IN-Digest team and their focus on underwear have brought our attention to a brand, known as Underdays. It was founded by the two founders, Amelie Salas and Oria Mackenzie, and you can read about their mission from the article we have attached.
When you entered into their website, you have to take the quiz in order that they can guide you to the right products.
When you are shopping for underwear, you can find that the website is very neat and carries information which is very useful. It is concise and keeps everything simple and useful. It is definitely a solution for someone who is looking for good quality panty and all your needs can be looked after with its selections of sizes, colors and shapes.
Fashion Trend Through the Eyes of the Lenses
| By STEAMDesign
Here we are talking about films, TV shows and capsules that have engaged fashionable outfits, would bring more viewers and also fashion critics together. Here we showed examples of a popular Korean drama, “Squid Game”, a biological drama, “The Crown” featuring the English Royal Family and the famous Princess Diana. Both shows became hot search in the Netflix.
Then the writing continued with a series known as “House of Gucci” and immediately the suits and the dresses worn at the show became fashion items.
The British underwear brand, Coco de Mer, and the collaboration with the drama “Killing Eve” became a big success both for the capsule series and the lingerie brand.
To our surprise, the movie “Dune” brought out a limited-edition of a capsulation of the sneakers for a brand known as Athletic Propulsion (APL) in this sci-fi movie.
Last and not the least, the French fashion designer, Pierre Balmain, also launched a capsule-to-brands with the highly anticipated new film “The Harder They Fall”.
It has been found that fashion can combine with a fascinating screenplay and can become classic and timeless. It opens another trend for fashion going into the future.
The History of Sneakers - Part 2
Inspired By Sneakersbar | Narrated By IAJ
This is the part 2 of the writeup about the history of sneakers, This time we bring you to the modern time and tell you the births of the world renowned brands.
We have found that in this industry where the brands promoted the athletes in their sports arena and the athletes reciprocate and helped to promote the brands in the commercial world. In this way, they created a win-win situation.
And because that it generates big money and sometimes the success went through the heads of the athletes and unwise and sometimes even inappropriate remarks were made. It brought damages to both parties irrepairable which can be most regretful.
The latest example was Kayne West who lost his positions with Gap and Nike, but also the controversial he caused with his visit to Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago.
Case Study: Episode of Lanvin and Fosun
| By Andrew Sia
Lanvin, a fashion company founded in 1889, was acquired by Fosun in 2018. Fosun Group is not without its problems as it has so many different companies under different industries that it acquired when the interest rate was low. It has now to put Lanvin in the SPAC to raise fund, and instead of hoping to raise $544 million, it was only able to raise $150 million.
China, as the market, has been given the impression that it is the largest market for the luxury goods. But the three years of Covid would have caused a lot of cash-drain for the nation that it foreign exchange reserves would have eroded.
Although its zero-Covid policy has been lifted and all the markets are expecting the Chinese customers to flood the market, this can perhaps be too much of a wishful thinking. There are so many factors to consider even if we are all craving for normalcy.
Design Inspo: Runway Report 2023 | By Genevieve Redding
Genevieve curated the runway collections and presented some of the pieces from the design houses as mentioned. She has been presenting them in her previous articles and they are no strangers to us.
Fashion Quote: Vivienne Westwood
Written By Andrew Sia | Illustrated By Elita Lam
Vivienne Westwood was an English designer and an entrepreneur, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. This piece of writeup can be read in two angles, the first approach as the obituary, and the second approach as an introduction of this fashion designer and her quotes.
She was the more recent ones and some of us would have remembered her for her provocateur, or you may say Avant-garde, but definitely cutting-edge design. But it is never meant for everyone’s taste.
Market Report | By Andrew Sia
Market Report Short Read - Part 1
This reports covered the latest Omicron variant, XBB.1.5 and also China’s sudden abandon of its zero-Covid policy. Fortunately, the Omicron seemed to have subsided as we haven’t seen any surge, except the situation is still unknown in China. It has not been cooperative with the World Health Organization which is remaining something very regrettable.
We have seen the resume of the World Economy Forum 2023 in Davos for the first time since three years. It is also celebrating its 50th anniversary.
We have seen the extreme climate in 2022 and it has continued into the winter now. This time the weather is very mild and it has avoided Europe to enter into the severe winter of which the heating would take up a lot of oil and gas. But all the ski resorts would suffer from the lack of those winter sports and tourists for the winter holiday.
Let’s keep our fingers cross for things to return to normal in this coming year.
Market Report Short Read - Part 2
In this report we are covering most of the news that took place in January. The world is not in a good shape, especially with the stock markets across the world didn’t perform well in 2022. We read that the inflation in Japan hit its all-time high in 41 years.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is becoming a protectionism and has tried to protect the U.S. to hold on to the niche for the semiconductor and to lead the world in climate change.
China is caught in between the U.S. and Europe as both have tried to wrestle off from its dominance of the supply chain and other ambitious policies.
It has made the world in a more messy situation.
Market Report Short Read - Part 3
In this report we continue to report about the advanced chip making which has developed into a trade war between the Western world with China. But under the U.S. government’s initiatives, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act and the Infrastructure Act with the total of $2 trillion to be spent in the next ten years have put the world into a very competitive situation. It doesn’t only segregate China, but it also create conflicts with its allies. We can refer it to the European Union members as well as its “Chip 4 Alliances”, led by the U.S. with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
But on the other hand, we can see a lot of collaboration, if the U.S. and China can put down their differences, in areas like the solar projects, the rare earth mining and the complex processing of its minerals.
It is very unfortunate to see the world is building up a lot of conflicts when it can create a lot of opportunities for the win-win situation together.
Market Report Short Read - Part 4
Part 4 covered many topics extensively. We feel that knowledge is power.
We reported about the different Acts of the U.S. which Biden government brought out for the country. It is part of the “Make America Great Again”.
From this report, we can feel that the market’s spending is still weak and inflation has caused the consumer spending to be cautious.
There is the dark cloud over the world’s political situation. This has also been creating uneasiness in the market. Perhaps the only thing hopeful is the return of the Chinese tourists, but this will have to take some time for the tourism to recover. There is at least the hope out there.
With all this market information we can better prepare ourselves and act accordingly.
China the Giant Juggernaut - Part 14 | By Andrew Sia
In this issue we are mainly focusing on Asia Pacific where all the countries are jockeying for their geopolitical power. We began with the Indo-Pacific region, where over the years we have seen many agreements have been signed between the nations. The have all started with political alliances and combined with trade agreements.
We have seen China shattered its zero-Covid policy that has brought hope to every country. The world is expecting the Chinese consumers to traveling again and to revive the economy. Even the vice-premier from China, Liu He, visited the World Economic Forum in Davos and assured that China is back to normal. I agreed the remark made by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyer said that the EU would seek to “de-risk” rather than “decouple” its trade with China. At the meeting we saw that Liu He extended the olive branch to the world.
ENVIRONMENTAL & SUSTAINABILITY
Progress Report on the Paris Climate Agreement - Part 19
| By Andrew Sia
In this report we emphasized on the natural gas and also the new perspective arise from the North Sea where we can find those mega wind farms. This wind farm scheme is needed because the rate of offshore windfarms are being built in Europe is not enough to deliver the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Also the space is running short near to the coastlines to allow more economic connect turbines. This power hub is becoming very important.
In the last part of the report we brought in the Iberian Peninsula and the conflicts of the European Unions have between them all for the supply of the natural gas where Portugal has the largest refinery and the nearest point to receive it from the U.S.
Spain is known for its vast network of gas pipelines that can help to transport the gas to the other parts of Europe.
We have seen the negligence and the imbalance of the energy policy in Europe and the current system should call for the reform.
Material Innovation and Sustainable Fashion - Algae
| by Angie Lee and Natalie Ng
This material, algae, is still at its early stage of development and before it will become the staple material like cotton, it will still take a very long process and many of the processes will need to have the education for the consumers and the commercial promotions.
The writer, Angie, has told us all the benefits due to algae’s biodegradable nature and since it is growing in the water, it doesn’t take any fertilizers and also no farming equipment that are used on land would be applicable.
Also its use is unlimited, and for clothing and textiles, medical gears, uniforms, the personal protective equipment, natural dye stuff, plastic packaging, food.
I even suspect that it can be inexpensive for some of the staple applications. Let’s keep an open mind to accept the product once it has arrived in the market.
Sustainable Development Doughnut Style | By Caroline Kopas
This piece is contributed by Caroline Kopas, and again it is under our Environmental & Sustainability sector. This time she is referring to Kat Ratworth’s model that she quoted as the “Doughnut Economics”.
It is using the two rings—the inner ring and the outer ring. The inner ring is emphasizing to the social foundation which consisted of twelve criteria of living. The outer ring is referring to the nine planetary boundaries.
A lot of these things could have overlooked and for social foundation many of these things can become a separate issue no matter if it is within the western model of democracy as after all the political parties would have all their agenda that can create the shortfall in all these criteria.
The boundaries set for the nine planetary boundaries are referring to our planet Earth where all these are part of our overall environment. We need to deal with the climate change in a more precise attitude.
The last part has to do with the correct attitude as a 21st century economist.
This piece of writeup by Caroline would need some coaching in order to understand the technique to apply for the practicing. This is not a piece for casual reading.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Globalization Needs Reinvigorate - Part 8 | By Andrew Sia
In this piece of writeup, we wrote about re-globalization and not de-globalization. The world is realigning its supply chain and globalization is further limited to the friendly states. But we would want to mention that China still has its manufacturing advantage and it is unwise to act without having another diversified plan put in place thoroughly.
We saw the rising of the “Make America Great Again-MAGA” which has turned into a protectionism and it is setting a very bad example for the free trade. It is no surprise that the EU is against this. Many of the initiatives would need the government funding which can already see the U.S. has stockpiled its national debt. And besides it is only limiting to technology and greenery which has left a lot of the other industries un attended.
Entrepreneurship & Business
Case Study: Stitch Fix | By Andrew Sia
We come across the company who is a subscription service that send the box of clothing together with shoes and accessories. With $20 per month, the customers can keep the items they keep and return those that they don’t desire. The customers would need to pack them back in the box and go to the UPS for instance to ship back but the window time is only two days.
It started as the company mixing some of the customers’ data and put in human judgement and send the box to the customers, who are subscribers, every month something for them to choose. It caught big when people were all working from home during the pandemic which lasted for two years. Now the company is on the crossroads as where they should improve as customers are unsubscribing their services.
All of a sudden these companies who were booming at the pandemic have to reinvent themselves. And we have seen DoorDash trying to add markets where their delivery services are needed; Meta Platforms, parent company of Facebook, is introducing metaverse; Rent the Runway is selling used luxury clothes through Amazon.
BOOK REPORT
Cradle to Cradle | By William Mcdonough & Michael Braungart
| Reported By Andrew Sia
This book has been with me for many years and because of its title which caught my attention. I have to admit that there are too many books to read, and it is always to have these books around us, especially with those titles that are interesting to us.
For this issue, I have decided to look for the book content in related to environmental and “Cradle to Cradle” came to my attention. It is a very idealist approach as normally we would have thought that basically everything was from cradle to tomb as they would be ended up in landfills or incinerated. Where we were brought up the landfills were used for the reclaimed lands and if the things we discarded would go up in the smoke once they have been incinerated.
It is only now we came to know that the global warming is caused by the carbon dioxide emissions and it has caused already the damage to our planet Earth that we would have to change our way of thinking and handling matters.
It is not too late if we can pay attention and put our acts together.
2023 Coronavirus Regional Report
JANUARY | FEBRUARY | MARCH
Coronavirus Regional Report – January 2023
Omicron XBB.1.5 with its nickname known as “Kraken” subvariant is the new Omicron appears to be the most transmissible one so far. It is so highly transmissible that even people who have protection from vaccination or for those who have caught a recent case of Covid-19 have been infected. It has taken the time when cold weather kicked in and people are gathering indoor to celebrate holidays.
In this April issue, which is the recording for January to March, we made our report and found the cases to have been subsided.
Also the people’s life are returning to normalcy especially China has cancelled their zero-Covid policy and the world is open for traveling after three years of lockdown and many other precautions have been taken to stop the virus from spreading.
We look forward for the warm weather to return and also the flu season is over. This will bring more activities to our life hopefully.
Coronavirus Regional Report – February 2023
In this month’s report, we have seen the Covid has further subsided, but also many countries have stopped to send in their report as everyone is expected to return to their normal life. Being locked down for the better part of the pass three years, and many countries would have said that enough is enough.
We are relieved to find that the outbreak of the cases in China have ceased and people are starting to travel both inside and also outside the country.
Also the cause of death of Covid is relatively small as the Omicron is not really lethal, but rather those who are elderly and have pre-conditions with their medical health record. We still believe that taking the vaccine is important to protect ourselves.
Coronavirus Regional Report – March 2023
On March 10, 2023, the U.S. House of Representative and the Congress had passed a bill to declassified information on Covid-19’s origin. Within 90 days information on Covid origin will become public knowledge. The world has been plagued for three years and it was estimated that it costed us $5 trillion and seven million lives. Its effect of public health is unaccountable and this is also very unfortunate.
The world needs to know the truth in order that we can protect and to avoid another pandemic. This is already the lesson that we have all learned. We have to change our way of working, studying, living and many other things that come along and at this time we don’t know if these are changes for better.
Hopefully that the truth will come out and we will all learn to live with the virus until we can find the solution. Until then we will continue to do the report with the figures that we can receive. We want to move on to report things that can be more rewarding and benefit our friends out there.