2023 JULY
iApparel Journal Quarterly Issue
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FROM THE DESK OF
THE PUBLISHER
In this issue the hottest topic is chatbot and we came across a pioneer in the artificial intelligence, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, who just resigned from Google and the concern he shown. We can actually use the subtitle for this piece of writeup as our opening for this July issue of International Apparel Journal as the following.
From a Groundbreaker to a Doomsayer, Geoffrey Hinton Opens Up Himself
Geoffrey Hinton was an artificial intelligence pioneer. Dr. Hinton is often called as “the Godfather of AI”, quitted his job at Google where he worked for more than a decade there. He is a 75-year-old British expatriate, and a lifelong academic whose career was devoted to the development and the use of artificial intelligence. He graduated in 1972 at the University of Edinburgh. He began with something called neural network which is a mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing data.
In the 1980s, Dr. Hinton was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but left for Canada as he was reluctant to receive funding from Pentagon. At the time, most of the AI research in the U.S. was funded by the Defense Department. He was opposing to the use of artificial intelligence on war.
In 2012, Dr. Hinton and his two students, Iiya Sutskever and Alex Krishevsky, built a neural network that could analyze thousands of photographs and teach itself to identify common objects. Google spend $44 million to acquire the company started by Dr. Hinton and his two students and their system led to the creation of increasingly powerful technology, including new chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Bard. Iiya Sutskever moved to OpenAI, and in 2018 Dr. Hinton and his two longtime collaborators received the Turing Award, often compared with “the Nobel Prize of computing” for their work in neural networks.
Last year when Google and OpenAI built systems using much larger amount data, he began to be skeptical as he believes as companies improve their AI systems, they become increasingly dangerous. His immediate concern is that the internet will be flooded with false photograph, videos and text. For the average person, it will be difficult to tell what is true or false. He is worried about the AI technologies will upend the job market. They can replace human workers like the paralegals, personal assistants, translators and others who are handling routine tasks. Eventually this will expand and take away more jobs.
Many of the people who believe that this saying is hypothetical, but Dr. Hinton believed that the race between the two mega tech companies, Google and Microsoft and the others would join the race that will cause more damage to the order of our routine life. The calling for global regulation is necessary at this time.
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, an academic society which existed 40-years ago, signed their letter by 19 current and former leaders of the association in conjunction with the 1,000 tech leaders and researchers who signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of new systems as the AI technology is posing risks to society and humanity.
We hope that this will not be too late before the global regulation can be introduced.
Preview all articles of this
Quarterly Issue !
About this July 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 - July to December 2023
| By Andrew Sia
We always give the six-month exhibition calendar in order that our readers can plan their visits that can coincide with your business trips when you happen to be in the same city. Actually fashion shows and exhibitions can bring the business together especially if you are also going to show the collections to your customers.
You can use what you have observed at the shows to reconfirm your designs and creations. What you have seen can always be used as a reference afterwards. After all to show the right trend is very important in our business.
It is also the time to catch up with friends from the industry. There are people that you can see only at the shows. There are also some old acquaintances that you may catch up unexpectedly.
Sometimes I feel that we are living in the same village although we can be separated by continents.
Footwear Trade Show Calendar - July to December 2023
| By Andrew Sia
Sneakers is an area that has drawn the journal’s attention and this time we continued to list those tradeshows for the attention of our readers. Our emphasis is more focused on sneakers, but the shows are still very much under the influence from the traditional leather shoe lines, and it is followed by apparel and accessories.
We would like to hear from the veterans from the sneaker industry to tell us what is out there, although we know that this industry is getting bigger and bigger by the day.
Sneakers is connected with the jogging and running and there is this group of runners out there that are working closely with the industry. It will also be interested to hear from them as we know that the technology has been developed which is pushing the industry to the new level.
We want to introduce this industry to those young graduates who are entering into the job market every year. We feel that there is a future out there.
Introducing ITMA | By Andrew Sia
Due to my overlook, I have not included this very important textile machinery show in our Global Fashion and Exhibition Calendar April to September 2023. I feel that it is so important and immediately I have decided to post it now in April before it is too late. I have attached all the links allowing you to explore more about this most important show in our industry.
Reality Check of the Metaverse | By Andrew Sia
Entering into the Next Big Thing we have encountered the two much-hyped possibilities—virtual-reality (VR) and augmented-reality (AR) headsets. It allows us to move on two-dimensional text, images and videos to three-dimensional and immerse in the metaverse.
It is encourage to know that almost every big firms in Silicon Valley have joined the Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) to work on the interoperable technical standards.
We wait to see that the virtual-reality (VR) and augmented-reality (AR) are really the future of computing.
Some Insights About Social Media | By Andrew Sia
We wrote about the apps that are the most downloaded in the U.S., four out of five are from China. It is not incidental but the tech giants in China are really the leaders in the tech world. We found out many of them are the new comers and each of them have enjoyed the great success.
We have to say that while we were preparing the article, the new app from TikTok, Lemon8 streamed through our computer and we covered them also in this writeup. We searched their logo and picked up the one from Spain and this is to proof that they have already appeared in other countries.
We shared our concern which the influence of these apps as the youngsters have suffered psychologically and mentally from inappropriate contents. We feel that the cyberspace should be under the surveillance and regulations should be set up to protect our younger generation.
About ChatGPT and AI | By Andrew Sia
ChatGPT is an artificial-intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI. ChatGPT interacts with text, interacts with natural human dialogue and can use very complex language work, including automatic text generation, question and answer, summarizing and other tasks. For example, in terms of automatic text generation, ChatGPT can automatically generate similar text for scripts, songs and plans based on the input text. With automatic question and answer, ChatGPT can automatically generate answers based on the input questions. There is also the ability to write and debug computer programs.
ChatGPT can write articles similar to real people, and give detailed and clear answers in many knowledge fields, and quickly gained attention. It proves that it is also competent for knowledge-based jobs that AI will not replace formerly. It is also suitable for the financial and white-collar job market. This impact is quite large, but also believes that the uneven accuracy of facts is its major flaw, and believes that the results of model training based on ideology must be carefully corrected.
It is because that AI is used to develop ChatGPT, and this development has becoming too fast and the tech leaders are worried that it may go out of hand, a call for pause in order the safety protocols can be set up. That is where we are now with this article and we call for your alert.
Shoptalk 2023 | By Terri Fisher
The contributor of this article, Terri, has been a retail veteran, and with her extensive experience as the role of the buying and merchandising, she has a very experienced experience that she can share with the industry, especially in the intimate apparel. Terri visited the conference regularly for three years before the pandemic. She did the online conference on one occasion to try to stay turn to the retail industry.
This time it was held from March 26-29 at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. Some said that it was the “retailers reunion” and prior to the conference there were already 275+ speakers would take part, attendees from 48 countries have registered, 80-plus retailers and brands planned to send their executives to attend, and 200 representatives for the media would join, not counting sponsors and exhibitors who would be there. The turnout for the attendees ought to be over 10,000 to make this the biggest event for the retail industry.
Please read the reports that Terri made for the keynote speakers and the individual sessions. It is so heartwarming to hear that brick-and-mortar stores are coming back from Terri.
Retail Half Time Report July 2023 | By Terri Fisher
This is the second submission from our retail specialist, Terri, and I think that for all those points as raised have all been right on the spot on where our challenges are.
Having said that, I like the positive sign that Terri has delivered us. We have to keep our fingers cross and expect for a better Holiday season. We have a saying that under every cloud, there is a silver lining. And with the improvements we have noticed, we are looking for a better ending of a retail full time.
A Tribute to David Morris | By Andrew Sia
When I learned about the passing of David in May, immediately I said to myself that I should write something about this person who had been so important to our industry, and besides he was a friend to many of us. At the same time I lit a candle for David as a fond remembrance of David.
Unfortunately, it was only known to a few of us or otherwise the obituary would take up many pages of our journal to express our remembrance and gratitude to this great person.
David inspired us to extend the learning of contour design to the eastern part of the world and education has laid the foundation for the industry to flourish. Without his visit there would not have created the skillset the industry would need.
David passed away on February 11, 2023 and I am sure that David is missed by many of us.
This piece will be published in LinkedIn and I am sure that it will draw a lot of attention.
A Swift Spectacle the Unprecedented Demand for the Eras Tour
| By Caroline Kopas
For a change, our green environmental ambassador, Caroline Kopas, wrote about a pop artist, Taylor Swift, who has been extremely popular with the millennial and Gen Z who grew up with her music. I looked for her music from the YouTube Music and I wasn’t disappointed by her singing.
In fact for someone who can beat the record of Don McLean’s American Pie, being the longest song to take the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, we should be impressed.
Caroline aired her discontent on the Ticketmaster’s handling of the tickets for the live concert that kept all those fans away with obviously the money to spend on tickets selling from $700 to $1,000 is outrages. Not to mention that the highest went to $18,337 which keeps the vast majority out of the concert. It has created a lot of grievances from her fans.
Market Intelligence | By Andrew Sia
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 1
Of all the twelve pieces that we posted in this report, 7 pieces are related to the shoes and sneakers. We came across them during this time. Lately we have a special interest in featuring sneakers as it is something that has become the mainstream for footwear.
To choose the right shoe for the right occasion is most important. I am sure that you will also agree.
Ultimately, I would like to get also the recognition in this special field and receive the consent from them. For the part from Salvatore Ferragamo, it is nice to learn about its history. Please look for my another piece specially dedicated to Salvatore Ferragamo.
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 2
In this second part of the writeup, we reported three times about the latest of Adidas. We continued to write about the possibilities for the liquidation of the Yeezy inventory. We mentioned that this can be used as a case study for a business that has engaged the celebrity to help to promote the line, and if it entered into a dispute, it can cause very big damage to the business. Take for instance, we are talking about 8% of Adidas’s total business and 40% of its profit. Adidas has an annual business of $24 billion.
We continued to report the retail business which is remaining to be very challenging, although the pandemic has eased off and the people’s life are returning to normal.
Fashion & Design
Brand Bureau Introducing the Wearable Beauty Collections
| By STEAMDesign
The piece opened with Yves Saint Laurent’s Rouge Sur Musure Color Compact which allowed the women to color the lips with the 1000 shades with YSL’s exclusive app on iOS and Android.
This is followed by the three brands from the different parts of the world—BUKI, Gräffenberg and PH5—all are related to fashion for the skin care. These companies may not be known as the other fashion companies, but certainly they all have their niches in using the fabrics that are specially treated.
In orders for the readers to take this for the further step, we have attached their websites for the visit at your leisure and perhaps you can also do your shopping online.
This article was prepared by STEAMDesign some time ago and we tried to verify the contents and made sure that they are still current and valid.
To find a good collaborator is not an easy task especially STEAMDesign is based in Shanghai and Beijing. I hope that they can still provide articles about the market but from their own perspective which I found to be invaluable.
Autumn Winter 2024 2025 Trend Report | By Genevieve Redding
This Autumn/Winter 2024-2025 Trend Report comes in the four themes. Genevieve picked the styles and the brands and presented them in this report which we hope that our readers may find them useful.
Remarkable Lingerie Brands in the US Market – Part 1
| By Andrew Sia
While we were browsing in the various underwear publications we have found a report about the lingerie brands that have created some more sophisticated followers. Their prices are also quite affordable although they may not all appear under the same price range.
This is only the Part 1 of our report. We will soon publish the Part 2 and perhaps more going forward. We hope that this can be inspiring for you.
Tribute to Mary Quant | By Andrew Sia
Mary Quant passed away on April 13, 2023 at the age of 93 in Surrey, United Kingdom. We remember her mod haircut, eyelashes, miniskirt, raincoats in PVC plastic-coated cotton, plastic boots and she brought the Mod culture into the scene of the U.K. She played a prominent role in London’s Swing Sixties culture. I would call her a nascent feminism of her times.
We have featured Mary Quant in our Fashion Quote in our April 2022 issue. You can find information from there as well.
Fashion Quote: Miuccia Prada | By Andrew Sia
Prada began in Italy in 1913 as a leather goods shop in Milan. It was founded by the two brothers, Mario and Martino Prada. During that time Mario Prada was traveling to the other parts of the world and brought back advanced materials for bags and trunks. For the inherence of the business, like all other fashion companies, the male heirs were preferred.
In the case of the Prada family, since the son wasn’t interested, they have to bring in the daughter Luisa, who brought her own daughter, Miuccia Prada, into the family business eventually.
The time was in 1977 when Miuccia met with Patrizio Bertelli, who became her husband in 1987. Prior to that, Miuccia introduced a backpack using a waterproof nylon fabric which made Prada became known internationally.
In 1987 a women’s ready-to-wear was introduced. In 1992, a high fashion brand Miu Miu was launched for the younger customers. Very soon it was operating 40 locations worldwide, and 20 of them were in Japan.
Patrizio Bertelli started the leverage with the luxury brands in Europe and because the gearing was too high that led the company into great loss. Even when it was listed finally in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the result failed to meet the market’s expectation.
Now Prada is planning to pass on the rein to the son, Lorenzo Bertelli, and he is learning the business from the company’s interim CEO, Andrea Guerra, who was hired from outside.
Market Report | By Andrew Sia
Market Report Short Read - Part 1
The first report has been highlighted for “key read”, the rest are just reports covering the other hot topics.
We mentioned about a new COVID variant, it is coded as “Arcturus” or XBB.1.16 to be exact. We hope that it will soon slowdown its spreading and allow us to live in normalcy.
In our last report we talked about the recovery of China’s economy. We hope that it can continue and the joblessness of its young people can also improve.
Market Report Short Read - Part 2
We covered very broadly many areas such as the CHIPS & Science Act initiated by Biden administration in the U.S., solar power, the revisiting of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), the world entering into the post-pandemic era and other challenges. We hope that the report can bring your attention and interest as well.
China the Giant Juggernaut - Part 15 | By Andrew Sia
We have to admit that China is still the World Factory because it has the most complete supply chain. And because that it is so big and so powerful, we have to look at it more carefully. It is important for us to know “to give and to take” as it can’t be just one sided. That is why we wrote about what China can get from the West and things that West can get from China.
We are talking about the electric vehicle and the things that come along with it—its battery and the processing of the minerals and the rare earth. Not to forget that it is already the world’s largest manufacturer of the electric cars.
Then we talk about “China Plus One” which can always be the backup under any circumstances. It is good to have an alternative. I am talking as the veteran of the industry where at one time we used to have factories outside China already. It is always good for the contingency plan.
Lastly, we hope that the region would be peaceful and it would allow the people to work and to live and to build up their livelihood.
ENVIRONMENTAL & SUSTAINABILITY
Progress Report on the Paris Climate Agreement - Part 20
| By Andrew Sia
We talked about renewable energy which is the hot topic today. We also continued to mention about the global warming. What it led to the wildfires in Canada affected Northeast U.S. and we suffered from the smoke of the burning forest fire and the air-quality of New York City at one point last Wednesday surpassed 400 and reached at 413 of the air-quality index of PM2.5 and the weather app on our mobile sent out warnings and told people to stay indoors. They also advise people to cover themselves with H5N1 face mask if they would have to go out. The air quality had reached hazardous level.
Take for instance, the normal days the air-quality is around 20 only.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Globalization Needs Reinvigorate - Part 9 | By Andrew Sia
In this article our key read is related to the production of the car battery. We pointed out the minerals and their refining after being unearthed, and the final assembling which along the supply chain would need the technique and the expertise. Although the raw materials are spread in the four corners of the world, they are tightly gripped in the hand of China.
The U.S. came to know about the extremely uneasy situation and the Biden administration issued the Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act in the trillions of dollars to be invested over the next ten years.
The Europeans felt that they are being confronted by the competition from China and on the other hand the massive subsidy race from the main ally, the United States.
Somehow, I feel the world will need to come together and bury their hatchets. It is important to come into terms for collaboration and put our world back in order especially after the calamity of the century pandemic where a lot of lives have lost and we are now in deep inflation.
The question is if the world will listen.
Entrepreneurship & Business
Franchise Opportunities - Part 3 | By Andrew Sia
The last time we did the same report was six months ago. We tried to keep the reader’s interest alert, especially for those who would like to start something. This time we learned the commitment, not only that we will need to work hard, but ready to put in perhaps twenty years and commit ourselves with a big brand.
We have to understand that “no pain, no gain” as our parents taught us.
BOOK REPORT
Sneaker of the Year – The Best Since 1985
| Reported By Andrew Sia
We tried to find books about the sneaker and we have to admit that we have not too many different titles to select. We came across to this one: Sneaker of the Year – The Best Since 1985.
The sneaker’s market is estimated to be worth around $79 billion in 2021. This business is created by the sneaker culture and the birth of a group of sneakerheads who are only using sneaker as their footwear.
The book showed us writeups and pictures of 72 sneakers that are known as icons among all the hot brands. It will be useful for those who are interested in the history and the designs.
From the business perspective, it opens our eyes as the industry is promoted by athletes and celebrities.
2023 Coronavirus Regional Report
APRIL | MAY | JUNE
Coronavirus Regional Report – April 2023
This month we continue to see the Covid-19 waning down and earlier on we recalled that the Biden administration would declare the pandemic to be over by May 11. We have no idea where Biden has this impression and in fact it was sometime in January he made the statement.
This pandemic has been haunting the world for three full years now and no one knows the financial damage that it has cost us. I start to talk about the foresight and the hindsight it could have brought us. The question is if we would ever learn.
When I am recording the Covid-19 cases from the countries that I have picked and lately I found that some of them have stopped reporting already. Those countries could have thought that it is a waste of time and effort and I won’t blame them.
And earlier during the month I have read that there is this new variant from Omicron known as XBB.1.16 and also known as Arcturus. The epidemiologists said that it is very similar to the XBB.1.5 which is still the leading virus.
At this stage, I would recommend to take the precaution and not to appear in the crowded area in order not to be affected.
Coronavirus Regional Report – May 2023
Although the World Health Organization has not advice that the COVID-19 has become as endemic, we have observed that people have lowered their precaution and life has return to normal.
We continue to remind the people to take into their serious consideration and build their foresight before another pandemic may hit us.
The infection is still continuing and we have found people around us are still under the threat. We have not to lower our guard.
Looking back, we have been reporting the coronavirus since March 2020 and throughout the period we have made some changes with our reporting format. The present format can probably be the most informative.
We may make the June report as the last report and then we will decide the reporting format that we may use. Perhaps we will do the reporting on the quarterly basis instead of the monthly report. We will still do our weekly recording for the cases just to be alert and keep an watchful eye on the whole matter.
Coronavirus Regional Report – June 2023
In this issue we announced that it will be the last time that we will prepare our monthly report about the coronavirus. We will still try to keep track of the COVID-19 cases just in case for any sudden surge that can have trigger another crisis.
We have seen the most of the activities have returned to normal but the pandemic has left a lot of the adverse situation and one thing that the office buildings in the major cities are no longer as occupied as before. Many of the people have still enjoyed the work-from-home scenario. This has led to the other supporting industry, especially the service industry, to have lost their opportunity to support the office workers.
In our previous report, we have mentioned about the challenges the COVID-19 has created. We will never recover from what was before but to look forward for what we can change and to adjust ourselves under this situation. We hope that we can change for the better and bring once again opportunities to every industry segment.
It will be our biggest regret if we haven’t learn anything positive that can benefit our world.