2023 OCTOBER
iApparel Journal Quarterly Issue
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FROM THE DESK OF
THE PUBLISHER
I have several reasons to lower the flag of the United States to express my sorrow for what have happened.
First of all, the COVID-19 pandemic is still claiming innocent lives. When it was first heard around January 25, 2020, it was known as the Wuhan virus, and 11 million people were locked down in Wuhan. In March 2020, when we first recorded the total cases of the world, they were 3,394,932 cases. For the U.S. we noted that there were 1,128,524 cases (33.2%).
At that time the total deaths were 239,298 cases, and the U.S. were 65,664 cases (27.4%).
Today, as of October 14, 2023, the world’s total cases were 696,601,780 cased with total of 6,926,034 deaths. And the U.S. were 108,917,628 cases (15.6%) with total of 1,178,737 deaths (17%).
Now we are talking about 300,000 new cases every week for the world, and for the U.S. it was around 100,000 cases.
Covid-19 is far from disappearing from the face of our Earth.
Financial loss of the COVID-19 pandemic for the U.S. will reach $14 trillion by the end of 2023.
Ukraine has been at war after Russian’s invasion in February 2022. In according to the U.S. officials and former senior officials said about 70,000 Ukraine soldiers had died in the conflict so far. For the civilians there were close to 10,000 killed and 17,500 were injured. This war has been in its 21 months.
On October 7, 2023, without any warning, residents of southern Israel, near the border with Gaza, 2,200 rockets and mortars were fired at them and woke them up. More than 1,300 people were killed instantly, and 3,300 people were wounded. It was found that the attack was triggered by Hamas, the militant Palestinian Islamist group.
Immediate retaliation took place by the Israelis and it took them hours to organize their defense and mobilize their troops. But hundred Palestinian gunmen broke through the border barricades and poured across the Gaza-Israel border traveling in pick-up trucks and on motorcycles and rampaged through the Israeli communities. They began to kill the civilians, children and the innocent people.
It was reported 14 Americans were killed and others were taken as hostages.
At this time, October 17, we read that hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Gaza hospital blast. At least there were 1,400 Israelis who have been killed in the ongoing armed conflicts. But more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. In this ten days, total of 4,200 people were killed according to the UN.
Unfortunately, the people of the world don’t come together and condemn Hamas, some even criticized Israel for causing the root of the problems.
We want to take the opportunity to ask you to come forward and pray and trust your faith in God. We have to ask for His leniency and spare us from any further disasters and resurrect us from all these woes and sufferings.
We trust this in the name of our Savior, Jesus
Amen
Preview all articles of this
Quarterly Issue !
About this October 2023 Issue
This general introduction for this quarterly issue has been prepared for you. We have tried to be more concise and condense in our contents. And starting from January 2024 onward, we will try to find another approach and try to make our articles more effective and knowledgeable to our readers. Again, we want to ask for your response in order we can be more avant-garde and more inspiring to the fashion industry. Once again, please enjoy reading the content of this issue, and we welcome your thoughts and suggestions.
Special Report
Global Fashion and Exhibition Calendar - October 2023 to March 2024
| By Andrew Sia
With this report, we have also included the footwear shows. We have listed 26 shows altogether.
On top of that, we have included ten fashion shows in London which are held in museums. We report the big 4 fashion weeks in the fashion capitals—New York, London, Milan and Paris in both February and September 2024. We ask you to take the opportunities if you happen to visit those cities for any of these shows.
We are sure that the shows would benefit your business as well as your experience.
Alternative Powers for Vehicles
| By Andrew Sia
From the Industrial Revolution in our modern history, we have seen the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. These technological changes introduced new ways of working, living and traveling. Without any doubt, we would all agree that the motor vehicles have played an important role.
With this article, we took a view of the evolution of the car industry. We are now heading to cars powered by batteries and it is the trend to go because of the advantages it has brought us. One of those being most important is the reduce of the carbon emissions.
The car industry is going through a revolution and all kinds of power resources have been put under the development. It would be definitely too prudent and early to say that the electric vehicle will be the only way to go. I would like to keep an open mind and see how it will lead us.
Made in Germany by "Mittelstand" | By Andrew Sia
I came across an article published in FT dated March 21, 2018. It is about the small-and-medium size enterprises in Germany—the famed Mittelstand. I came across the company, Mayer & Cie, whom I was doing business in my earlier days. Mayer & Cie is the world’s leading makers of circular knitting machines and we invested in their machines for our fabric production. I recalled that the company is located in Albstadt in the southern part of Germany. The article wrote about the succession of the son, Benjamin Mayer, from his father who was against the idea, who obviously was in the family business for too long. Prior to that Benjamin went to work for BMW and decided to go back to the family business in 2013.
The company was in a crisis mode as it was hit badly by the global recession in 2009 and lost market share against cheap Chinese rivals.
After aggressive restructuring, Mayer & Cie is back in business again. Benjamin tried to revive the family business. It has a turnover of €100 million. Mayer & Cie was founded by his great-grand father in 1905.
London Luxury Department Store Harrods Open in Shanghai a Prestige Club
| By Andrew Sia
Harrods, an iconic department store in Knightsbridge has been around for more than 160 years where you can find exclusive collections, top-notch restaurants and its outstanding customer service. Its eight-floor of shopping space showcasing the finest luxury products.
The department store was acquired by House of Fraser in 1959 and in 1985 it was purchased by the Fayed brothers. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar through its sovereign fund.
It is said to have 330 departments offering a wide range of products and services, 23 restaurants serving everything from high tea to tapas, pub food and haute cuisine. Up to 300,000 customers visit the shop on peak days. It hires 5,000 staff from over fifty countries to provide services for the highest proportion of customers from non-English speaking countries.
Since the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, son of Mohamed Al-Fayed in August 1997, it fall out with the royal family. It went further to unveil the memorial inside Harrods for the couple in 1998. Then a second memorial was unveiled in 2005.
Harrods has over one million square feet of retail space in over 330 departments as aforesaid. By comparison, Europe’s second-largest department store, the KaDeWe in Berlin has a retail space of 650,000 square feet.
The British luxury department store Harrod had been operating in China since 2020. This time their prestige private club—Residence—is part of their strategy focusing the richest-of-the-rich in China.
Challenges of the Italian Fashion Houses | By Andrew Sia
Here we are talking about company’s succession plan, engaging younger designers to rejuvenate the brands, attracting global investors, using artificial intelligence and entering e-commerce operations. More important is to team up with global multi-brand groups and use their financial resources to penetrate China and other foreign markets. Not to forget to have the presence in the prime retail spots in the international cities.
From what we have seen that the Italian fashion houses are being taken up by the French conglomerates. The way that the Italians operated in the 1980s and 1990s are no longer viable.
Market Intelligence | By Andrew Sia
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 1
With this report we wrote about the consumption of fast fashion and footwear is expected to grow by 63%, from 62 million tons in 2019 to 102 million tons in 2030. For the fast fashion brands, it is on average for a garment to be worn less than one year to be discarded.
It is important to cut the environmental footprint by the fast fashion brands. They are disposed either by incineration or landfills. It is aiming at improving the recyclability of their products and growing a secondhand market.
We read that Inditex pledged to reduce its emissions by more than 50% by 2030 and even claimed that the new targets will lead it to achieve net zero by 2040. Their management mentioned that the targets are extremely ambitious. They offered “Zara Preowned” services which allow customers to repair, sell or donate used clothes.
Others are following the repair services. We can see that anything to help to reduce the waste is the trend to go.
Lawmakers in Europe are drafting new laws to call for fashion companies operating in Europe to adopt a higher environmental standards to make their production processes greener and take greater responsibility for waste control with their products. The cost to build in the price of €0.12 per T-shirt has been suggested by the EU.
We can see that the United Nation-led fashion charter is strategizing all the efforts and we will read more about it in the future.
Market Intelligence Short Read - Part 2
In this piece we reported about the retail scene in London West End. We noticed the most prestige Oxford Street where there are vacancies and those spaces are taken over by shops selling souvenir items. Their presence can downgrade the prime shopping space which is the most unfortunate. And all these are due to the COVID which has caused the challenge to the retail industry and damaged the retail landscape.
Then we talked about the shopping area in the downtown San Francisco. Likewise, the shopping environment has changed. Changes in the operating cost, the safety and the lack of foot traffic for retail have affected the retail operation as well.
There are other big cities which we believe would have faced the same problem. And again these are all due to the COVID pandemic.
Fashion & Design
Remarkable Lingerie Brands in the US Market - Part 2
| By Andrew Sia
This is the Part 2 of our report. Like what we have said earlier that these are not those brands that are most popular. But some of them have gained the market recognition already.
Fashion Quote: Christian Dior | By Andrew Sia
Christian Dior is best remembered as the revival for the “New Look” and also put back Paris as the center of fashion world after World War II. Dior also became a virtual arbiter of fashion for much of the following decades. His fashion, the voluminous calf-length skirts, cream jacket and fitted waists, inspired many women at the post-war period, and regained their love for fashion.
In his short-life, he lived only 52 years, he created hypes in fashion with his new collections year-after-year.
Not to forget that his perfume, Miss Dior, has been highly ranked as the best seller for a very long time.
He also earned awards for best costume designs for movies. Christian Dior is recognized as an icon and legend.
Autumn/Winter 2024-2025 Activewear Trends | By Genevieve Redding
The designer/writer Genevieve contributed this piece of article talking about what is the hottest fashion out there, the activewear. She did it cleverly by dividing them into ballet dance in studio, workout in gym, and tennis-match in tennis court.
Many of them can be used as streetwear which is becoming a trend nowadays.
We feel that this is a very useful piece and can be used to inspire the industry and also to give the ideas to the wearers.
TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
Technical Bra Fitting by David Morris
| By Andrew Sia
It was since our April 2014 when we first started our journal, we began to feature the technical articles from David Morris’s Intimate Apparel Technical Journal (IATJ). David Morris was the professor who was teaching the intimate apparel course at the De Montfort University. He was associated with our journal and at that time which was named as Intimate Apparel Journal (IAJ). David was our associate for the technical sector, and through him, our journal featured: basic bra training; examples from brands; product development; product knowledge, market knowledge; sports product; swim product; software application and vintage lingerie. The training was so comprehensive and it was also one of the main sectors of our journal until 2019.
Later we moved on with the journal and renamed it as International Apparel Journal (iAJ) to make it more attractive to the readers, knowing that the industry had evolved and there was the trend of athleisure that had taken over and became the key fashion drive. This proved to be correct as due to the pandemic lockdown, more study-from-home and work-from-home became the life of the many.
Now we have seen the emerge of the sports sneakers and we have tried to feature them in our recent issues. We hope that it can bring new ideas to the market which is very challenging.
Having said all these, we feel that it is time for us to return to our origin days. We hope that the intimate apparel knowledge can be picked up once again by the industry. This is very essential for any up and coming bra designers to apply on their design work. I hope that David’s work can be used as the beacon for our industry.
Market Report | By Andrew Sia
Market Report Short Read - Part 1
In this report we wrote about China and there are three articles that are related to China. In today’s world, wherever you turn, you can’t ignore China and it is becoming something that can be quite uneasy in some instances. We feel that we have either to embrace it or to accommodate it as after all it is such a big country with a big market with a lot of very nice and intelligent people.
In another write up of our journal, we reported about the trade shows and we have reported a show that was recently staged in Shanghai—Gucci Cosmos, 180 Studios—from April 28 to June 25 which marked the first stop of this important show covering the 102 years story of Gucci. The next show only started in October 2 and last until January 19, 2024 in London. The show will then move to cities like Paris and Kobe for instance.
But rather always emphasizing and reminding ourselves the challenges we all know, we should explore the possibilities and potentials out there and make our world a better one. What I learned from my older days and it was, “if we can’t fight them, join them.”
Anyway, I have also written in this report the way to travel lightly. We can learn from Japan Airline what they suggest to passengers to travel lightly with only underwear and toothbrush. For the journey, renting outfits by season, size and color. Honestly speaking, I have my reservation and perhaps it is only restricted to Japanese traveling within Japan might work.
Market Report Short Read - Part 2
In this article we wrote about environmental which extended to various subjects like the deep-sea mining looking for minerals to produce the batteries; we talk about car batteries and their players who are concentrating in the Asian countries; carbon pricing is for giving the incentive to those countries who have managed to control their emissions; the using of AI to do contract and pricing negotiation (which has nothing to do with the environment that we have been discussing); and lastly the manufacturing in the U.S. taking the advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and that part of it emphasizes electric vehicle and producing of the batteries in the U.S.
These are all very valid matters although the using of AI by Walmart for their procurement is something very new and also very challenging. Like what I said in the last paragraph that I am waiting to see the day when the bot-to-bot negotiation will take place. I am starting also to wonder what the bot can’t do?
China the Giant Juggernaut - Part 16 | By Andrew Sia
We spent a lot of effort to comment about China’s Belt & Road Initiative which also happened to be in its tenth year anniversary. It was initiated by Xi Jinping on September 7, 2013 right after he came into power. This has been used as a tool for China to leverage with the Western world to grow the power along the belt and road.
There are currently 120 countries involved and China has been using it to grow their business relationship with its partners. Due to the financial default, failure in repayment of the loans and the interest, some countries, especially those from the developing countries are falling out with China. There are cases like the promise of opening the China market for the partners to enter but ended up only the other way around, the countries are importing more from China instead. This kind of one-sided business practice has put the partners off. Italy is one of the example, who has expressed the desire to leave the Belt & Road arrangement.
We don’t know what is going to develop, especially the world is in a very difficult situation. The COVID-19 has brought the inflation to all the countries. The war in Ukraine has been disrupting the supply of the oil and gas when these energies are needed during the winter season. The terrorist attack of Hamas in Israel has added more uncertainties.
The development of the BRI has received the least attention although at this moment the forum has been held in Beijing with 100 countries who sent their representatives to attend. We have found the President Putin from Russia has attended and because of his appearance, it has put the world’s media away.
ENVIRONMENTAL & SUSTAINABILITY
Progress Report on the Paris Climate Agreement - Part 21
| By Andrew Sia
In this time we experienced the choking smoke caused by the wildfires in Quebec and Ontario. We have never seen the air quality to be so bad that it irritated our eyes and noses. We have noticed floods in different parts of the world that are causing the loss of lives and ruined the livelihood of the people.
We came to notice that we are in the time of the El Niño which is going to last until next January. We noted that on average El Niño occur every two to seven years and the duration can vary from nine to twelve months.
We also learned about the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) which is said to happen at some point between 2025 and 2095, with the 2050s to be most likely. But the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that the AMOC is unlikely to happen in this century.
This matter was brought up due to the geological evidence that happened in the last ice age. We have to notice that AMOC is the reaction of the mother nature. During the last ice age, which occurred approximately 26,000 to 19,000 years ago. At that time there was a significant drop in global temperatures and large portion of the Earth’s surface was covered by very thick ice sheets and glaciers. We may refer that to Armageddon.
We are talking about global warming and the three nations with the most of the population, China, India and the United States, have not come to term with the global panel. Also the war in Russia and Ukraine doesn’t help the situation either. It is important to bring everyone to the negotiation table and agree to the steps that we should take together to avoid this catastrophic situation that may happen to the mankind.
I am asking you to read through the whole article and give it some thoughts.
Indigenous Practices for Sustainable Solutions:
Why the Answer to Climate Change Lies in the Past Rather Than the Future
| By Caroline Kopas
As the title suggested, Caroline’s piece pointed us towards the indigenous people of the American’s Quileute Tribe, the Australian aboriginal population, the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) from Myanmar, and the South American Amazonian tribes, whose practice lies in the vast expanses and knowledge of the past.
We have seen during this summer an unprecedented heatwave, we have seen wildfires in many places around the world, and flooding that have become an obsession.
Modern technological advancements may not keep humans thriving beyond environment disaster and/or reverse for what was already done.
We have to admit that through thousands of years, indigenous populations have cultivated environments and resources that have harmoniously benefited the land and its inhabitants. We saw the arriving of the colonialists who turned the world of the indigenous people upside down. They ended up suffering the most.
Now we hope that the world would start to listen to them so that we can prolong our longevity.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Globalization Needs Reinvigorate - Part 10 | By Andrew Sia
In this issue we have brought back our memory as how the globalization happened forty years ago. China benefitted the most in its thirty years after it had been admitted into the WTO in 2001. The Covid-19 came with the wakeup call and now all developed nations are looking for their alternative solutions. The replacing of China has becoming an inevitable solution.
Today the biggest beneficiary country is Vietnam and our writeup can be used as the country report for taking Vietnam going forward as the most ideal country for investment.
Entrepreneurship & Business
EXPLORING FOR SETTING UP A SEWING ROOM PART 1 | By Andrew Sia
As we mentioned in the article that it is the extended piece from our January 2021 where we wrote about the exploring of the London garment district. We followed the haberdashery shops located in Central London, West London, East London, South London and North London. That time we reported eleven of them. We found out that in the meantime 2 of them are permanently closed. We are about to report 9 of them in our study.
We like to stress that they can be useful and very handy for designers for haute couture, design schools, theatre and film costume designers, bridals, uniforms, and hobbyists.
We put this article under the column of the Entrepreneurship & Business and hope that for someone who wants to start her own fashion business would find it useful.
We will start to look in other countries and try to make them into our future report for reference.
Luxury Market Case Study: LVMH Luxury Group | By Andrew Sia
With this piece of writeup, we talked about the story of LVMH’s founder, Bernard Arnault, and the way he is training his children to become the company’s successors. It is such a big market and the fact that it is still growing is something that is incredible under today’s challenges from every direction.
We have also learned that when one market is not growing, in many cases you will find it growing in another market. Take for instance now the China market has slowed down, but the Middle East market is picking up.
BOOK REPORT
The Upcycle Beyond Sustainability by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
| Reported By Andrew Sia
This book report is the follow up of the same authors, William McDonough & Michael Braungart, from their first book, Cradle to Cradle. Without any question, sustainability and recycle are the main consideration for today’s business. We have to admit to put them in practice is very challenging as the world today is already being challenges with many crisis.
The extreme climate changes, the wars, the uncooperative from the three largest nations, China, India and the United States, also the biggest carbon emitters, are not helping the world to achieve the goal for improving the Earth’s environment.
We have to continue the route to make it happen and we hope that we may not be too late.
2023 Coronavirus Regional Report
Coronavirus Third Quarterly Regional Report - September 2023
| Reported By Andrew Sia
In this report, we grouped the months of July, August and September to compile all the numbers to allow us to have a better understanding how the pandemic has evolved. The new cases are not growing and also the death rate. But this doesn’t mean that the virus is going away. In fact in the past three months we have seen the EG.5 and also the BA.2.86 both are new variants.
We have also discovered more and more countries are not reporting their COVID cases and that can create the inaccuracy of those reports. They just consider that it is unimportant anymore as if we controlled too much, it would cause more disruptions to our daily lives.
Lately, we have many climatic issues that are giving the world enough challenges and I can understand sometimes the frustration with the COVID as it has dragged on for a long time since the beginning of 2020.
At the closing of this report, I have chosen to comment about the challenge we have with our medical system. There are more deaths that can be avoided for instance from those in the cancer wards or other medical cases. It is undeniable that attention has been focused on COVID and have created overlook of other medical issues. I consider that this has been the most unfortunate.