From the Sector

With digitalization transforming the way consumers shop, today’s fashion companies are playing a neverending game of catch-up, as they compete for the attention of a generation of connected, fickle-minded millennials who want it all: personalization, sustainability, quality and speed, accessible at all times, across multiple channels, and at the lowest price. Industry 4.0 is not only revolutionizing how manufacturers operate, but also how brands and retailers need to function, if they want to be fast and agile enough to meet the needs of this demanding new consumer. The stakes are high and how effectively companies harness technology to put the consumer at the heart of their process will be the deciding factor in who comes out ahead and who gets left behind.

Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0 has undergone a drastic reboot to give fashion and apparel companies the speed and agility they need to tackle the challenges of Industry 4.0 head on. Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0, with the widest functional scope on the market, acts as an intelligent nerve center to the digital supply chain, from planning through design to production. This ensures a consistent flow of error-free data between processes, technologies and people. The system connects CAD, industry-standard software such as Adobe Illustrator, company IT systems (such as ERP) and external suppliers, so that actors across the supply chain can work on, save and share information on the platform, ensuring data integrity.
The solution also draws on best practices, fashion-business intelligence and real-world scenarios to automate administrative and repetitive tasks, with templates, standard libraries and shortcuts that allows more time for value-added activities. The final result is a fast, connected digital supply chain that helps fashion companies jump on trends quickly and deliver products that fulfill their customer’s expectations.

As part of Messe Frankfurt’s renowned Intertextile brand, Intertextile Pavilion at the Shenzhen International Trade Fair for Apparel Fabrics and Accessories (“Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen”) has a distinctive focus on the South China market, benefiting from this region’s promising market conditions and providing huge opportunities for exhibitors at this year’s fair.

Given its solid industrial bases and favourable geographic locations, the South China region is at the heart of China’s garment industry, and its one of its two major cities, Shenzhen, has a reputation as the nation’s garment and fashion capital. Currently, the city houses over 2,000 garment companies, 30,000 fashion designers and more than 1,000 fashion brands. In 2016, total sales of the Shenzhen garment industry exceed 200 billion RMB (around 29 billion USD), accounting for over 60% of the market share of shopping malls in China’s first-tier cities . What’s more, with reference to Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s “China Garment Industry” research, due to the growing spending power of both male and female consumers, these two markets are projected to continue their strong growth. While the consumer market for men’s garments is undergoing a growth period with retail sales expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11.8% between 2015 and 2020, some domestic womenswear brands have started forging into the mid-range to high-end women’s garment market segments. The research also stated that most of the enterprises which own women’s garment brands such as Ellassay, Marisfrolg, Yinger and Koradior, are located in South China.