ChainApparel: A Trustworthy Blockchain and IoT-Based Traceability Framework for Apparel Industry 4.0

Trustworthiness and product traceability are essential factors in the apparel industry 4.0 for establishing successful business relationships among stakeholders such as customers,manufacturers,suppliers,and consumers.Each stakeholder has implemented different technology-based systems to record and track product transactions.However,these systems work in silos,and there is no intra-system communication,leading to a lack of complete supply chain traceability for all apparel stakeholders.Moreover,apparel stakeholders are reluctant to share their business information with business competitors;thus,they involve third-party auditors to ensure the quality of the final product.Furthermore,the apparel manufacturing industry faces challenges with counterfeit products,making it difficult for consumers to determine the authenticity of the products.Therefore,in this paper,a trustworthy apparel product traceability framework called ChainApparel is developed using the Internet of Things(IoT)and blockchain to address these challenges of authenticity and traceability of apparel products.Specifically,multiple smart contracts are designed and developed for registration,process execution,audit,fault,and product traceability to authorize,validate,and trace every business transaction among the apparel stakeholders.Further,the real-time performance analysis of ChainApparel is carried out regarding transaction throughput and latency by deploying the compute nodes at different geographical locations using Hyperledger Fabric.The results conclude that ChainApparel accomplished significant performance under diverse workloads while ensuring complete traceability along the complex supply chain of the apparel industry.Thus,the ChainApparel framework helps make the apparel product more trustworthy and transparent in the market while safeguarding trust among the industry stakeholders.

A Review on Apparel Fashion Trends, Visual Merchandising and Fashion Branding

Visual merchandising encourages customers to enter the store by making it appealing to them and influencing their perception of it. It is the art of putting together effective display designs and ideas in order to boost store traffic and sales. It’s also a way to engage with customers and influence their purchasing decisions. A fashion trend occurs when a particular item, silhouette, color, or other new look rises in popularity. It changes with the seasons, and the store serves as a hub for communicating these changes to potential customers. Because items must be sold within a certain time frame, several display tactics are used to best present the merchandise and communicate the current fashion trends to customers. Visual merchandising becomes a key aspect of difference from merchants in the same category as retail firms, particularly fashion brands, try to compete in an already saturated market. Effective branding is now a vital success component for all types of fashion firms. Fashion brands may use effective branding tactics to build equity, promote consumer brand loyalty, and increase profitability. Visual merchandising is critical for inferring various customers’ perspectives and adding value to businesses. Its major goal is no longer to make items appealing in order to sell them quickly;it is rather to stand out, develop the correct brand image, and give the greatest possible customer experience. Visual merchandising aspects, when employed correctly, can infiltrate the buyer’s brain and prompt them to generate a favorable opinion of the store, allowing it to leverage its brand image. In this context, this research review focuses and aims to study the link between visual merchandising and Apparel Fashion trends, to study the relationship between visual merchandising and fashion branding and to find out the research gaps and scope for future research directions in the area of visual merchandising applied in fashion apparel industry.

Review of U.S.Apparel and Textile Imports From China and Three Other Regions,1995-2006

This project is to evaluate the benefits of the MFN status and the consequences of non-MFN renewal on trades between China and the United States.This paper also reveals the effects of quota removal on clothing and textile products on international trades between the United States,China,Hong Kong,Taiwan,and India.Data analyses,statistics,and charts,the changes in China’s number of exports to the United States,in particular,the apparel and textile sectors were selected to analyze from 1995 to 2005.

Social Manufacturing for High-end Apparel Customization

Social manufacturing(SM), a novel distributed,collaborative and intelligent manufacturing mode, is proposed and developed for high-end apparel customization. The main components of SM cloud are designed, and its research topics are summarized. Then, SM's key technologies are studied. 3D technologies for apparel customization, like 3D modeling, 3D fitting mirror and 3D customization, are developed to improve the customization precision and user experience. Information based collaborative management is realized to share, communicate,and handle the information efficiently among all groups and individuals of SM cloud. Suppliers' evaluation mechanism is designed to support the optimal decisions making. Next, SM cloud is constructed in five layers for high-end apparel customization.By using SM cloud based crowd-sourcing, social resources can be allocated rationally and utilized efficiently, consumer can customize the product in any processes like innovation, design,making, marketing and service, and traditional apparel enterprise can be upgraded into SM mode for keeping it competitive in the future customization markets.

Empirical Research on Relationship between Corporate Brand Value and Apparel Market Sales Revenue of Apparel Enterprise

Among the existing researches on brand value,few of them focused on the demands of the companies in the clothing industry to brand value. There were three innovation points as follows: first of all,two key demands of apparel companies to existing brand value were summarized through investigation; then,the concept of rapid brand value evaluation and multi-dimensional factors( MDFs) was presented; finally,the relationship between apparel corporate brand value and the sales revenue in apparel market with the sales revenue was proven by empirical research.During the process of empirical study,the sales revenue data of 66 apparel enterprises domestic and abroad were collected,and the regression analysis has been done on the relationship between the corporate brand value and the apparel market sales revenue of apparel enterprise. The empirical research showed that they were positively correlated to each other. This conclusion presented a method of judging brand value development trend quickly by single indicator.

Positive outlook for China textile and apparel industry

In recent years, Haian, Jiangsu Province, has guided the upgrading of traditional textile industry and encouraged Haian textile industry to gradually develop from traditional industry and characteristic industry to dominant industry and strong industry.

TEXTILE AND APPAREL EXPORTS OF THE THREE AREAS OF CHINA TO THE UNITED STATES

The three areas of China: Inland in China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and Taiwan Province, are among the largest exporters of textiles and apparel in the world. They are the largest suppliers to the United States, which is the largest importing market in the world. In this research, export performances of the three areas to the United States are investigated. Analyses indicate that since the 1980s, textile and apparel exports of Inland in China to the US and its market share grew rapidly, while exports of Hong Kong and Taiwan grew much slower, and their market shares declined. Product prices of the three areas in the US market were generally higher than the market average. Especially for apparel, while export compositions of all three areas somewhat leaned towards the lower end of the market, actual product prices were substantially higher than those in the market.

Today's Trend of Virtual Reality Apparel Designing System

In textile and apparel field,the CAD technology has been developed rapidly.The CAD system with the func-tions of pattern making,marking and grading has be-come substantial equipment for an apparel factory,But this apparel CAD system is only one graphic system con-centrating on the two-dimensional paper patterns,the three-dimensional apparel CAD system or virtual reali-ty apparel CAD is still not put into practical use.But it is one of the most interesting studying fields for

Comparison of Seam Strength between Dyed and Un-Dyed Gabardine Apparels: A Research on Lapped &Superimposed Seam

Today is the golden age of fashion. Fashion garments and apparels have been used everywhere to cope with the fashion era. These fashion garments and apparels are made of the fabrics of various structures and components through various processes. Among them gabardine is one of the most remarkable type of fabric and apparel dyeing is the latest process used for fashion apparel. From this research, the seam strength variations between dyed and un-dyed gabardine apparels after conceding the garment dyeing process can be known. It is a comparative research work which will deliver very effective knowledge about various types of seam, seam strength and seam performance. For comparative study, many dummy apparels body have been produced as samples which are dyed in Hams washing and dyeing limited. After that all samples have tested in Thermax woven dyeing laboratory. Since Bangladesh is a very potential fashion market and the fashion garments are being manufactured more and more. Hence the fashion trend is rapidly going to garments dyeing from conventional fabric/yarn dyeing processes. Gradually garments dyeing order are increasing higher to higher.

Expert Knowledge-Based Apparel Recommendation Question and Answer System

Aiming at the lack of professional knowledge to guide apparel recommendation,an apparel recommendation method based on image design expert knowledge has been proposed.Then,apparel recommendation knowledge graphs have been created and a apparel recommendation question and answer(Q&A)system has been designed and implemented.The question templates in the apparel recommendation domain were defined,the task of recognizing the named entities of question sentences was completed by the Bi-directional encoder representations from transformer-Bi-directional long short-term memory-conditional random field(BERT-BiLSTM-CRF)model,and the question template with the highest matching degree to the user’s question was obtained by using term frequency-inverse document frequency(TF-IDF)algorithm.The corresponding cypher graph database query statement was generated to retrieve the knowledge graph for answers,and iFLYTEK’s voice application programming interface(API)was called to implement the Q&A.The experimental results have shown that the Q&A system has a high accuracy rate and application value in the field of apparel recommendations.

2019 "Happy Chinese New Year"- China Apparel and Costume Show Held in Ulan Bator

On January 21, 2019 “Happy Chinese New Year"——China Apparel and Costume Show was held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. The activity not only displayed the beauty of Chinese traditional cheongsam and handicrafts, but also presented the most sincerest Chinese New Year blessings to people in Mongolia.

Association between Respirable Dust Exposure and Respiratory Health Concerns among Workers in Apparel Processing Companies in Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Machakos County, Kenya

Apparel processing is an essential industry in providing clothing needs for the population. The Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Kenya employs many employees. Garment processing releases respirable dust particles, thus exposing workers to risks to the respiratory system. The study determined the respirable dust health concerns among workers in Apparel Processing Companies (APCs) in EPZ in Machakos County, Kenya. A cross-sectional descriptive design was employed where four companies were studied. Three hundred and sixty-seven participants were selected through systematic random sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires and Interview guides. The study established that workers were exposed to respirable dust PM2.5 ranging from 40.89 ± 24.0 μg·m−3 to 87.49 ± 45.2 μg·m−3 with a mean of 65.61 ± 31.5 μg·m−3. While PM2.5 ranged from 63.59 ± 21.2 μg·m−3 to 313.41 ± 468.0 μg·m−3. With a mean of 104.02 ± 26.0 μg·m−3. Workers complained of different respirable dust-related diseases. The most prevalent conditions were sneezing and coughing (86.4%), chest pains (41.1%), blocked chests (36.8%), and allergic reactions to dust (18.3%). The APC should develop an OSH management system that includes;a dust management policy, dust monitoring, Risk Assessments, Engineering controls installations, medical examination, Training on dust management, PPE provision, and use enforcement.

China's textile and apparel industrial parks: Focusing on intelligence to explore the future and enhance the cooperation The First National Textile and Apparel Industrial Park Development Forum successfully held in Shuyang

On Nov.29th 2018,the First National Textile and Apparel Industrial Park Development Forum was suc-cessfully held in Shuyang,Jiangsu Province,welcom-ing more than 300 participants from China National Textile and Apparel Council,the Ministry of Industryand Information Technology,textile industry associa-tions at all levels,local governments,industrial clus-ters,textile and apparel industrial parks,industry col-leges and universities,and well-known entrepreneurs.

Analysis of the operation of professional textile and apparel markets in 2018

From January to December 2018, the total turnover of 45 professional markets surveyed by CATA (China Commercial Circulation Association of Textile and Apparel), CNTAC, was 1,209.334 billion yuan, a year-onyear increase of 6.55%.

Freudenberg opens R&D center for Apparel Performance Materials in Taiwan

FFreudenberg Performance Materials opened a new Apparel Performance Materials R&D center at its Taoyuan facility in Taiwan on March 14th.Run by the world’s leading specialist in woven,knitted and nonwoven interlinings,the center will offer innovative solutions with local R&D support for apparel manufacturers across Asia.The new R&D center will focus on innovative developments in the field of performance apparel interlinings,sustainable solutions such as recycled fiber and biodegradable interlinings,adhesive technology as well as new processing technology.With a modern physical and chemical laboratory,it will help speed up product development,materials analysis and the use of sustainable technology.

Further differentiation of apparel business performance Apparel enterprises' investments revolving around main business

Since the beginning of 2019, investments of apparel enterprises have been mainly revolving around main business. With the weakening of industry prosperity and the differentiation of apparel enterprises' business performance, Chinese apparel enterprises have strengthened their competitiveness in different industrial segments through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) at an attempt to seek a larger share of the apparel market.

Analysis of economic operation of China's apparel industry

2018 marked the 40th anniversary of China’s adoption of the reform and opening-up policy. To China’s apparel industry, 2018 was a year full of challenges, changes and tests. Faced with the volatile international situ-ations and the tremendous pressure of the domestic structural adjustment, China’s apparel industry had maintained an overall steady development momentum characterized by steady performance on the domestic and foreign sales market, steady improvement of the operation quality and efficiency, improvement of transformation and upgrade effects, regardless of gathering crises and uncertainties.

Impacts and Possible Responses Related to COVID-19 in the Textile and Apparel Industry of Bangladesh

This research work was intended to analyze the unleashed issues related to apparel trade during COVID-19 pandemic&made an attempt to find the best possible responses to uphold marketing campaigns during&after the pandemic situation.Apparel industries in Asia,the largest global hub of both the textile&apparel import-export trade have been severally damaged by the COVID-19.Over the last one year,the global community had already realized the fact that how pandemic situation disrupted the supply chain management of textile,apparel&fashion manufacturing industries throughout the world.Bangladesh,one of the top ranked garments exporter countries have been facing the burning bridges,due to the scarcity of raw materials&gradual cancellation export orders.The contribution of the apparel industry is more significant for the socio-economic growth of a 3rd world countries like Bangladesh,just because apparel contributes almost 84%of its total export income with the involvement of 4.5 million people approximately.The following research paper conveys a three-fold story.In the very beginning portion,there are some reviews&analysis of the overall scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic with presence of several business reports,academic journals,market research,manufacture's opinions&stakeholders'strategies.The second phase of the research work forecasts the possible responses need to be projected during&after the pandemic situation.Finally,this study predicts an ideal footprint to cope up with similar sort of situations in the future.

More than 20 textile and apparel listed companies unveiled their annual performance The recovery of leading apparel enterprises is encouraging

As of February 28th,2019,27 textile and apparel listed companies in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have unveiled their annual performance reports. Overall, most brands have achieved growth. There are 13 brands, accounting for 48% of the total, whose operating income and net profit increased.

Textile and apparel innovation thoughts: Grasp the essence of the whole industry innovation

Before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in the revolutionary resort of Yan’an, the eve of the 2018 China Textile Annual Innovation Awards, a heavyweight discussion full of brainstorming, and convergence of ideas, centered on innovation and based on its own practice. The multi-dimensional discussion of the upstream and downstream of the whole industry chain presents a wonderful content. In the evening of June 4th, the 2019 Textile and Apparel Innovation Thoughts with the theme of “Insight, Leading, and Breakthrough” was held in Yan’an. People of the year — Textile Innovations have been selected by China National Textile and Apparel Council since 2005, and 260 innovators have been selected so far.