A new report that chronicles New York City’s ascent as a fashion capital over nearly two centuries as well as its struggles in recent years warns that without collective action from both industry and government, there is a grave risk of losing fashion’s defining contributions to the city’s economy, culture, and brand.

The Australian Fashion Council has said that the kangaroo country’s fashion manufacturing industry has shed 18% of its value in the past five years but despite the downturn, key policy interventions, industry and government can together inject an additional $225m into the Victorian economy and create a further 1,500 jobs.

The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) has launched the ‘VisioNxt Fashion Forecasting Initiative’, a bilingual web portal and the India-specific fashion trend book ‘Paridhi 24x25’.

Open Lab, a 20,000 sq ft facility, launched by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) and the H&M Foundation, is set to become a global hub for sustainable innovation, focusing on climate action and industry-wide collaboration to showcase solutions and ongoing research to enable industry to quickly adjust, iterate, pilot and scale faster.

Despite the promise of circular fashion, the industry lacks a comprehensive system to support it and seeking to address this gap, Global Fashion Agenda has come up with a report that outlines three essential strategies fashion companies must implement to achieve a truly circular fashion system.

The Woolmark+ roadmap by Woolmark marks the launch of a major 13-point future-facing programme that aims to accelerate low-impact production, promote circularity and enhance animal wellbeing and woolgrower livelihoods.

ZDHC has released the first edition of its Air Emissions Guidelines which will aim to sensitise the industry, allowing suppliers to establish their baselines and understand air emission requirements as of now rather than testing.

Embroiled in controversies in recent times, Better Cotton will soon launch a new product label with evolving traceability capabilities to enable its network of retailers and brands to showcase their commitment to sustainable cotton production.

A collaborative research project by The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland that seeks to address the challenges of energy and resource consumption in the forestry and textile industry is working on a low-carbon, water-efficient technology with the potential to reduce water consumption by up to 90% and overall energy consumption by more than half.

Robots at a Danish company sort textile waste based on material composition and colour identification using near-infrared (NIR) sensors and cameras, a part of which is then converted into recycled fibres and yarns suitable for production of new garments.