After a good pre-winter season, now the Indian apparel manufacturers and retailers are geared up for the winter season. The majority of manufacturers and retailers are of the view that this time, winter season is going to be good, in fact it can touch the pre-Covid level also. And there are few strong reasons for the same. This year, vaccination has been happening at a massive level, there is expectation of good winter besides delay/less chance of the third wave and a lot of product development… ensuring that there will be good demand. In discussion with Apparel Resources, stakeholders shared their observations and preparations for this upcoming season of ‘hopes.’
The interesting aspect is that top-level brands to semi-organised domestic market, large scale as well as SME manufacturers are geared up for this season. Along with market related developments, changing climate conditions are also in favour as far as demand of winterwear is concerned. Earlier only North India used to be a focused market for the winter season but now metro cities like Bengaluru and states like Tamil Nadu are also having reasonably good winter, so retailers in these areas are looking at having semi-winter collection.
Madame, one of the leading Ludhiana-based brand having around 150 stores across India, is geared up for around 30 per cent growth in the upcoming winter season and one of the main reasons for the same is that this year, a lot of product development has taken place. “Awesome experience of pre-winter sale has proved that winter season is going to be fruitful”, says Davinder Chopra, Sourcing Head of the brand. He further adds that acrylic and fur blend (60:40) are more in use while in embellishment, sequins and stones will dominate as the brand caters to high-end and partywear mainly. As far as silhouettes are concerned, off-shoulder is more in trend.
Ramesh Gunasekaran, a Bengaluru-based sourcing consultant with over two decades of industry exposure, and also associated with some good brands, is positive about the upcoming winter season based on his experience with the work in process regarding this season. He shares, “Order size has moderately increased, if earlier it used to be 600 to 1000 pieces per SKU, this time the same is 800-1200 pieces. And as retailers’ focus is more on youth, lot of narrow, slim-fit silhouettes are now being preferred.”
As per him, hooded jackets and hooded tees are more in demand alongside cotton fabric above 220 GSM, fleece, Sherpa fabrics too are used for most of the winterwear garments. Burn out with applique, scratchy look are also more in trend and so are 20 count fleece, heather melange and recycled fabrics.
As majority of people are still under pressure from monetary point of view, retailers are focusing on value for money, affordability aspects. One of the senior officials of Reliance Trends who doesn’t wish to be quoted tells, “Our order booking are equal to pre-Covid level and 100 per cent cotton, 100 per cent acrylic and various blends are used in most of the products. Products made of flat knits are more ordered.”
Like retailers and brands, manufacturers are also geared up for the coming winterwear season. Working with many prestigious brands like Benetton, Jack & Jones, Levi’s etc., Rajesh Mehra, MD, Active Clothing Co., Mohali also strengthens the observation of good demand for winterwear. “This time, we are confident to touch the pre-Covid level of winterwear sale as our prestigious clients (mostly well-known brands) have placed good orders and production is in full swing. Order size, number of styles are more or less also same as they used to be a few years back.” Using a blend of cotton-viscose, cotton- nylon and a variety of sustainable fabrics, Rajesh noticed that short length, structured silhouettes are more in use this time. His company offers a large variety of winterwear products for women as well as men.
Sourabh Garments, Delhi is supplying value-added (partywear) to across India and its products include coats, blazers, ethnicwear for men. Having their own manufacturing, Sourabh Garg, Director of the company says that as of now it is a little early to say about the demand as people are still apprehensive about the third wave, government restrictions and at the same time a big chunk of people don’t have enough savings with themselves, so there are less chances that they will buy as they used to. What if things remain good and Covid is under control? “There will be pressure on manufacturing but as immediately much supply will not be possible, in such a case whatever old and unsold styles are there will be sold,” he states. He is using linen as well as woollen fabric in most of his collection.
The growing market for winterwear garments has motivated many players who earlier used to do only summerwear only to add this product basket and Jaipur is a good example of the same. A reasonable number of garment manufacturers are also making winterwear products mainly jackets. The growing footprint of Jaipur in the domestic market is also one of the main reasons motivating manufacturers to add winterwear in their offerings. Rakesh Sharma, Bhana Vogue Gallery, Jaipur used to do 300 pieces per style of jackets and the same is continuing in this season also. As per Rakesh, rayon twill and cotton slub fabric are mainly used in jackets.
Hardcore winterwear is sold once in a year only for three months mainly and semi-winter is also getting momentum for three months(August-November). It will be good for overall industry if apparel manufacturers and retailers get good business in this season.
