During this period of pandemic work from home has become a new normal. Work from home has given people an opportunity to work comfortably in their PJ’s. This has boosted the sales of PJ’s all around the world. Even though fast fashion is currently down a high demand is reported for inner wear and kids wear as children have outgrown their clothes during lockdown.
Though overall textile market demand is still sluggish, Indian knitwear exporters have recieved advance payments from European buyers to replenish their stocks for the basic clothing.
Demand for daily essential clothing is more from Europe, which has opened up for a long time. “There is very good export demand for kids wear, night wear and inner wear. The retail stores are running low on stock demand for fast fashion clothing is still sluggish,” said Ashok Arul, CMO, SCM garments, an exporter to leading retail stores of Europe and US.
In the domestic market, even when the malls are closed, the unorganized sector retail is drivingdemand for kids wear and night wear.
Krishna Kumar, managing director, Shine Textile from Thirupur said, “The demand for basic T-shirts, night wear and kids wear is good, especially in tier-II and tier-III towns, from the unorganised sector and street side vendors. We have also started getting some export orders for winter wear. However, we are scared to confirm the orders as Covid-related uncertainty can adversely affect lifting of the goods.”
Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, which exported knitted garments worth about Rs 30,000 core the previous fiscal, has started getting good export business. Raja Shanmugam, president, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) said, “Post Covid, across the world, there is more demand for night wear, children wear and inner wear. The sudden surge in the demand is because the retail stores have sold their stocks. In domestic markets too, during the last one month, there is good demand for these categories of clothes and many units are even running against orders and advances.”
However, the overall demand in the textile industry remains sluggish. A Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) survey highlighted lack of demand is the main concern of the textile industry in the present circumstances.
As the mall a marketplaces are closed and also the economy is going down, basic clothing, PJs and kids wear are only in high demand. “The demand for made ups is mainly export driven. Today, it is not labour but lack of demand, that is the main problem being faced by textile value chain industry,” said Mridula Ramesh, executive director, Sundaram Textile and member CITI, who carried out the survey
