Radio New Zealand has recently published a series of articles on the decline of the textile industry in the country.
According to the articles, the increase in manufacturing textiles offshore could lead the New Zealand production to vanish in two years. Or, at least this is what Davey Hughes, founder of outdoor apparel brand Swazi says.
It seems that over 40 years (as of 2016), the number of jobs in the clothing, footwear and textile industry dropped from 47000 to 9500. The reason behind this is that New Zealand factories could not compete with the cheap overseas suppliers. Interestingly enough, even the government of the country outsources its production of clothes and accessories. Mr. Hughes explains that “Each year we see more and more government departments taking all of their uniforms, their clothing, their safety equipment offshore to be manufactured simply because New Zealand manufacturers aren’t as competitive as those in the Far East.”
This strong decline will cause the disappearance of the New Zealand textile industry by 2020, according to Mr. Hughes.
The overall decline of the New Zealand clothing industry was also strongly impacted by the reveal that a company was marking some garments as “Made in New Zealand”, even though they were actually made in Bangladesh. It seems that this was a workaround the law, but it was nevertheless misleading.
The move to Asia of most clothing manufacturers has also left a gap in the country for those who want to support the New Zealand fashion industry. For example, according to the RNZ article, designer Annah Stretton had to move her production to Chine sincere there were no machines in New Zealand that were able to create the fine details she needs in her garments.
Details, such as trimmings and embroidery are quite hard to find in New Zealand these days. According to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the export value of tapestries, trimmings and embroidery dropped from $5 million to in 2009 to $2 million in 2017.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much aid coming from the government either. Measures such as the forced rise of the minimum wage make local businesspeople have a hard time paying as many people in as many functions as they wish, thus forcing them to move their business elsewhere.
Often such endeavors, which may seem positive, actually have a negative impact. For example, campaigns such as “for every pair of sneakers bought, one is shipped to Africa” has led to a collapse in the African market, as local businesses cannot compete with the free things that come from the USA or Europe.
It seems that New Zealand might see its clothing industry disappear. A more positive scenario would be for New Zealand designers to march strongly on the slow fashion trend and make the best of it. But can this be sustained?
More and more people from small countries around the world voice the same issues: businesses are forced to make their garments far away from their home, as the costs of creating beautiful clothes in smaller nations are bigger and bigger.
This could mean that we might see a disappearance of entire industries (this is the case in Latin America, in Eastern Europe, Africa, etc.), but, if designers still want to create things their way, it would imply that manufacturers from Asia for example, will have to provide the stitching, embroidery and other details required by the designers. In a weird way, it means that people in countries such as India or Bangladesh will become experts in the textile cultures of other nations. This could mean that parts of Asia will somehow become a dense cultural point, where there is much knowledge, but enough power. This is not good or bad, just interesting.
However, at the same time, designers who will still want to work in their countries will have to raise prices. This means that they will employ people who will work on certain details and that the prices of their clothes will go up. This would normally imply that the quality of the clothes will go up as well, which will be in a way a materialization of the trend of the rebirth of couture. Could this mean that we will see a lot of great fashion coming out of other places than the big four? In the case of New Zealand, for example, there is definitely a strong interest in custom-made clothes, as in 2017, more than 30000 people attended New Zealand Fashion Week.
This remains to be seen, but there is definitely some potential for great things in the future. Sometimes, harsh circumstances force people to be more creative and to do the unexpected. However, it is most likely that a production migration is the main trend that we’ll see in the coming seasons, both in New Zealand and in other parts of the world.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
Further reading:
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