Colombian Update July 27th : Colombian Textiles - ColombiaModa

ZOOLANDER TIME

Earlier this week as promised and as a favour to all of you out there I forced myself along to Colombiamoda, the largest fashion show/convention in Latam for a couple of hours however before all of you gentlemen stop reading thinking this is no more than an excuse for a few photos of scantily clad young ladies, and there were plenty to be found, it isn’t - without ever wanting to sound blase I actually have reached the point where if you have seen one wafer thin catwalk model or a buxom derrière packed into a pair of jeans, you have pretty much seen them all. My wife clearly doesn’t believe that but if you go along to enough Zoolander conventions you fully realize that beauty is skin deep - if that in many cases. Instead I want to briefly look at the role of fashion and textiles in Colombian society, particularly Medellin where the industry has been around it appears for ever - there is even a sepia toned reference to it in the Encyclopedia Britannica “...it is known as Colombia’s Manchester because of its textile mills and clothing factories”. The sector is deep in the fabric of Medellin, one of the cities most emblematic sites is the Coltejer building which rises 36 floors to 175 metres and is said to be a representation of a sewing needle in honour of the textile company it is named after. Éxito which now boasts over 2000 stores throughout Latam was started by Gustavo Toro in 1949 as a textile pop up store in the centre of Medellin, Fabricato which has sadly and incorrectly been overshadowed in name by the Interbolsa scandal is a proud employer of 1000’s of skilled workers - the convention is big enough that many major companies are there with their pop up stands, big banks, Avianca and Nutresa were just some I spotted. The event goes from strength to strength, it is a sprawl spread across a number of pavilions and features all manner of products, when we think of fashion events we think of outlandish outfits that wouldn’t look out of pace in The Fifth Element film but it is far from that. Clothes there are of course but shoes, bags, jewelry, bedding, mannequins and even the humble coat hanger are well represented amidst a range of products so diverse that there is no room here. There are of course the Twelve Monkey outfits but those are generally being worn by the post apocalypse bourgeoisie who wander around the event using that gait and pitch of voice that normal people don’t seem to have been born with. Amongst the 13,000 people expected to come from outside of Medellin swelling hotel occupation levels to 85% some 7,800 will be arriving from 56 counties according to those registered. It is a melting pot of ‘lovelies’ from all over the world. TROUBLE AT MILL ? So from the outside all seems super rosy however is that actually the case ? At a time when Colombia badly needs diversity in overseas sales to replace the over-reliance on oil how is the sector really doing ? In short times are tougher than they appear to be when you bore down just a little, Colombia is known for the quality as opposed to the quantity of its work at a time when the Asian sweatshops are busily churning out cheap goods - this country’s labour laws will fortunately never allow that to happen however the effect of that on employment is obvious. Export numbers in detail only go back to 2008 and as we can see below since then it has been a struggle - whilst the most recent export reading had textiles (including all categories) at just under USD60mn for the month does not appear a small sum of money it is worth noting that in 2008 the number averaged 3x that figure - in terms of contribution to exports the number has collapsed from around 7.31% in 2008 (including leather goods and footwear) to 1.87% - as a sector it simply hasn't kept pace with overall export expansion, clearly the expansion of oil exports has much to do with it but the raw numbers are down 2/3 irrespective.

THE ELEPHANT ACROSS THE BORDER Some of that is undoubtedly down to cheap labour competition however there is another massive element to be looked at and where perhaps hope lies for the sector in the medium term. That same 2008 was also the zenith of exports to Venezuela peaking at just over USD6bn and representing 16.5% of the total basket (DANE) - today they stand (if we annualized the May data) at USD357mn and represent just 0.8% of that same basket. Times have of course changed in the apocalyptic Chavez-Maduro world and that has had an enormous impact on the textile industry which was one of the biggest benefactors of the Venezuelan oil boom, that is not to say everyone was walking around looking like Magatu in 2008 Caracus but at least they had a source when they needed to put on a new dress or chose a new tie - that has all gone.

All that said and at the risk of repeating myself - which I have already done,one day Venezuela is going to represent a game changing opportunity for the Colombia and the textile sector will be front and centre of that moment. CONCLUSION So I have done my due diligence, suffered the wafers and derrieres in the name of my craft and to keep you all informed, it is a sector that is a traditional to Colombia as coffee and arepas but it really needs a turnaround across the border in order to get itself firmly on the right path - ColombiaModa is literally an attractive place but in the end it is the sales that will keep all of these fine young designers at the sewing tables and the models on the catwalk.