Fashion
India’s new GST makes artisan-made ethnic wear costlier
Before GST restructuring, garments priced above ₹1,000 were taxed at 12 per cent, while those below that threshold attracted 5 per cent GST. The GST Council has now raised the price threshold to ₹2,500. Under the new system, garments priced up to ₹2,500 attract 5 per cent GST, while those priced above fall into the next slab of 18 per cent, as the 12 per cent slab was removed. This has effectively increased the tax rate on expensive garments. Branded apparel, premium winter wear like coats and suits, wedding attire, and traditional ethnic wear—often priced above ₹2,500—are now costlier for consumers.
India’s next-gen GST reforms have simplified taxation with a uniform 5 per cent rate and resolved the inverted duty structure.
However, garments priced above ₹2,500 now face 18 per cent GST, making premium apparel, artisan-made ethnic wear, and wedding attire costlier.
Industry bodies warn this will hurt affordability, promote grey market activity, and urge a review of price-based slabs for garments.
Industry bodies have expressed concern over price-based GST slabs for garments. The Retailers Association of India (RAI) stated, “Price-based thresholds will create distortions and promote grey market activity. They will lead to misreporting, compliance challenges, and harm organised retail—especially mid- and premium-priced products.” RAI added that the new tax structure could discourage domestic manufacturing, undermine Make in India, and artificially force consumers to downgrade purchases rather than expand demand.
The higher 18 per cent tax rate on garments above ₹2,500 is expected to hurt middle-class affordability, weaken the organised retail sector, and impact categories like wedding apparel, winter wear, artisan-made products, festive clothing, and traditional weaves.
RAI said that all garments should ideally be taxed at 5 per cent, or at the very least, a more reasonable price threshold should be established.
The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), however, welcomed the increase in the price threshold for the 5 per cent tax rate, calling it a “positive move”. But it urged the GST Council to abolish price-based taxation altogether. All garments, irrespective of price, should be taxed at 5 per cent, or at least a more reasonable and realistic price level should be set, CMAI said.
It further noted that garments above ₹2,500 are also widely consumed by the middle class, including woollen clothing, occasion wear, Indian traditional clothing, handlooms, and embroidered artisan-made products. All these will now see a significant price rise due to the revised GST rate. CMAI strongly urged the GST Council and government to review this aspect.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
Published
September 16, 2025
The closures at the failed Bodycare chain aren’t over. Only shortly after it closed 32 of its 147 stores, the business is now closing a further 30 with the loss of 235 jobs. That means 685 jobs have gone so far since the collapse a few weeks ago.
A spokesperson for the administrators said that there had been “interest from a number of parties” regarding the remaining 85 stores that it’s hoped will continue to trade under new owners.
Of the new list of UK-wide stores set for closure, 14 will happen as soon as 16 September with the rest to shut on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, given the shortage of stock and costs associated with operating stores, it is no longer viable to continue to trade all 115 stores retained on appointment,” the spokesperson said.
In late August, it had emerged that the business was on the verge of collapse and was seeking a buyer to try to avoid administration. But as is so often the case in such situations, a business like that is much more attractive post-administration given that the filing will have allowed it to shed jobs and exit store lease such more easily than as a going concern.
The chain’s problems were recently cited by Warpaint London as one of the issues that led to its own profit warning.
Until its administration, Bodycare was run by former Beales chief Tony Brown and was owned by Baaj Capital. The company had enjoyed a long and successful history but the pandemic was a major blow from which it hadn’t properly recovered even as UK retail opened back up.
Copyright © 2025 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.
Published
September 16, 2025
The action in New York Fashion Week was concentrated in Brooklyn on Monday with distinctive and distinguished shows by Tory Burch and Diotima, after the day had opened with Zankov in Chelsea.
Tory Burch: Fashion in a cathedral of finance
No one can ever fault Tory Burch’s excellent sensibility when it comes to staging a show, especially this season, when she presented inside the luxury condominium skyscraper One Hanson Place.
Originally the HQ of Williamsburg Savings Bank, the main lobby in this former cathedral of finance built in the 1930s contains elements of Romanesque ad Byzantine architecture. Making it the ideal location for this eclectic collection, which blended snappy American sportswear, distressed fabrics and kicky imperfections.
Though diverse in its references, the collection was nevertheless coherent its fashion statement and target. Few creators today better understand the needs of busy working women than Burch. Her clothes have polish but are never prim.
She takes risks – like a great series of dropped waist skirts and dresses – but manages to pull them off with aplomb. She creates monogram silk sweaters but keeps them playful with myriad letterings. She drapes plissé flared dresses in liquid viscose with gusto.
Tory’s aesthetic is cool, cerebral and feminine, but never saccharine or insipid. Her cast looked like busy women brimming with panache armed with a great new Lee Radziwill handbag – each marching with supreme confidence.
Little wonder her front-row boasted Naomi Watts, Qin Lan, Tessa Thompson and Emma Roberts.
“We were thinking about the complexity of women and different facets of their style. Femininity and strength, precision and imperfection. The clash of pristine tailoring with naïve florals, seed beading with distressed leather,” opined Burch, who took a bow with a huge smile, the sounds of loud clapping echoing off the gilded mosaic ceiling.
Diotima: Rejecting colonialism through Carnival
Colonialism, and Caribbean culture’s fightback against that evil via the tradition of Carnival, was the theme of an innovative and intriguing collection from Diotima this season.
Yet though riffing on carnival archetypes, the collection was far from being clothes for a pageant. Diotima’s founder Rachel Scott referenced many carnival characters – with names like Baby Doll, Dame Lorraine – but the results were very wearable, cool clothes rather than theatrical statements.
Blending elements of active sport and couture: like a hooded sleeveless mesh top and pants finished by a layered skirt in shards of chiffon; or mini waistcoats accompanied by matte viscose crepe knit skirts. Her chevron-finished sequinned mesh bodies will have a huge impact and be copied by lesser talents and high street stores.
Scott can drape and sculpt with the best of them, her skill highlighted in some fab crepe lapel-free redingotes, layered asymmetrically below the waist.
Combining all her tricks and techniques into a super series of evening looks, they were worn by a cast with J’Ouvert pre-dawn street festival make-up with daubs of silver mud. That was before a bravura finale of feathery gowns with interior light weight petticoats.
Carnival couture received an enormous cheer when Scott took her bow inside a battered old warehouse in Greenpoint.
Last year’s winner of the CFDA’s 2024 American Womenswear Designer Award, Scott was recently appointed creative director of Proenza Schouler. In a word, Jamaica-born Scott is also the single most original fashion designer in the Americas today.
Zankov: Knits and stripes in Chelsea
Monday began with a runway debut for Henry Zankov, whose knitwear-driven collections have been attracting a lot of attention of late.
Zankov is another recent prizewinner, nabbing the Google Shopping Emerging Designer of the Year title in 2024.
So, even though this was Zankov’s catwalks baptism, the show managed to attract buyers from Neiman Marcus, Harrods, Selfridges, Bergdorf and Sherri McMullen, whose chain of boutiques around San Francisco have earned her a reputation as a savvy diviner of coming trends.
Presented inside an all-white art gallery in Chelsea to an audience of barely 150, the collection was pretty and pleasing, even if the show never took off.
Boasting some eye-boggling fabrics – bonded burlap linens or wrinkled checkerboard intarsias – Zankov’s clothes look novel, though also oddly retro. With too many football jersey carwash stripes, and predictable sequin mesh sheaths. Plus, styling that featured headscarves and daffy sunglasses only managed to remind one of Alessandro Michele’s early Gucci shows a half decade ago. Not exactly a very now look.
Copyright © 2025 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.
The adjustment was also sharper and faster by international standards – when compared with more than 330 similar efforts in 123 countries worldwide since 1980. According to the review, Sri Lanka is now well-positioned to focus on making public finances work better for all citizens.
Sri Lanka can boost revenue by up to 2 per cent of GDP by 2029 without harming growth or equity, according to the World Bank.
Following significant fiscal stabilisation, the country is urged to focus on fairer taxation—especially direct taxes—and smarter spending.
Improved tax administration, efficient budgeting, and targeted reforms can enhance service delivery and support inclusive growth.
While fiscal measures helped restore stability, they have also placed pressure on households through higher indirect taxes and reduced real public-sector wages, and slowed growth due to lower public investment. The next phase of fiscal calibration should prioritise raising revenues in ways that support growth and fairness, and improve the quality of government spending.
The review recommends raising revenue more fairly and efficiently by shifting towards direct taxes—such as implementing a minimum corporate income tax—and by digitising tax administration to make compliance easier, more transparent, and efficient. On the spending side, it emphasises that neither increasing nor decreasing overall spending is feasible; instead, the focus should be on using existing resources more effectively. By spending smarter—improving efficiency, reducing waste, and enhancing service delivery—the government can achieve better outcomes without altering the total budget.
“Now that Sri Lanka has largely stabilised its economy, the challenge is to get better results from every rupee collected and spent,” said David Sislen, World Bank division director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. “This means modernising tax administration, focusing on direct taxes, and making sure public spending is both efficient and fair—especially for the most vulnerable.”
Looking ahead, Sri Lanka can design the next phase of its public finance reforms to build long-term fiscal resilience. Strengthening links between planning and budgeting, improving accountability, and focusing on measurable performance outcomes will help deliver better services, support inclusive growth, and protect the most vulnerable.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)
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