Apparel

Broder Bros., the apparel supplier located in Trevose, Pa., announced that it is rebranding as alphabroder. The new name unites the company’s four brands under a single umbrella to create simplified business practices and clear company messaging.

Four global retailers Primark, El Corte Ingles, Loblaw and Bon Marche have pledged to contribute to a $40 million compensation fund for victims of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in April, officials announced Dec. 24.

“An estimated $40 million will be required to compensate the victims and their beneficiaries, “ Lejo Sibbel from the International Labor Organization (ILO) told the Agence France-Presse (AFP). “To finance the payments to victims, international brands and retailers are making voluntary contributions into the fund, which is also open to contributions from any other international donors,” said Sibbel.

Delta Apparel, Duluth, Ga., submitted a Form S-3 with a universal shelf registration to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The shelf registration, if the SEC deems it effective, would permit Delta Apparel to sell up to $100 million its securities, which may consist of common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants or any combination of those options, through the next three years.

For most of the year, Dr. Tamara Khidoyatova treats patients as a doctor at a hospital here in this picturesque, old Silk Road city. But for a few weeks every autumn, she is forced to pick cotton, for which she is paid little or nothing.

Throughout the fall, when the cotton harvest comes in, the government drafts about a million people, primarily public-sector employees and professionals, to work as cotton pickers, helping bring in the harvest for the world's fifth-largest cotton exporting nation.

High-end yoga-wear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. named Lauren Potdevin as its chief executive and said founder Chip Wilson will step down as non-executive chairman.

Lululemon has been looking for a new CEO since June, when Christine Day said she would step down once a replacement was found.

Potdevin will take over in January 2014 from Day, who was behind Lulu's blistering growth rate and its transition from yummy mummy niche to broader, multi-sport appeal. Potdevin joins from TOMS Shoes and has earlier worked with Burton Snowboards and LVMH.

Charities like Goodwill sell or give away some of the used clothes they get. But a lot of the clothes get sold, packed in bales and sent across the ocean in a container ship. The U.S. exports over a billion pounds of used clothing every year—and much of that winds up in used clothing markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

On today's show, we visit a giant used-clothing market in Nairobi, Kenya to see what happens to American clothes (including, presumably, some Planet Money T-shirts) after Americans are done with them.

I heard whisperings of this many weeks ago, but was hesitant to believe it. After all, Sarah Van Aken seemed fearless, determined to bring some of the industrial luster back to the city, once a major manufacturing hub. Her flagship boutique, SA VA, sold well-constructed garments (all designed and manufactured in her on-site design and garment center, crammed with tables and sewing machines and swatches and rolling racks). Her clothing line, while not necessarily envelope-pushing in its design, was wearable, comfortable, made of easy-wearing fabrics that draped and folded and flattered.

We've been through enough winters to know that picturesque snow won't last. Take advantage of this brief window of beauty by selling robes and loungewear.

The Indian apparel industry should expect $60 billion in exports in the next three years. The surplus in exports is due to the resurgence of importing in the United States and Europe, which are the two biggest markets for Indian textiles and apparel.

April through October 2013 saw a 15.5 percent increase in apparel exports. Experts expect further increases in the years to come when U.S. and European exports are combined with exports to Israel, Russia, Brazil and Japan.

Pantone chose Radiant Orchid as the color of 2014. Here are nine ways to use the floral hue in the New Year.