Higher cotton prices and rising labour costs in China will leave US and international retailers facing wholesale clothes prices this year that are up to 15 per cent higher than those in 2010, according to Fitch. The credit rating agency said that US consumers would probably face an increase in the price of apparel as retailers grapple with the first prolonged bout of cotton inflation since the 1990s.

The price rises, which will affect brands ranging from North Face to Levi’s, are signalling the end of a two-decade era in which clothing costs declined as western manufacturers shifted more production to low-cost emerging markets.

To read the whole article go to FashionUnited >>

www.fashionunited.co.uk/fashion-news/fas...o-rise-2011042611885