Unusually high cotton prices have apparel makers scrambling to keep down costs, but retailers and consumers need to be aware: cotton clothing will be getting more expensive, the New York Times reports.
“It’s really a no-choice situation,” Wesley R. Card, president and chief executive of the Jones Group, the company behind Anne Klein, Nine West and other brands, told the Times. “Prices have to come up.”
Other apparel makers say they have held the line on prices this year, but next year will be different, the Times reports. The V. F. Corp., maker of 7 for All Mankind and The North Face, says most brands will probably cost more next year, and its cotton-heavy jeans lines are particularly susceptible to increases. Jones says its increases could be in the high single digits or more.