India is renowned for producing quality handmade textiles from local plant fibres and dyes using specialised techniques honed over thousands of years. It’s long relied on the export of those products too, but globalisation was not without its price.
“The industrial revolution put a focus on quantity and cutting costs,” says Kavita Parmar, Founder and Creative Director of the IOU Project, which produces and sells handmade apparel from textiles handwoven in India. “This led to terrible consequences for the people who make fabrics and undeniably for the planet.”
While traditional, plant-based dyes work harmoniously with the environment, synthetic, chemical dyes are cheaper.
Christian Smith, Founder and Director of Inclusi, a sustainability consultancy for the fashion industry, agrees. “Pollution from chemical use in the fashion industries is a key issue to address not only for the environmental impact but also in terms of public health.”
Industrialisation also heralded a wave of reproduction of traditional designs. These imitations were passed off as originals and even exported back into India.
However, the Indian textile industry got another impetus with Mahatma Gandhi’s fight for independence when he advocated local artisans to start producing their own cloth again. Key producers took up this challenge to help rebuild the industry.
“Many traditional techniques such as wood blocking and using natural dyes had almost died out in India until a revival was started by brands such as Fabindia and Anokhi,” says Dubai-based importer Nea Ferrier.
However, fake versions of traditional Indian hand block prints are still in abundance.
Anu Mohari, a second-generation textile producer who runs Ekaadri Fabrics in Bagru, Rajasthan, says original, quality designs can’t be mass produced, and screen-printed or computerised imitations come cheaper and quicker. “Hand block printing contains many layers of the process including the washing of raw fabric, colour mixing and hand stamping process.”
She says original, hand-printed fabric will include small irregularities that don’t exist in reproductions, so savvy consumers can watch out for patterns that are too perfect.
One of her specialities is the intricate dabu block print, where fabric is printed with a paste of clay to make the pattern, then dyed with indigo. “When it comes to Indian dabu printing, no more than 20-25 metres of fabric can be printed in a day because dabu printing has even more layers of process,” says Mohari.
In looking for unique products and higher levels of quality, savvy consumers are inspiring big changes in the industry. “The global consumer is tired of the industrialised commodity and is very much looking for something customised to enhance their experience and share it to their own influence circle through social media,” says Parmar.
Social media is such an integral part of the equation for Nea Ferrier that she set up an Instagram account months before Oni Earth-Kind Fabrics launches its handmade Indian textiles in October.
Parmar, meanwhile, has built on her career in the fashion industry as both a designer and brand licensee to launch the IOU Project. Her goal was to create opportunities for Indian textile artisans to benefit from this consumer-driven shift in the industry.
She believes the market has huge potential for growth. “India has the largest number of traditionally skilled artisans in the world but less than 5 per cent of the global trade in that category,” says Parmar.
“Now we just have to help integrate them into the modern global market and interact with current trends to make them culturally relevant again.”
