Indian textile industry gets ready for makeover

Wednesday, 04 February 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The Indian textile industry, which has created a global market for itself with its competitive price and versatility, is now repositioning itself as a source of apparel design, textiles and manufacture to target the international client and increase exports manifold. In order to change the image of India as only a cloth manufacturing country which provides material at cheap rates, the Ministry of Textiles has asked the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) to create an event which would focus on the industry's capabilities which range from quality material to producing world class designs for the international market. Thus, NIFT has tied up with Australian Fashion Innovators (AFI) to create a comprehensive platform where all players in the textile industry from yarn makers, processing units, cloth mills and designers work as a consortium to promote India as the new source for all international players, especially for design. "India is exporting around $13 billion of textiles presently but to improve our share we have to innovate our items for the global market. International brands have to be convinced that they can source all their product requirements from cutting to designing to India," says Textiles Secretary SB Mohapatra. Says Simon Lock, CEO, AFI: "India has a lot of potential for increasing exports but it has to be showcased. Thus we have worked on an event 'dsyn04' which would be a one point source for the Indian apparel design and production for the global industry". The event, which will be held in March in New Delhi would see the unveiling of 165 international collections made by 100 designers. In order to focus on the export front, international retailers like Selfridges, Marks and Spencer, Liberty, Walmart, Gap and Topshop have been invited for the event. "At present India is a great destination for cut and sew operations wherein international organisations give the Indian houses the design which is executed here. But post quota regime, India stands to gain if it improves on quality and design, which all world players are looking at," says Dsyn Core Team Member Sanjay Gupta. Many international organisations are in the process of consolidating their operations worlwide wherein they would require huge apparel on short notice. It is in this sector that India stands to gain by providing international quality and sensible designs, says Gupta. Though many designers and industrial houses are at presently sending finished designs to global houses, the industry has to be consolidated if the country as a whole has to be projected, he says, Moreover, as the target importing countries are North America, Europe, Austro-Asia, our designers need to work on those sensibilities to be globally accepted, he adds. Says assistant professor (fashion technology) NIFT Asha Baxi: "There is no better time than this to reposition the Indian textile sector as a hi-design export hub as a lot of international organisations are using India as a fashion inspiration". Selfridges recently did a promotion with Indian inspiration and many international trend forecasts have Indian inspirations included. "Though these things are now just a drop in the ocean, we have to concentrate on hi-quality wear which has been our drawback from many years," says Baxi. In order to cut costs, many export houses cut on quality thus the cloth may shrink or bleed or may be difficult to iron which the international market is not ready to accept. Thus we have to bring together the industry as a whole including processing units, designers and other players in the industry together to improve their quality which would help in increasing exports, she says. "Once international players accept India as a source for apparel design, exports would increase manifold," she adds stressing that India has to stress on establishing an Indian identity globally as the Japanese have done and also Hong Kong.
Source: IANS