A lot of people travel to India for exquisite crafts and souvenirs, but India is also one of the world’s leading textile and garment manufacturers. As of 2014, there are nearly 600 million textile consumers in India, many with a growing disposable income.
Textile exports have traditionally been dominated by developed countries like the U.S., Canada and the UK. With this rapidly changing and growing population, more and more retailers big and small are looking to India to expand their business.
Anyone wishing to travel to India to take advantage of its growing sustainable textile and clothing industries need the correct travel documents. Fortunately, the online India visa application is now available for many nationalities.
Some African countries have already begun to collaborate with Indian manufacturers, such as the recent partnership between Leoht Africa has the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
Five P Venture Pvt. Ltd
Five P Venture Pvt. Ltd. was founded in 2013 with the mission of protecting and preserving the textile weaving heritage of Chennimalai in Southern India.
Five P’s purpose is to foster sustainable clothing consumption by showing that fair manufacturing practices are the key to a profitable business model. They learn what their customers need by connecting with weavers, tailors, craftsmen, designers, and brands.
Customers can co-create with Five P using its 5-step formula:
1. Choose a fibre
2. Choose yarn or fabric dyeing
3. Get a woven sample
4. Make product
5. Approve the sample
Five P Venture can be found in Southern India, in Tamil Nadu.
Dibella India
Dibella India provides high-quality clothing that is crafted from regenerative and recycled materials. The company is located in Bangalore and also has European headquarters in Germany.
Dibella India is committed to providing their customers with sustainable apparel and textiles through careful attention to the principles of fair trading, low impact production, and the recycling of packaging materials.
The business welcomes new product ideas with the aim of converting them into sustainable products that stand the test of time.
Pratibha Syntex
Pratibha Syntex, a vertically-integrated manufacturer of knitted textile products, is a sustainability-orientated company that seeks to create organic relationships across the value chain.
Pratibha helps link 35,000 farmers, 10,000 workers, and apparel brands in over 20 countries. Besides manufacturing cotton, fibres and fabrics for apparel, Pratibha Syntex also engages in social initiatives to help provide employment for women in rural India.
The brand produces a range of products, from essentials to activewear and fashion, and works with a number of leading brands such as Patagonia and Fruit of the Loom.
No Nasties
No Nasties, which was founded in 2011, produces 100% organic, fair trade, vegan clothing. The brand’s ethos has a strong focus on tackling the textile industry’s role in the climate crisis, with the promise that each product has a positive impact on the planet, and never negative.
The company has a “planet positive” pledge which states that they will remove more CO2 from the air than each product creates to make it, ship it, and even wash and wear it.
Some ways in which No Nasties focuses on sustainability are through the use of 100% organic cotton, Fairtrade certified factories, and revolutionary recycled packaging.
Doodlage
Doodlage focuses on upcycling post-consumer textile waste and scraps into short, limited edition collections. What the company then has leftover as a waste products is further used to produce accessories, soft furnishing products, and paper to make packaging and stationery.
They partner with artisans in ethical production units around the world to offer their customers an authentic handcrafted product. All of Doodlage’s garments and fabrics are manufactured in ethical factories, and their packaging has been designed to be free of plastic.
B Label
B Label is a brand by Bombay Hemp Company (BOHECO), which produces clothing made from natural hemp fibres. Hemp is a highly sustainable textile as it thrives with minimal water, requires no pesticides or fungicides, helps restore vital nutrients back to the soil, is UV resistant, carbon negative, and long-lasting.
The company produces high-quality hemp clothing as well as home products such as table accessories and cushion covers.
Products by B Label can be found in various parts of India, including New Delhi, Goa, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Uttarakhand. The company also has pop up shops in Mumbai.
