Interview

From a 90-day credit norm to 250 and counting, India’s textile market has turned into a waiting game. One jolt followed another — demonetisation, GST, lockdowns, wild cotton swings. Through it all, Gujarat’s textile heartland endures, with traders and manufacturers like Gaurang Bhagat and his LB Tex battling to keep India’s fabric trade from tearing apart.

A riven industry, dumping from China, GST mismatch, need for a uniform countrywide textile policy, the scourge that is fake billing — in spite of it all and more, the enormous potential that this ancient warpwork holds is shackled by systemic inefficiencies, implores Gaurang Bhagat, Treasurer at the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and Founder of the ₹1000-crore LB Tex.

Surat-based Man Made Textiles Research Association or MANTRA is one of the eight national level Textiles Research Associations (TRAs) and one among the leading in man-made fibres. While the key focus is the textile industry in the synthetic capital of the country, it works on the overall textile development and on technical textiles in general. In conversation with Director Dr Arup Rakshit.

Where does design fit in the textile-fashion hierarchy? The warp in crafts and livelihood, and the missing weft of innovation. Why has Indian design fallen short of its promise on the global platform? Dr Mihir Bholey, former Principal Faculty, Interdisciplinary Design Studies, Science and Liberal Arts at the National Institute of Design (NID), discusses it all and more in this freewheeling conversation.

CottonConnect is transforming global  cotton supply chains through regenerative farming, full traceability, and collaborative brand partnerships. Led by CEO Alison Ward, the social enterprise empowers farmers, promotes sustainability, and builds climate resilience across India, Pakistan, China and beyond. With scalable programmes and robust impact measurement, CottonConnect aims to make  sustainable cotton the norm, not the exception, in a volatile global market.

Triggered by the logging of 1500-year-old trees, activist-minded Nicole Rycroft, who can also deliver physiotherapy, decided to channel it towards protecting the world’s forests, species, and climate by founding Canopy. The passionate, solutions-driven tree-hugger ‘Cano-pal’ team today straddles four continents as it aligns to transform unsustainable supply chains and advance forest conservation and community rights. In a free-wheeling conversation, the founder and executive director shares how Canopy works with 1,000+ global brands to drive transformative action to eliminate the use of Ancient and Endangered Forests in packaging and textiles while scaling NextGen solutions, and also the route that India needs to follow to achieve its potential.

Zurich-based Gherzi Organisation, incepted in 1929, is a global textile management consulting and engineering company, that has since emerged as a leader for strategic development and expansion of companies in the textile industry, from production to retail. Its services range from engineering of new factories to strategy consulting as also corporate finance. Leading its global team is Giuseppe Gherzi. Gherzi talks India, what ails its textile sector and what can it do to capture the opportunities that exist.

1994. Pioneers yet outliers in an industry focused on conventional resources, a materials science company, developing and commercialising circular economy technologies using industrial and consumer waste streams from the fashion, food, and forestry sectors, is today hoping that consumer awareness and regulatory pressure will trigger collaborations between scientists and designers, leading to responsible material solutions. The face of the Tex2Tex RPET division and COO of Vancouver-based Earth Protex, Samuel Goldstein shares a journey that began decades before sustainability or material science would become buzzwords.

Working at the intersections of farming, leather and fashion, Alice Robinson and Sara Grady founded British Pasture Leather (BPL) to reshape entrenched perceptions of leather and forge the disconnection of this natural material from its source: farms, land and animals. The co-founder duo share how they embarked on their remarkable journey from field to fork and fashion.

Worn-out jeans, old woollen sweaters, polyester textile waste and recycled linen is what Goor-based Blue Loop Originals uses to craft a high-quality second life for discarded clothing. With the mission “Worn to Reborn”, its Dutch Founder Ron van de Wiel started Blue Loop in 2013 when he realised that 640 million pairs of jeans are discarded annually in Europe. Texfash talks to the man to know more.