Sought after worldwide for their sophistication, they are used by major fashion houses but ...
India is one of the world's textile manufacturing giants. According to the MFI, it is the EU's 4th largest apparel supplier with goods worth €1.8 billion and 3rd largest textile supplier with €1.2 billion worth of materials.
Fabrics produced in India are used both for clothing, sought after by major fashion houses such as Dior, which embellishes its creations with Indian embroidery, and for technical garments and furnishings. Globavia Spa has entered into a partnership with a major Indian firm to supply fabrics for use in the production of school uniforms, uniforms, linens and more.
The art of Indian textile spinning dates back to the 14th century. Then beginning in the 1600s, with the arrival of the English, fine fabrics from the East spread to Europe. Great success have the "Indian" cotton cloths used for both clothing and interior decoration.
Much of India's economic fortunes, before the advent of new technologies that radically transformed the Indian economy, came precisely from textile exports. Depicted on India's tricolor is the so-called charka ("wheel"), the traditional loom on which the skein of cotton is stretched, a sign of the great historical importance held by textile manufacturing.
The textile industry now employs about 45 million people in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors and is managed by India's Ministry of Textiles, which is responsible for policy formulation, planning, development, export promotion and regulation.
India is the second largest fiber producer in the world, and the main fiber produced is cotton. Other fibers produced include silk, wool with 1.8 percent production worldwide, and synthetic fibers. Silk and cotton, sourced especially from Andhra and Rajastana, are the most widely used materials for productions, but there is also extensive production of jute and hemp fabrics.
The typical garment, the sari, is made from Mangaldirj a colorful and precious cotton cloth. It consists of sidebands obtained by copper spinning and floral patterns handmade by artisans. In the sari the different colors are synonymous with a precise social status, it is then in its color that the whole symbolism of Indian textiles is encapsulated: red is characteristic of brides because it represents fertility and sensuality; yellow is the color of spirituality and birth, so it is worn by women who have just given birth; and white represents mourning.
There are mainly two Indian weaving techniques, Mal and Khadi. The former is a very light rich weaving, while the other is made from cotton staple or wool that is hand spun and woven not very tightly so that it is thick. Khadi fabric has a strong significance for Indians: a symbol of domestic production to be contrasted with Western textiles, Mahatma Gandhi made it the emblem of the liberation movement.
Varanasi, Mathura, and Vrindaban are the centers that specialize in the zari technique, a type of workmanship that uses a warp made of both gold and silver metal threads, with which silk brocades sought after throughout the World are made.
Among the decoration techniques, one of the most widely used is what is known as block printing, which involves imprinting ink on fabrics through the use of wooden stencils handmade by artisans. Many garments are colored through batik, the ancient Indonesian art of painting fabrics to the exclusion of certain parts that are made waterproof through the use of waxes or other materials.
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