Traditions are meant to be nurtured and when they are moulded to meet contemporary needs, the combination is alluring… a good example is the textile centre of Varanasi. Team Apparel Online recently toured the holy city for a first hand feel of this very ancient textile hub. Famous worldwide for its Banarasi sarees, the hub is now growing as a big polyester base for fashion and home furnishing fabrics and made-ups. Be it International designers or Indian, all go to the narrow lanes of this city to procure their fabrics. International brands/retailers like JCPenney, River Island, Forever 21, Ikea, CKNY, Sears, Winston, Dorothy Perkins, to mention a few, are sourcing fabrics from Varanasi. To keep the conventional, traditional designs like silk brocade, Kinkhab alive along with getting into newer fabrics like polyester and viscose the players in Varanasi are working towards upgrading their manufacturing facilities, getting compliances in place and building a stronger marketing approach.
A city with over 25,000 handlooms and over 50,000 power looms, Varanasi has around 160 plus exporters represented by an association called EUPEA (Eastern UP Exporters’ Association) accredited with ISO 9000. The association that is working towards enhancing export volumes from the city has approximately 150 members from textiles, handicrafts and carpet industry. Presently the total export turnover of the city is approximately Rs. 500 crore per annum, but industry estimates that the potential is much higher. While interacting with Team AO, Naveen Kapoor, President, EUPEA confides, “We are not getting enough support from the Government, however at our level we are working very hard to position Varanasi not only as a designer’s paradise, but also as a centre that caters to needs of mass fashion, both in apparel and home furnishing.”
Silk is Gradually Diminishing, Diversifying to Polyester/Viscose
Talking about the changing face of Varanasi, Past President of EUPEA, Mukesh Agrawal, Owner of Fabco, an exporter of silk/polyester furnishing and fashion fabrics says, “Varanasi is changing. It was earlier known for silk fabrics made on handlooms and power looms, but now it has become a poly-hub, as silk is getting expensive.” Interestingly, the city which has been a centre for design to Surat manufacturers is now evolving on the lines of Surat market in polys, “Yet the design concept of Varanasi which is the USP of the city… is still our core strength,” adds Mukesh, who himself is walking with time and has diversified into digitally printed fabric. “Earlier we were doing screen and hand printing, however, when digital printing technology came in, we thought of capturing it to expand our offerings. Now we are doing around 10,000 metres per month,” states Mukesh having six Japanese digital printing machines in its unit in Varanasi. “We have full back-end and post printing facilities where we do fashion fabrics and scarves,” avers Mukesh.
The textile players in Varanasi attribute the movement towards polyester largely to spiralling silk yarn prices. “Varanasi is drifting from pure silk to art silk, polyester and viscose. Price wise the product costs comes down to almost half,” remarks Haseen Ahmad of Pioneer Tex, manufacturer of scarves, stoles and home furnishings and exporting to the US, Japan, Canada, Turkey, Egypt, Germany and Italy.
Similar views came from Sanjeev Kapoor, Owner, Indian Silks, the only company which is manufacturing furnishing fabrics for upholstery and curtains on shuttle less looms. “The demand for silk has reduced and only 20% of buyers are asking for silk, it’s more of polyester now. Price is the biggest factor. Silk prices have gone up 3 times in two years. Presently the silk yarn price is Rs. 3000/kg,” informs Sanjeev who has recently set-up a knitting unit in Manesar, on the outskirts of Delhi to produce base fabrics for mattresses, car seat and aircraft seat base fabric for both domestic as well as international market.
Hemang who is still sticking to manufacturing of silk fabric echoed similar views. “Silk has lost a lot of ground in last one year, as the prices have sky rocketed. Though it’s stabilised now but not to the extent it used to be, so many people have shifted their fabric base to art silk, polyester viscose.”
Vaibhav Kapoor of Satyapal Kapoor & Sons, importers of all kinds of natural fibre yarns like linen, silk, very fine cotton and bamboo, feels that besides the spiralling silk yarn prices the shift is also due to changing trends. “100% silk is now being used more as patchwork or fashion accessories. Silk is being blended with other fibres as well because that’s the demand of the trend be it in India or globally,” points out Vaibhav who is importing yarns from China, Japan and Brazil. About 90% of his import is from China. All the zari and metallic yarns are being imported from Japan for embroidery which is a big industry in Varanasi and the surrounding areas.
“The textile community in Varanasi is gearing up to present a synergy of the old and the new capabilities to the international buyer for expanded market access.” -Rajeev Agrawal
Efforts to Retain the Traditional Skills of Varanasi
Varanasi is distinctly split into two kinds of textile segments. One is the weaver’s community which is still working on handlooms some of whom have switched over to power looms, and the other is the fabricators. “We want to keep the moghul traditional brocade and kinkhab alive and also to stop the karigars from getting out of their traditional handloom skills. The wage difference in power loom and handloom is Rs. 100/metre… handloom is more expensive. There are few designs which just cannot be produced on power loom like booty work. Because of NREGA scheme there is shortage of karigars; earlier we were paying Rs. 200 per day to the karigars, today we are giving Rs. 250 everyday just to survive handlooms if we do not take this initiative this skill will die,” says a passionate Rais Ahmad of Diamond Silk Coop Society Ltd.
“Honestly speaking a Walmart or an Ikea are concerned about the compliance issues but a Giorgio Armani is not as much. If someone wants a bling…Varanasi is the place. – ”Hemang Agrawal
The new generation of the weaving community is striving hard to walk with the time and simultaneously changing the landscape of this hub. We came across a very enterprising manufacturer and exporter of fabrics and made-ups Vakil Ahmad, Owner, Silk Fashion Creator. Vakil is one such fabric manufacturers from the weaving community who has initiated a cluster called Banaras Brocade Silk Cluster (P) Ltd.
While talking about the cluster Vakil says, “We have made a group, which comprises of 20-22 weavers and designers. We are now planning to come together and get all production-related activities under one roof so that the buyers can come there and get to see everything at one place. We’ll have a design studio which will be equipped with traditional and latest technology design set-up. Then we’ll have our own stitching set-up, own weaving, dyeing set-up, state-of-the-art lab for testing products so that we ourselves check the colour fastness, etc. and certify the products. We want to get the concept of marketing in Varanasi, it’s really missing here.” Besides all this the cluster would also start a training centre for handloom weaving to train the new generation.
“We want to keep the moghul traditional brocade and kinkhab alive and also to stop the karigars from getting out of their traditional handloom skills.” – Rais Ahmad
Growing Understanding of Compliance Needs
Barring a few exporters who are catering to international mass market, the majority of fabric manufacturers in Varanasi still feel that compliance is not an issue for them. Hemang Agrawal, Owner of The Surekha Group, a NIFT graduate, making very high-end fabrics for international and Indian designers like Rajesh Pratap Singh, Sabyasachi, Manish Arora, Bobby & Manju Grover, Abhishek Gupta to mention a few says, “Honestly speaking a Walmart or an Ikea are concerned about the compliance issues but a Giorgio Armani is not as much. Varanasi doesn’t have one dollar per metre fabric… as far as high-end designer fabrics are concerned, so a lot of buyers are not under our purview. If a designer wants 100 metres of a design, Varanasi can give that. We are happy doing 20 metres as well. The exclusivity of the fabric, even though per metre cost is much higher, attracts designers whether Indian or international to the city. We are totally ‘bling base’; if someone wants a bling…Varanasi is the place.”
Falling still in the cottage industry segment, Varanasi also suffers from a perception that the hub uses child labour however this is not correct as per Naveen. “My factory is fully compliant and has been audited by SGS and there are other exporters as well who do not keep children as they know the international norms. However, the traditional weaving community trains their own children so that they can learn ancestral skills from their parents, grandparents… that cannot be labelled as child labour. They go to school…after school whatever time they get, they learn the skills,” emphasises Naveen.
“We have made a group, which comprises of 20-22 weavers and designers. We are now planning to come together and get all production-related activities under one roof.” – Vakil Ahmad
Presently, dyeing is also an issue in Varanasi. Till now the hub is largely dependent on tub dyeing. Perhaps one strong reason for this is that weavers weave dyed yarns, while piece dyeing is almost negligible in Varanasi. Now some cone dyeing units are coming up to replace the conventional tub dyeing. “The Government has initiated a handloom cluster scheme whereby big process houses are coming up with Government aid,” informs Mukesh. “We do not have mechanized system of dyeing. I do see the landscape changing and in the last 3-4 years some plants have come up but even now we are doing only 2 to 3% of mechanized dyeing in total dyeing of Varanasi. Cone dyeing doesn’t exist here. But in coming 2-3 years this 2-3% would go up to 50% for sure be it cone or hang dyeing,” adds Hemang.
Talking about upgrading Varanasi as a potential sourcing hub for international buyers and the initiatives taken by EUPEA, Rajeev Agrawal, member EUPEA and owner of Silko International says, “We initiated a reverse BSM (Buyer-Seller Meet) last year, for which we received very good response from the international buyers.
