Almost two decades back, Rajesh Pratap Singh graduated from NIFT Delhi to start his professional journey as a designer, since then he has been constantly working on developing new fabrics by trying out various fibres and yarns. Spending 80% of his working time in R&D, he has experimented with merino wool and cashmere from the beginning of his career along with doing wonders with cotton and linen by applying various traditional Indian techniques like ‘Ikat’ or ‘Ajrak’ prints on them. Taking his quest further, Rajesh is now aggressively partnering with leading Indian mills to make Indian fabrics more interesting and give new identity to India… as a source of high-end fabrics using Indian crafts in a contemporary way. He shares more with Team Apparel Online at his Faridabad unit.
Excerpts from interview
AO: What kind of tie-ups are you doing with Indian mills and is this collaborative concept a growing trend?
RPS: If you see textile mills outside India they work with a lot of designers – textile designers and fashion designers for developments. The Indian mills traditionally have never worked with designers as their focus is primarily to manufacture ‘A’ kind of fabric and in huge volumes, but companies like Arvind Mills, Raymond, Vardhman, Uniworth, to mention a few prominent ones, are realising the importance of R&D and are moving towards creating new kinds of fabrics, investing hugely on R&D and to support their design team they are getting designers on board.
Companies like Raymond were earlier just hiring services of international designers but when they realised that an Indian designer can also help, I was roped in. I did a lot of R&D with Raymond on worsted wool. Similarly I am working with Arvind to give new look to denim. Arvind is one company which is always open to R&D and we have worked together for years with Aamir Akhtar, the CEO, taking so much interest in new developments in denim. The collaboration works both ways, they help me in my development and I help in theirs. They have really helped me a lot in creating my selvage denim as they have those old looms. Right now we are together working on creating khadi denim and natural indigo dyeing on denim. I am also working with them on steel yarn blending with denim. For Vardhman too we are developing steel fabric.
Once you start working like partners then you start sharing your inputs. If I develop some interesting fabric, which I think is appropriate for denim and can be mass produced, I send it to them. I have a handloom setup at Neemrana where I do my developments which are later converted to powerlooms or autolooms; it’s more like a laboratory where we develop samples and send to mills or weavers for bigger quantity production.
Most mills, still today, are really not open to this level of R&D as they depend on developments which have come through them via buyers, as they are very production-driven, but I think Indian mills should look forward to branding themselves as creators of exclusive fabrics to be valued outside the boundaries of India. I see this collaborative concept as a future trend.
AO: As a designer, what kind of fabric do you prefer for your products?
RPS: Obviously, I prefer to work with natural fabrics, but there is a part of me which totally believes in technical fabric. I do want to know what’s going on in the world as we manufacture uniforms as well so I realize that natural fabrics aren’t the best option all the times. We need performance-based technical fabrics in uniforms, so that’s a different world. I admit that I have a soft corner for handloom, as I can develop crafted fabric on these looms like brocades or structured fabrics or Ikats. Some of them can be converted into powerloom or auto looms. The idea is to make really modern textiles. There are some techniques which we can do, but which weavers can’t do so those are produced at our unit and then taken to the weavers or some mills we know who can convert those fabrics.
We are working with Shingora in Ludhiana, doing a whole line of scarves and interesting textiles, we’ve done developments with aluminium and silver also. I work a lot with wool, not just with merino but also with cashmere, the Indian cashmere. I also do work with some imported fabrics as well, largely from Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
AO: To elevate the Indian textile industry…, which areas do we need to really work on?
RPS: I feel there is disconnect between how the owner of the mills perceive the business and how the future of the business is going to go! Investment in R&D is not needed to just replace what we are importing, but for sustainable growth and survival. Mills should not just focus on mass production or immediate solutions; they need to work on design development. We have amazing talent in India they just need to use them.
We need to do R&D at every stage. In manmade fibres we need to work on blends and technology to improve those fibres. In natural fibres we have quite a bit of development going on but we need to work on blends. A lot of these mills have the manpower, the brains; they just need to be given more support and more exposure.
AO: We still fall short in terms of very fine fabrics in cotton. Where is the catch, at the processing level or the weaving level?
RPS: It’s at every level. Fine weaving takes place on very slow speed looms; so it is worth their while for a mill to reduce the speed of their looms or use looms which are really old as they would be very slow. Not just the textile people but the fashion and home furnishing people also need to use and demand such fine count and construction fabrics. Developments are only done when there is a demand and commercial viability. Everything is possible in India, one just need to open their mind to it.
AO: Where do you see the direction in textiles in 5 years, will it be more of organic and natural fibres or will polyesters rule?
RPS: Our handloom sector needs to be projected better; there are amazing varieties that can be done and we need to give our support to this sector, as no other country has this craft and it can give us a lot of foreign exchange as a high-end fabric. I also think performance-based fabrics is where the future lies. Saving environment is such a big issue today and we need to be rational and make sure that we are not damaging nature. Which country, other than India, can give organic and eco-friendly products to the world… While other countries have to work towards it, we have it naturally, but we are not using it for our benefit and growth.
AO: Earlier it was said that the major bottleneck for India is the processing…, is this still true?
RPS: That we need better processing is no secret, but at the same time it’s very capital-intensive so the Government should come forward and give incentives to the textile industry to invest more on processing. Not just at the post-weaving stage but even at the yarn and fibre stage. If mills start concentrating and investing more on that area, I think it’s going to benefit them in their growth projectile.
AO: How would you rate our powerloom sector?
RPS: They can do wonders with their looms but they are not doing it. They are somewhere in-between, neither they are crafting the fabrics nor investing on R&D. There are techniques which can be done only on powerlooms and not on autolooms but because this sector is largely unorganized and is essentially focusing on mass production, so most of the time they can’t find their space. I find that area very interesting because essentially they are slow speed looms and they can be tampered with a lot. They should do an analysis of what their strength is and work on that. They shouldn’t try to be a mill or a handloom. They should open themselves to R&D and they need to focus on their strengths rather their weaknesses.
There are looms which are almost 50-60 years old; they are the beauties, and the ‘Rolls Royce’ of the industry, and on these looms one can make really beautiful couture fabric. Arvind makes its selvage denim on these old looms. Also the Indian textile industry needs to come together and have a policy of its own; right now we are really disoriented.
AO: What message would you like to give to the Indian textile sector?
RPS: I don’t feel that I am eligible to give any suggestion but yes I would like to say that I am not expecting our mills to reach Italy’s level. I am just saying that you make fabric that they are not making and make something which is ‘exceptional’. We are always trying to copy something, why do we need to do that! I’m a huge fan of Aamir Akhtar because he’s not just trying to make denim which everyone else is making, but he is also talking about denim which is Indian. We need to make amazing Indian fabric and we have to do that. We can admire and love what Italians or the likes do but we don’t have to copy them.
