IMPRESSIONS from a Cross-section

It may always remain difficult for Indians staying abroad to integrate Indian clothing into their everyday wear, ethnic remains the go-to choice for occasion wear, especially at Indian gatherings. Over 300 million Indians have migrated to various countries for education and employment, but the rituals continue to be essential to them. The Indian fashion market is growing at a staggering rate. A Technopak project estimates the ethnicwear market to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent to reach $19,600 million by 2018. From an e-commerce perspective, sites selling Indian ethnicwear or indutvas have projected the international market at $2 billion. The global opportunity for ethnicwear comprises of two main types of customers - NRI market and non-Indian market.

The unorganised segment, which still caters to the ethnicwear industry on a large basis, has demonstrated steady growth over the past years. It is set to grow by 8.4 per cent over the next decade from the present ? 61,679 crore ($11.63 billion). Modern retail, especially large format retailers are ramping up their expansion plans across metros, tier I and tier II cities. This contributes significantly to the growth of the Indian ethnicwear market. The women's segment currently accounts for an overwhelming 87 per cent of the total ethnicwear market at ? 54,425 crore ($10.26 billion).

The womenswear segment alone is expected to grow at a steady rate of 8 per cent over the coming decade. The ethnic kidswear segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10 per cent for the next few years. Within kidswear, girls' ethnicwear market is two and a half times larger than that of the boys. Menswear market is at ?1,623 crore ($305.82 million) and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.5 per cent, but this will be guided by occasion-based purchases. 

Online shoppers are expected to increase from 20 million in 2013 to 40 million in 2016. According to a recent study, a significantly low (19 per cent), but fast-growing internet population of 243 million in 2014 is an indicator of the sector's huge growth potential in India. This underlines the potential of internet use in India, suggesting that as internet penetration increases, the potential of growth of the e-commerce industry will also increase. It also predicts that the Indian e-commerce market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 63 per cent to reach $8.5 billion (?54,304 crore approximately) in 2016 owing to the growth in the penetration levels of mobile and internet and increased consumer demand. 

Gujarat is known for its highly elaborate embroidery work; it is where needle work originated. Mirrors add beauty to the handwork as they are stitched with colourful silk thread. Rajasthani embroidery is done with pattu threads with colourful wool. Patchwork, which later found prominence across the sub-continent and beyond is also originated from Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh stands out as the state with high quality hand and machine embroidery. Chikankari, a type of needle work, also originated in UP. Zardozi work that found prominence in UP is the most incredible form of embroidery. Benaras brings about an amalgamation of both Mughal and Hindu styles when it comes to needle work.

The time required for a particular design depends upon the work on the sari. Our design team undertakes new prints based on market trends and fashion. Various types of fashionable fabrics come into the market, and our team tries their level best to incorporate trends.

Sari is one of the world's oldest and perhaps the only surviving unstitched garment from the past. Over the millennia, it has not only become a sensuous, glamorous, all-time-wear for Indian women but also the 'canvas' for weavers and printers to create artistic weaves, prints and jewelled or gold-silver embellishments. To keep Indian traditions alive, we do create traditional saris in bandhej, khacchi, silk, dharmavaram and kanjeevaram. We receive maximum sales from exporting to 27 countries worldwide and we have some highly valuable customers like Walmart. Most of our business comes from exports. Apart from that, we have good amount of sales in the domestic market.