Reviving Khadi with Khadi Denim Jeans

A new type of denims may soon become the new rage in the fashion world. The traditional khadi, introduced by our Father of our Nation–Mahatma Gandhi–has been reintroduced as Khadi Denim in to the main stream fashion market by the Rajkot-based Saurashtra Rachnatmak Samiti (SRS) eight months back, which has proved to be successful in the country.Now the leading Denim manufacturer Arvind Limited are planning to market the khadi Denim across the world. Khadi denim is a hand-spun and hand-woven Cotton fabric with 12-count twisted thread.

The traditional khadi popularised by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, has been reinvented in the form of ‘khadi-denim’ with a view to boost sales in today’s competitive market flooded with national and international apparel brands. Rajkot-based Saurashtra Rachnatmak Samiti (SRS) introduced khadi-denim in the market about eight months back, which is now proving to be a hit.

Gandhi used khadi as a tool to fight against the British rule and made the khadi-producing ‘charkha’ a symbol of the Indian non-violent freedom movement. He promoted khadi as a means of self-employment for people, that was ultimately aimed at reviving the villages. On Gandhi’s call, Indian people renounced Britain-imported cloth to take up khadi, bankrupting Manchester in the process.

However, after witnessing khadi sales dwindling over the past few years, SRS decided to give a modern touch to the traditional cloth to revive it.

“Year-by-year, the sale of khadi has been decreasing and more and more people associated with the khadi industry leave the profession,” SRS Chairman Davendra Desai said.

“This made us think about how to arrest the decline in sale and save the livelihood of the people. We decided to give khadi more of a modern and 21st century make-over by producing designer dress, shirts and denim-khadi, instead of only the traditional kurta-pyjamas,” Desai said. “Out of all these products, denim-khadi has been a hit in sales at all our outlets in Gujarat. Now, the biggest denim player in the market, Arvind Mills, has contacted us for mass-scale production of khadi-denims,” he said.

“Arvind has asked for about 20,000 meters of khadi denim per month. But as there is a manpower constraint at present, initially we would supply 5,000 meters. The supplies starts from ‘Labh Panchami’, which over a period of time would increase to 20,000 meters per month. ” Devendra Desai, president of SRS.

According to source, SRS started supplying khadi denim from October 31 to Aravind mills.

A pair of jeans made of this versatile fabric is set to cost Rs 10,000, making it one of the most expensive jeans. Khadi denim will not be machine-made but hand-woven on a charkha, thus employing heavy manpower. This is seen as a major contributing factor to the steep price of this fabric.

Posted on February 9, 2012, in Business, Fashion and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.

  1. This is an important info, I had never heard of it.Looks like its time we are back to the pre independence swadeshi days, thanks for sharing 🙂

  2. In spite of one’s fondness for handspun cotton, the range of materials and colors available and the high prices make khadi a difficult choice. In addition, organic dyed khadi tends to fade early, resulting in higher cost per unit over time. The Khadi coops need to look for ways to make it more competitively priced. Khadi is supposed to be the grassroot fabric, yet it seems to cost more than the most expensive mill textile. THe same is with denim, which was originally the working man’s fabric. A strange coming together of two grassroot symbols that have turned into elitist statements.

    Funny.

  3. COOL INFO 🙂 let’s wait
    Dee..

  4. Really interesting…

  5. navneet sharma

    We are are proud of India’s precolnial technical skills and ecofriendly system of production which fruitfully employed majority of manpower.Today India has rightly begun to look forward to reviving the traditional skills incorporating modern trends.Revival of hand spun and hand woven textiles will surely prove to be an answer to the problems of poverty and unemployment thus giving a boost to economic growth in real terms.All Indians should support khadi.

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