Gandhigram Trust collaborates with fashion brand Kaveri to reimagine khadi ready to wear

Khadi is having its second on the runway. Whereas Indian designers equivalent to Rajesh Pratap Singh, and Shani Himanshu of 11.11/eleven eleven have given it a up to date spin, the handloom has additionally caught the flowery of worldwide designers. Earlier this yr, British designer Vivienne Westwood’s first-ever showcase at Mumbai’s Gateway of India spotlighted the textile, along with Chanderi and handwoven silks. In March, the Style Design Council of India collaborated with designer Samant Chauhan and the Centre of Excellence for Khadi to current a khadi-based womenswear assortment at Moscow Style Week.

Nearer dwelling, at Dindigul in Tamil Nadu, a silent khadi revolution has been ongoing for many years — courtesy of the Gandhigram Khadi and Village Industries Public Charitable Belief, established in 1947. On the helm have been T.S. Soundaram Ramachandran and G. Ramachandran, each followers of Mahatma Gandhi who needed to advertise rural improvement based mostly on Gandhian beliefs. Whereas the Belief started as a neighborhood centered on well being, schooling, sanitation, and khadi, the handloom grew to become their core pillar.

The Belief stays true to khadi’s handspun and handwoven authenticity, and conserving the material related for the present technology has been a precedence. The newest step on this route is a collaboration with Chennai-based attire model, Kaveri, which is thought for its linen creations. The Belief’s deputy CEO Shibu Shankaran says the initiative is envisioned because the “pilot of a sequence of partnerships with designers and types”.

“We see this as a technique to showcase the flexibility of khadi by permitting completely different inventive voices to interpret it. Every collaboration will discover a distinct design language, viewers, and strategy,” he says. The brand new assortment, Songs of the Spindle (₹5,000-₹8,000), options co-ord units, clothes, kurtas, and jackets — with hand-printing, embroidery, dip dyes and shibori, and Kaveri’s signature prints and gold foiling methods.

First of many collabs

Founder Kaveri Lalchand says she has recognized Gita Ram, chairperson of the Crafts Council of India (CCI) — and who has been related to the Belief for over a decade as its managing trustee — for a number of years. So, when Ram approached Lalchand to create a group with khadi on behalf of the Belief, she jumped on the alternative. “While you consider khadi attire, you image fundamental shirts, kurtas, and easy outfits. We needed to take it to the subsequent degree with our modern cuts, methods, and colors.” For her color palette, Lalchand veered away from the fabric’s conventional earthy end and labored with shades equivalent to lilac, tangerine orange, and blue.

Elaborating on the design strategy the group took, Aditi Jain, head textile designer at Gandhigram Belief, says understanding Lalchand’s design ethos equivalent to her desire for fluid, elegant silhouettes and delicate detailing, was key. “We then developed textiles that aligned with this imaginative and prescient: pure dyes in ombres, engineered placements of tie-dye motifs.”

The partnership additionally gave the group at Gandhigram “a chance to be taught, refine, and tighten our personal processes”, Shankaran explains, “in order that we will align extra successfully with the modern trend world”. That studying got here by means of understanding methods that work with khadi. For example, the group of 150 artisans explored floor therapies with pure dyes and tie-dye methods like clamp-dyeing and sew shibori. They’ve now invested in a cupboard dyeing machine for dyeing hanks of yarn, which will increase their “capability, reduces inconsistency, and frees up our artisans to discover floor therapies”. With this infrastructure in place, Jain says they’re now in a a lot stronger place to scale up pure dye floor therapies, which they plan to make out there for future collections.

Local weather-friendly put on

Whereas many designers and boutiques already supply materials from the Belief, this undertaking marks a extra deliberate exploration into structured, long-term collaborations with design homes. Ram of CCI says, “I used to be at all times instructed that khadi is a loss-making material. The early fervour it loved post-Independence has worn off over time. We wish to get khadi out of this mould.” Initiatives such because the collab with Kaveri additionally assist increase gross sales, and guarantee weavers stay employed. “It’s essential to maintain our weavers glad, so they’re inspired to proceed engaged on the artwork type,” says Ram. “Such partnerships are the best way ahead.”

In an effort to attach higher with youthful, extra sustainability-conscious audiences, Shankaran states that they plan to launch digital campaigns, collaborations, and experiential occasions on khadi. “We wish to shift the notion of khadi, not solely as an eco-conscious material but in addition as climate-friendly put on,” he says.

Increasing the weaving neighborhood

The main target at Gandhigram Belief will proceed to be on their textile experiments — weaving methods, dyeing processes, material blends — to make khadi extra adaptable to modern trend wants. “We’re extensively working with pure dyes and increasing our palette to incorporate a variety of plant-sourced colors. Eco prints have been our most up-to-date exploration, particularly utilizing domestically out there flora equivalent to marigolds, cosmos, guava leaves, and teak leaves. We’re additionally sourcing handspun slub yarn from Maharashtra to experiment with completely different textures, and exploring completely different weave constructions together with combos with naturally dyed indigo denim and wool.”

Going ahead, Shankaran states they’ll look into methods to develop the weaving neighborhood “by coaching folks from outdoors conventional weaving households, together with middle-aged girls and others concerned with studying the craft”. This is not going to solely assist maintain khadi, but in addition open up new avenues for livelihood and inclusion.

The brand new assortment will launch on October 8 on the Kaveri retailer, Chennai.

Printed – October 03, 2025 11:20 am IST