In a brightly lit, air-conditioned room in Mumbai’s Lower Parel area, Sharafat Mallick sits with men hunched around the neatly arranged rows of ‘khaat’, as the wooden frames are called, inside the embroidery workshop of an export house. Hailing from West Bengal, Mallick has in front of him, stretched tight over a frame, a length of fine fabric. Different frames have fabrics of weaves, textures and colours. On them are traced designs that are even more varied, ranging from psychedelic starfish and lobsters to cupcakes and ice creams. On this densely overcast July morning, needle in hand, Mallick is busy making a design come alive with his embroidery. Others like him, also with needles in hand, are embroidering other designs, layering on a plethora of threads, beads, sequins and other embellishments.
Over the next few weeks and months, the design that Mallick has embroidered will navigate an intricate global supply and order chain, and likely find itself on an exquisite garment or accessory that will be first showcased, and then sold, by the most exclusive and expensive luxury fashion houses in the world, mostly in Europe and the United States. The luxury items will bear labels such as ‘Made in Italy’ or ‘Made in France’, and not carry a shred of acknowledgement that they were made to a large extent, if not entirely, in India.
That India has been home to some of the most exquisite handiwork in the world for centuries is no secret. What, however, has been kept under wraps—no pun intended—is that today India has become the back-office to global haute couture. Indian craftspeople—some carrying on family traditions through multiple generations, others simply learning the craft as a form of employment—working in thousands of design studios and workshops spread across the country are the ones powering the biggest luxury fashion names in the world.
“The Western industry, luxury and otherwise, depends heavily on Indian craftsmanship because of the versatility of crafts and quality of workmanship, at far cheaper prices than elsewhere in the world," says Shilpa Sharma, co-founder of Jaypore and Connector of Dots.
Forbes India spoke to multiple enterprises that work with brands, including Giorgio Armani, Prada, Tom Ford, Versace and their ilk. Over decades, they have established close relationships with their clients, understanding intimately the specific design philosophies and requirements of each luxury house, the quality—and increasingly, sustainability—standards that need to be maintained, and the deadlines that need to be met.
So much so, that at Milaaya Embroideries in Mumbai, there are teams dedicated to specific clients, with whom they have been collaborating for years. “Earlier, the clients would make their own designs and ask us to do the embroidery work on those designs," says Gayatri Khanna, CEO and director of Milaaya. “However, we are increasingly making the designs ourselves. The clients pick and choose which designs suit them the best and then we collaborate on how that design can be used on a garment or accessory." The biggest challenge, she adds, is the need to constantly innovate while maintaining the design ethos of each brand.
Alongside, shrinking margins and rising compliance requirements are pushing up production costs. “There are factory-level compliances, which include the wellbeing of workers, their salaries, work environments and timings, health insurance and the likes," says Sumangali Gada, director, Adity Designs and founder, Forest of Chintz, a Mumbai-based export house. “And then there are compliances related to material sustainability. For instance, if a client wants the raw materials to be sustainable, we have to ensure that the fabric dyes do not contain toxic chemicals, and embellishments such as beads and sequins do not contain toxic metals such as lead or cadmium."
The challenge is to continuously come up with new designs and motifs, while using sustainable raw materials and keeping costs in check.
The craftsmen at Milaaya and Adity mostly specialise in aari and zardozi, two different kinds of embroidery that require a level of finesse that takes years to achieve. They also excel at beadwork and embellishments.
“The work we do has to pass stringent quality control tests," says Nitai Mehta, director, Adity Designs and founder, Forest of Chintz. “Even the thread has to be of the best quality. Some clients will put our samples into a washing machine spinner to ensure that the beads and other embellishments don’t fall off."
At Milaaya, the team is careful that the fabrics and embellishments they use hold up in climate conditions that are vastly different from the heat and humidity of Mumbai. A crisp, floral motif on a bridal gown should not get discoloured or start drooping in a different environment.
“What the client brand will do is just add the final buttons or a zipper or some finishing stitches at their European offices, and that enables them to put the ‘Made in France’ or ‘Made in Italy’ tag on these clothes," says an industry veteran on condition of anonymity.
Anonymity is perhaps the most common overarching characteristic of this industry. Strict non-disclosure agreements between clients and suppliers ensure that suppliers often cannot publicly claim any of the designs to be theirs, nor disclose or display photographs of their own designs with labels displaying the clients’ names. Luxury brands rarely acknowledge their suppliers and craftspeople.
Repeated requests for interviews by Forbes India to brands such as Tom Ford, Armani, Dior and a few others went unanswered.
A September 2023 report by Bloomberg quoted Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister at that time, as saying at an event in Paris: “Luxury and cosmetics have one singularity: If it’s not produced in France, it won’t sell abroad." The same article also quoted Isabel Marant, a French designer, as saying: “Haute couture is practically all made in India nowadays." Marant’s eponymous label is one of the rare high-end fashion names to acknowledge producing its garments in India.
China is the largest exporter of embroidered material in the world—in 2023 it exported $759 million worth of work. However, as Khanna says, it is mostly the source of machine embroidered fabrics and hand embroidery that requires less skill. “For haute couture, it is India where all the biggest brands come," says the industry insider quoted earlier.
In 2023, the main destinations of India’s embroidery exports were Italy ($50.6 million), France ($17.7 million), United States ($17.5 million), United Kingdom ($12.9 million), and Senegal ($10.2 million). The fastest growing markets for embroidery exports from India between 2022 and 2023 were: Italy (up $11.7 million, or 30 percent), France (up $7.2 million), and Senegal (up $4.45 million). The US market, meanwhile, declined by $3.54 million.
And this is just embroidery. Textiles are an entirely separate sector, projected to reach $350 billion by 2030, according to India Brand Equity Foundation, within which exports are expected to reach $100 billion. Total exports in financial year 2024-25 stood at $36.61 billion, including the sale of readymade garments (44 percent), cotton textiles (33 percent), and man-made textiles (13 percent).
“After all this, do I think that Prada will ever source from Indian Kolhapuri slipper makers?" says Dileep More, owner of Divyam Leather Crafts. “The answer is no. They will not." And the reason is not as simple as the refusal to give credit where it is due.
Divyam, a Kolhapur-based enterprise, manufactures and exports handmade Kolhapuri leather footwear to multiple countries. More highlights how the Kolhapuri slippers sector is highly fragmented, and suffers from the absence of a large brand such as Bata or Reebok that can bring about standardisation within the sector, and create market access for craftspeople and awareness among customers.
“Multiple agencies have jumped into the controversy. But each of these agencies has its own mandate, and the bigger question remains: Can they come together on a unified strategy?" More says.
Industry experts say GI tags, although introduced with good intentions, are hardly effective in protecting specific crafts, or the rights of craftspeople. Devika Krishnan, a crafts-based design and business developer, says: “GI tags are tools that only large and moneyed brands can leverage to protect their commercial interests. Smaller and poorer artisans do not have the financial heft or legal wherewithal to drag a global luxury powerhouse to court over GI violations."
She questions the very relevance of GI tags in India, where artisans from one part of the country often migrate to another part, carrying their tools and skills with them, and set up their practice in a new place. “There are handloom weavers in Benaras who weave Kanjivaram saris. If they have the skill and material plus a client base that appreciates their Kanchi copies and gets them their income, why won’t they do this?"
GI tags are meant to lend credibility and heritage value to a craft and give it an elevated status in the global market. They are also meant to enable craftspeople to command better prices for these products, help them safeguard traditional techniques and prevent misuse by sellers. But, says Sharma, there is a big gap between intent and implementation. “A GI tag will not resolve issues such as branding and market linkages. The big brands working with Indian crafts need to start campaigns to raise consumer awareness about the significance of GI tags and why they should command a premium."
Devireddy adds that acquiring a GI tag for a specific craft is just the first step towards protecting it or the craftspeople associated with it: “Once a particular group claims the GI tag, other organisations have to apply for its usage. There is little awareness of this process and how GI should be used on products."
Since SKV was set up in 2014, it has focussed on the local textile crafts of Kutch and trained about 300 artisans. “Artisans can work only in areas that are close to their homes and communities, because they depend on each other for the final product," explains Somaiya.
Shakil Ahmed is a sixth generation artisan working with batik, who graduated in 2010 from Kala Raksha Vidyalay, the earlier avatar of SKV. “I was the first batik artisan to join the programme. At that time, very few people knew about batik. When I graduated and showcased my collection, a lot of designers who attended the show came to know about batik," says Ahmed. Earlier, he would do more B2B (business to business) work, but because of SKV’s programme, he came in contact with students from NID and NIFT, and also got to meet designers and buyers who visit the Rann of Kutch festival.
Ahmed says 75 percent of the designers he has worked with want to promote only their own brand. “There were three international designers—from Germany, Australia and Canada—with whom I have worked, but none of them gave me credit," he says. However, he mentions Madhumita Nath of Ek Katha, who presented her line of clothing at a show in Delhi last year, and invited Ahmed to walk on the ramp alongside her. “She told me, ‘You are as deserving of this as I am’," he recalls.
In an industry where multiple artisans often work on a single item of clothing or accessory, giving credit to the craftspeople is not similar to giving credit to, say, the author of a book or the scriptwriter of a film. Many industry insiders suggest that a ‘Made in India’ or ‘Embroidered in India’ tag is perhaps the most viable way to acknowledge the work done in India.
That is what Pret Interpret, a Bengaluru-based export house, is doing. It works with 40 full-time craftspeople, has a 30-strong tailoring unit, and collaborates with clients such as Anna Sui, Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch, Alice + Olivia, Bode New York, and DVF. “If we, as manufacturers, don’t vehemently defend what we are bringing to the table, say that this is the skill being used and it has to be mentioned in the clients’ narratives, we are always going to be left behind," says Deepa Chikarmane, founder director, Pret Interpret Clothing. “We understand that we have to modify our traditional skills to suit modern sensibilities. But how do we do it collaboratively? How do we get the acknowledgment for what these artisans have brought to the table? I think that is important."