Behind global luxury fashion, India's artisans remain unseen and uncredited

Decades in making

These supply chains have been built over a period of time, says Siva Devireddy, founder of GoCoop and co-founder of Ubiqtern Inc, with a lot of international brands regularly coming to India and establishing partnerships with artisans. “It’s not correct to say that these partnerships are exploitative by default. Those that have been built on trust are the ones that have done well. These partnerships should be more equitable, and they should give more value to the crafts and the artisans,” says Devireddy.

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. 

At Mumbai’s Adity Designs (above), Nitai Mehta, Sumangali Gada, and their team of designers experiment with different materials and techniques of embroidery. An artisan (left) works on a garment that takes several days before it arrives at one of the fashion capitals of the world Image: Amit Verma

“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. 

Also read: The Michelangelo of Zardozi

The faceless Indian

Industry insiders say that as the in-house teams of luxury houses shrink, thanks to tighter margins, more and more work is coming to suppliers in India. Not only are these suppliers creating designs and embroidering them, but they are also increasingly cutting and stitching the entire garment. It is far more cost-effective to have all the work done in one location, instead of shipping them to locations around the world for different kinds of work. 

“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. 

At Mumbai’s Milaaya Embroideries, multiple artisans embroider a section of tapestry (below) for a global event; adding embellishments is a precise and painstaking process (top right); an artisan creates a design swatch for a prospective client (right, below);quality control checks being conducted on finished garments (centre) Image: Bajirao Pawar for Forbes India

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. 

According to data from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, annual exports of hand embroidery jumped tenfold from the late 1990s to exceed $250 million right before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Following the economic slowdown that has affected several industries after the pandemic, data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, says that in 2023, India exported $173 million worth of embroidery, making it the second largest (12.1 percent) exporter of embroidery in the world, out of 144 countries. 

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).

A model on the runway wearing a garment sewn by one of the many artisans employed at Pret Interpret, an export house in Bengaluru (left). International celebrities such as Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez, and Selena Gomez (below) have worn handcrafted garments made by these artisans for global fashion labels. All garments made at Pret Interpret have the ‘Made in India’ label stitched on to them (top right). Hand-knitted trims using organic naturally dyed wool added to the garment (right); Stitch in Time is a corporate outreach programme that empowers women by training them in heritage craft skills, thus preserving and promoting it (left)

Efficacy of GI tags

On June 22, when a male model walked down the ramp at Milan Fashion Week, wearing footwear that closely resembled Kolhapuri slippers as part of Prada’s 2026 spring-summer collection, social media, closely followed by the news media, went into overdrive to highlight Prada’s attempt at cultural appropriation without giving credit to the craft or those who have practiced it for centuries. The furore was loud enough to get Maharashtra state government departments and agencies involved, and to nudge a team from the Italian fashion house to visit the artisans who make Kolhapuri slippers in Maharashtra. There were also discussions around the importance of Geographical Indicator (GI) tags and how they can be used to protect these age-old traditions and crafts in India. 

“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. 

Like the vast majority of Indian handicraft workers, the makers of Kolhapuri slippers are traditional artisans, keeping alive a craft that is more than 850 years old. They excel at what they do, but they are also removed from the world of international quality standards, certifications and compliances, which are imperative for supplying to or collaborating with luxury fashion houses. “They make these slippers by hand; one pair of size 8 slippers will not be the exact same size as another pair of size 8 slippers,” says More. And that is just one factor.

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.” 

(Clockwise from right) Zaid Khatri (in centre), a graduate of Somaiya Kala Vidya shares the ramp with models while presenting his work at the Lakme Fashion Week X FDCI this March in Mumbai; an artisan at an SKV workshop; SKV’s Design Craft store (below)

Weaving a difference

A small but significant change is afoot in Gujarat. Thanks to a decade-long programme by Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV), which aims to empower local craftspeople through training and access to end clients. At a show at Lakme Fashion Week X FDCI in March, SKV graduates emerged as heroes. Showcasing their designs and taking to the ramp themselves were five artisans—Zaid Khatri, Amruta Vankar, Mubbasirah Khatri, Muskan Khatri and Shakil Ahmed—presenting designs based on crafts, including ajrakh, batik, mashru and bandhni.

“These artisans have generations of knowledge, skill and creativity,” says Amrita Somaiya, trustee, Somaiya Vidyavihar and governing board member, SKV. “SKV provides them with design knowledge and design thinking, the ability to create their own brands and designs, create more relevant products for today’s markets, and have their own identity.”

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.”