The first ever Denimsandjeans India show organized in Bangalore was a win-win affair for all its 30 exhibitors (including top Indian denim mills and few overseas companies) and nearly 1500 industry visitors. The show was very well received and successful on all parameters – organization, quality visitation, full-house seminars and happy participants. During the two-day long event, Team Apparel Online interacted with lot of visitors including sourcing teams, designers, fabric managers of popular international and Indian brands, top level management of export houses and denim process houses.
The stupendous response to the event strongly reiterated the fact that denim is going to witness significant growth in the Indian domestic as well as export market. Teams from H&M, PVH, GAP, Zara, Target, Benetton, Tesco, Pepe Jeans, Killer Jeans, Spykar, V-Mart, Imperial Readymade Garments Factory India, Shahi Exports, SWF Fashions were some of the companies that were present at the event. “The denim industry needed a platform like Deninsandjeans, where people can see, have discussions and learn about what is happening in the industry. The quality of visitors that we have seen is a clear reflection of how the denim industry is positioning for growth,” opined V Ilango, DGM-Marketing, KG Denim.
Sustainability and innovation were the buzz words at this niche boutique show, and every exhibitor was talking on similar lines. “We are a naturally sustainable company and though competition is heating up, our technical strength in stretch fabrics combined with our commitment to sustainability will ensure continued status as preferred suppliers for denim brands,” said Srinivasa Raghavan K, AGM – Exports, KG Fabriks, Coimbatore. Added Aditya Goyal, MD, Anubha Industries, Surat, “Despite market slowdown, there is a vibrancy in the denim market, which not many other categories can talk of, but that does not mean that it is smooth sailing…; only those who innovate will survive.”
“I was much impressed by the seminars and growing concern for environment pushing everyone for sustainability. Laser technique is also impressive in this regard.” – Ananth Kumar R, Sr. Merchandiser, VOI Jeans, Bangalore. The company is working with more than 30 vendors.
The result of this increased focus on innovation is that garment manufacturers/exporters working in denim are now finding great variety in Indian mills to support business. The spin-off of this is that these manufacturers are now convincing international brands and retailers to stop nominating international mills and allow manufacturers to source fabric from local resources. The second spin-off is that domestic brands are becoming very design-oriented and giving international brands a run for their money.
“I must appreciate that exhibitors gave branded impression; and especially, Raymond and Nandan Denim impressed me with their forward thinking and brand perspective. Branding is something India has to create at every stage of textile.” – Tom McLellon, Consultant, Bangalore
All exhibitors emphasized that the domestic retail potential of denim wear is still largely unexplored and the market size is too big to be ignored. No wonder, denim companies from around the world are now eyeing this ‘consumer-mine’. “I came to the fair with my team as a learning experience, but the type of interest I have seen in local brands for innovation and quality fabric, has convinced me that India is a market ready to explode and that we definitely need to be here,” said Gazi Mahbubul Alam, Director, Mahmud Group, Dhaka. His views were echoed by Munir Ahmed, Director, M&J Group, also from Dhaka and Abdelkader Amouche-Regional Manager (Asia) of Vicunha Têxtil, Brazil.
“Overall presentation and some of the washing trends attracted me in the show. Currently we are sourcing yarn from India, and will hopefully take part in this show next year as we are planning to explore Indian market as a customer base.” – Md. Nazrul Islam, Head-Marketing, Aaron Denim Limited, Dhaka
Even the companies offering solutions to the denim industry like Coats (sewing solutions), Garmon (Sustainable Chemicals) and Ribbontex SRL, Italy (labels) were extremely satisfied with the turnout. Though Arvind did not have a booth, they had put up an installation in association with Pepe, and Aamir Akhtar CEO, Lifestyle Fabrics – Denim spent a whole day interacting with all the participants. He felt that India is finally poised to take the leap in denim… He was also confident that many brands for the local market are in the making.
“Different types of jacquard fabrics and textures appealed me. About 40 to 50 per cent stretch is also impressive. Some of the chemicals were quite impressive as they can give the shade very quickly, while it takes a lot of time to get that shade.” – Bipin Nahak, Fashion Consultant, Delhi. Also seen on left is Suman, Washing Technician, Modern Dyeing, Delhi
Visitors find value…
The enthusiasm of the visitors to know more about sustainable solutions was reflected at the crowded booth of chemical giant Garmon (Italy) along with the aspirations and observations of various visitors. “The main thing that’s coming out is sustainability as denim uses maximum water, chemicals, etc. Washing without stone attracted me; there is no need for use of PP; all these automatically reduce use of water and chemicals. It helps a lot on cost as cost comes almost 40 per cent down. L&J’s collection attracted me with their PCW (post-consumer waste) fabric with good stretchability,” shared Mohit Srivastava, Designer and Ashok Yuvaraj, Deputy Manager – Design, E-Commerce, Reliance Retail Limited (Ajio).
“Being denimwear guys, what we feel that if the base fabric is very good, we will get plenty of option in washes itself. Earth colours were interesting to see as some of the structures were impressive. Fashion circulation is very fast so it should be very visible, and such events help us for the same.” – Team Lifestyle International (Landmark Group): (L-R) Kunal Gupta, Senior Executive – Design; Nirmal Surendran, Manager, Design – Apparel (Men); and Anand Singh, Designer
Ajio is also launching a new sustainable concept, especially for denim. Team VF Brands India, Bangalore also echoed similar opinion as Sanjeev GK, Senior Manager – Sourcing said, “We have one of the most innovative product offerings as well as are counted among one of the most responsible sourcing organizations. We found an inherent focus on sustainability in the show.” The team successfully figured out the probable trend that would be there in the coming years. “Currently 95 per cent of the denim for men we see is stretch but here we noticed that next 2-3 years are going to be for rigid denim. Some such more inputs will help us to plan accordingly,” added Suraj K, also a Senior Manager – Sourcing in this company.
Saurabh Singh, Head of Design – Menswear, The Mandhana Retail Ventures Ltd. (Being Human), Mumbai also underlined the same trend. He shared, “I liked the rigid look stretches as rigid seems to be back; similarly classic vintage was also interesting. Our main focus is on authentic vintage washes and that is where the whole structure of the fabrics and the grain, weave of the fabrics play a very important role. That is where the rigid look stretches are perhaps perfect fabrics for the look we want to achieve.” He further added that is during seminars at the show, international experts really enlightened him about washes, sustainability, forecasting… Different washes, especially by overseas exhibitors, attracted many top Indian brands and retailers as Sachin Arun Kulkarni, DGM, Sourcing, Mens Wear, Pantaloons shared, “Some washes showcased here are really impressive, lot of international input has seen here, it makes really a difference when Indian retailers implement international trends in Indian markets, and that is the main learning for me from this event.”
“Pantaloons may increase sourcing from Bangladesh. It depends on how much capacity we can capture, what kinds of goods one can bring on table, that is going to be the key. Currently we are sourcing just 5 to 6 per cent of our total menswear from Bangladesh.” – Sachin Arun Kulkarni, DGM, Sourcing, Menswear (L) and Swati Chandak, Assistant Manager, Sourcing, Pantaloons, Mumbai
Despite perception of a glut in denim production/supply chain and difficult market conditions, some of the companies claimed their business is going good, they are overbooked and expanding further. Marvel Denim (Partap Fabrics), Ambala (Haryana) has a slasher dye setup (sheet dyeing technology) with a capacity of 3 million metres per month. It also initiated its Hindupur (Andhra Pradesh) plant almost two years back. Further it is targeting a new unit in Ahmedabad which is supposed to be operational in the next 2 to 3 years. Nearly 80 per cent of this capacity will go to domestic market, it is also targeting now Bangalore-based clients. “To have better supply in domestic market, it is necessary to have plants across India, and that is why we are having plants in all corners,” said V Suresh, VP Marketing of the company.
“Dobby designs and loopback (knit look in woven denim) are more in use due to comfort and is also more in demand. We have 10 core people in PD team and do have designers in UK also and work strongly on fabric level also.” – D Sivakumar, Head Product Development (L) and S Thangavelu, Fabric Manager Ammayapper Textile (ATPL), Chennai. ATPL has a factory purely dedicated to fashion jeans and that too for kids. Having three factories in Chennai, it produces more than 5 lakh pieces per month.
Currently supplying to domestic garment manufacturers, Amek Fabrics, Ahmedabad, manufacturing 2 lakh metres of denim fabric per month (80,000 metres for shirting and 1,20,000 metres for bottom) dobby, plain, cotton, polyester or non-polyester base is expanding into denim as well as non-denim segments. “We are coming up with new unit and our capacity will be double. New plant is expected to start in January 2018,” shared Ambrish Padmani, Director of the company.
“We do about 50,000 pieces per month and are exporting to European countries. Though currently business is slow, we are expecting more orders in future. We want to give different products, and that too manufactured in our green factory that started just 6 months back. As a business strategy we want to serve customer best.” – C. Veeramani, Sourcing In-charge, KGI Clothing, Chennai
Some such other players of denim fabric and allied categories also visited the show and shared that next year, they will surely participate in the show. “The buyers’ turnout at the exhibition as well as during seminars was phenomenal. We are very happy to see the responses. We thank everyone for supporting us and I hope all the stakeholders will surely get benefited by such events in a long run,” concluded Sandeep Agarwal – Founder and CEO of Denimsandjeans.com and also the Organizer of the event.
“We have a team of 7 experts in menswear section. We divide the work in terms of story/trend that we do in a season. So each designer gets to work on a one particular story/trend forecast and he will do all the product categories which are part of that particular story. We want to make the collection in a way which may be divided into multiple stories like a capsule that hits the store at a certain period of time. . – Saurabh Singh, Head of Design – Menswear, Being Human
