Not every fashion design graduate chooses to step outside their comfort zone and venture away from glitzy metropolitan areas. Hemang Agrawal is one of those exceptional individuals who did just that. He returned to his hometown of Varanasi and dedicated himself to promoting traditional Indian textiles. In a candid conversation with Meher Castelino, Agrawal delves into the passion that compelled him to break away from the ordinary.

It's a rarity to witness a fashion design graduate transition into the world of weaving, committing their life to the advancement of Indian textiles. Yet, Hemang Agrawal stands as a prime example of such a journey.

Hemang Agrawal completed his fashion design education in 2001 at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Mumbai. Born into a Varanasi-based textile family, the essence of handloom silks was ingrained in his daily life. His father, Shyam Krishna Agrawal, a fine arts student well-versed in both art and business, established Surekha Arts in 1970—a firm under the Surekha Group banner—specializing in saris. Thus, textiles became an integral part of Hemang's consciousness, shaping his life from its inception.

During Agrawal's formative years, the landscape of fashion and textile design was undergoing a transition from being viewed as a casual occupation to gaining recognition as a serious profession. Back then, there were a mere 80 fashion design students spread across all NIFT centers. While textiles always fascinated Agrawal, he opted for fashion design to adopt a comprehensive perspective on textiles. To him, textiles were more than just yarns interwoven in warp and weft; they constituted a pivotal element of fashion garments.
His reasoning is rooted in the nature of textile crafts. Unlike fashion, the identity of a craft must surpass that of its practitioners. Agrawal illustrates this by comparing Indian miniature paintings, which are identified by their schools, to Western art movements that are often associated with individual painters.

Following his graduation, Agrawal spent 18 months as the head designer for Contemporary Clothing Company Mumbai, a garment export house, before freelancing as a designer to gain practical experience. In 2003, he returned to Varanasi and trained at the Indian Institute of Handloom Technology.

The subsequent year marked Agrawal's entry into the family business. His younger brother, Umang, an investment banker at S&P in the US, followed suit six years later.

Armed with a fashion design background, Agrawal possessed a unique perspective on textiles from a fashion standpoint, which significantly aided his development and design efforts. From the outset, he concentrated on crafting premium and super-fine hand-woven silk textiles for international markets, infusing tradition with contemporary flair. Agrawal spent the first two years of his tenure visiting weavers, dyers, naqshnbands, and card punchers—craftsmen his father collaborated with for the saree business. Simultaneously, he crossed paths with Rahul Jain, a prominent textile historian and revivalist, whose guidance and inspiration further propelled him into the realm of handloom textiles. This period marked Agrawal's immersion into the world of silk, and he proudly claims to be half a proficient weaver himself.

Explaining the weaving programmeof the company, Agrawal says, "Benares is not a back-integrated industry.There are no factory set-ups where looms are erected and people come and workby man-hours. The weavers work mostly from their own homes. We haveapproximately 600 weaving households associated with us, some running just 1-2looms and others running a lot more. We have a team of about 50 peoplesupporting the design, quality and logistics."

The range of fabrics that arewoven is an amazing variety as Agrawal reveals, "You could identify themas brocades. But within that, we do an incredible range of textiles fromtanchois to kimkhwaabs, from gethuas to jamavars, from cutworks to karhuans,and all of them using not only mulberry silk but wool, cotton, wild silks,linen, zari, stainless steel, modal, viscose, polyester and several types ofyarns. In fact, some of the fabrics are so avant-garde and international thatyou will find it hard to believe that they were woven on simple pit looms inBenares. We have both handlooms and powerlooms. All our pure silk textiles aredone on handlooms. Our powerlooms predominantly cater to the price-sensitiveB2B segment, which is a significant market that one cannot ignore.Quantitatively, powerlooms would be about 70 per cent, but in value terms, itstill remains 60 per cent handlooms and 40 per cent powerlooms."

With a current capacity of about8,000 metres per day, the textiles division of the company has a turnover of $2million while the overall group turnover is $10 million. "Of late, we havebeen collaborating with some international and Indian designers and brands. Wehave also ventured into retail with our store Seasons by Surekha Arts and ourwebsite www.holyweaves.com," says Agrawal, who now serves as the managingdirector of the company.

Going international

Agrawal used to travel a lot fortrade shows and to meet buyers both within the country and abroad till about2007. "The fact that we do premium textiles, which have a constraint bothin terms of production and the number of people one can cater to, and also thatwe have been lucky in having more orders than our production capacities, hasmeant that travel in the last few years has been more for R&D than formarketing," he says.

When it comes to selling Indiantextiles in the country and abroad, Agrawal observes, "India discovereditself as a big market only in the last two decades and we took ourselvesseriously after the 2001 and 2008 global meltdowns. Earlier, every textile andgarment company wanted to be a 100 per cent EOU. But today, for mass-producedtextiles, India is obviously the biggest and easiest market. The only issue is,we are not as quality conscious as the West because of which, in the premiumtextiles segment, we still have to concentrate on Western countries for demand."

And what does he do towards this?Agrawal elaborates, "We do some very contemporary stoles and textilesusing age-old weaving techniques of Benares in pure silver and gold yarns. Theyare quite successful in Japan and Europe. Also, we work closely with some verybig names in international fashion for their textile development. These itemsdon't form a very significant part of the turnover, may be 5 per cent or so,but the satisfaction one gets out of these is immense."

 

Much needs to be done, still.Agrawal admits, "Sustainability and eco-friendly textiles is one fieldwhere Benares as an industry has to still go a long distance. This stems fromthe fact that Benares textiles cater to the Indian market that is not asconcerned with green practices as compared to say, Germany or other Europeancountries. Since we have worked with European partners, we have tried toregulate several aspects including the dye-stuffs used, the chemicals used infinishing post-loom, disposal of waste. But I would be very far from the truthif I said that everything we do is green."

Then there are the humanresources. "Weavers in Benares mostly work from their own homes. You couldcall them freelancers. So, they tend to work with many people at any givenpoint in time. Now, because we are very design-centric, we have to havededicated artisans who do not freelance. In a way it becomes my responsibilitytowards my weavers that they do not have to be freelancers to survive and besuccessful. We are lucky that a majority of our master-weavers have been withus for more than 15 years. Instead of terming what we do as extremelyinnovative, I would call it just doing small things right. We pay wages, whichare way above industry standards and fair value for their products along withcontinuous work throughout the year.

"All we need from them isquality as per our specifications and maintaining sanctity of our designprocess. For everyone working in any craft or cottage industry sector, the bestform of CSR is where exponents stay with you not out of compulsion but out ofchoice. We understand that it is their skill, which is bearing fruits for us;so it's very important to share the dividends with the craftsmen and we do thatthrough various initiatives. While we are nowhere close to a structured HR orCSR policy, I can proudly say that people working with us are a happy,satisfied, and smiling lot."

The present and the future

For someone heavily into promotingIndian textiles, Agrawal has his reservations about the government's earlier planof amending the Handloom Act, which lists goods and textiles reserved forproduction by traditional crafts and weavers. "The idea was floated by thepowerloom lobby who wanted to remove saris from the list of items protected bythe Handloom Protection Act. While I can live with powerlooms aping handloomtextiles because of various dynamics involved, I can't accept it beinglegitimised by the government. I am happy that the proposal has been putaside."

Agrawal feels that for awell-designed and good quality handloom product, the demand is currentlyseveral times more than what can be produced. "But when I talk of thewhole industry, the mass market is moving towards cheap powerloom imitations,which brings up the topic of fake weaves from China and the fight against them.I do not see the issue like that. China has its own strengths when it comes tosilk yarn and degummed greige silk fabrics such as georgettes. Our strength isvalue addition on the loom and post-loom. The segment that I operate in, Chinais not a competition."

 

He, however, feels that immediatesteps must be taken to arrest the decay of art and craft in India. "Thisis a subject close to my heart, but it's a really long discussion. In anutshell, I can say it needs a four-pronged approach. The government has tofocus on support in marketing and skill development; designers have to worktowards contemporarisation of product and designs, while respecting sanctity ofthe crafts and processes; businesses working in the field have to focus on bettermonetary rewards for craftsmen; and end customers have to be educated about thepremium associated with handlooms and handicrafts and why their patronage is soimportant. Currently, there is some support from all of these four quarters,but it's entirely incoherent."

When it comes to the future oftraditional textiles in India, Agrawal confesses that India is far behind Chinaand other Asian countries when it comes to mill-made textiles and Westerngarments. "Our traditional textiles are our strongest suit. Our weaves andcolours are our identity globally. Even our powerlooms survive because most ofthem produce fabrics, which resemble our handloom fabrics. If India has to haveany future as a textiles producing country, it has to be through the traditionaltextiles route. The good thing is that there is a huge demand for traditionaltextiles in India and the sub-continental diaspora. Even Western designers, whohave always been more interested in textures than motifs are using traditionalIndian textiles, albeit they are a small lot."

So will the great art and craft ofweaving be able to get fresh blood? "This is a concern. A majority of myweavers are 35 years and above in age. The young ones are simply not taking upthe craft. The fault is entirely ours because as a country, we have notpatronised and incentivised them enough over the years. As a result, theyounger lot is moving to whichever profession they think is better monetarily.I do not fault them. In terms of younger generation of artists and designers,things are comparatively much more encouraging and there are several youngpeople working in this field."

 

What about rising stars? Agrawal,who is connected with several fashion institutes in the country, has observedand judged the work of graduating fashion and textiles students and isoptimistic about the future of textiles in the country. "I like the factthat more students today are willing to work in the sphere of Indian textilesand crafts. The problem is that these square pegs have to pass through theround holes of our design education due to which I see a lot of homogenousdesign language among students. If they can maintain their individuality, Ithink we will have a fine crop."

When it comesto his home town Varanasi as a place for business and his dreams for the futureand why he hasn't started a label like other fashion graduates, the bachelorAgrawal has no time to think of anything but work. "I love this city.Though it's not particularly attuned to doing business and getting good qualitymanpower is always a constraint, I just love the energies this place has -which push me into doing more. My dreams are small. I am very lucky that I getto do for a living something that I am very passionate about. Maybe if we as agroup keep on doing the right things, the right way, new paths may emerge.Though I was reasonably good at pattern making, draping and garmentconstruction, my calling was always textiles. Most of the time, textiles tendto be ancillary to the product. So till now, I have been rather happy being thefaceless craftsman. Also, it's only been ten years since I got into it. The dayI think I'm ready I'll think about a label."

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