Founder

Dear Friends of Indigo Handloom,

In 2003, Indigo Handloom was launched with a mission to change the fashion world, the second biggest polluter after the oil industry. With your support, we are making inroads into this massively wasteful trade.

The fashion industry has up to 8000 different chemicals at their disposal- many of them known carcinogens and most of which are completely unregulated.  At the bare minimum, an average cotton shirt goes through 20 different chemicals processes before it rests of your skin.  Do you know what’s in your shirt?

In addition, our quality of life is suffering. The textile industry – which is mostly powered by coal - uses approximately 132 million metric tons of coal per year worldwide just to weave the cloth. If you can imagine the weight of 315,789 747-airplanes, this is the amount of coal that is burned just for the weaving of cloth worldwide. This does not include the sewing of the garment.

In contrast, making handloom cloth doesn’t need to consume even one piece of coal – just the energy and expertise of our artisan weavers. If you compare the energy needed to make two shirts – one with machine-milled cloth, one with handloom, there is enough energy saved to power a small laptop for 8 hours.

With handloom, our fabrics only go through five to six processes. Washing out the impurities of the yarn, dyeing the yarn, fixing the color with toner, starching the yarn as it is woven, washing it after it comes off the loom with detergent and fabric softener.

Fast fashion, like fast food, has given us proof that clothing can be made cheaply and quickly.  But what has it given us? Skies full of pollution and chemicals running in the waterways of our world and in certain circumstances, modern slavery.

At Indigo Handloom, we understand the need to be part of the solution. We are proud partners with many design groups to bring employment to handloom weavers in rural India. We are proud of the difference we’ve made in the lives of our approximately 500 weavers and their families. We continue to partner with our customers to work toward bettering their community and our environment, one yard at a time!

Thank you for your support and encouragement!

Smita Paul

Founder of Indigo Handloom