From solar-powered charkhas and decentralised production to contemporary fashion and sustainable textiles, these four Indian brands and enterprises are reimagining khadi for a new generation of consumers.
Khadi has come a long way from being associated solely with the freedom movement, political leaders, and Mahatma Gandhiji’s spinning wheel.
A new generation of entrepreneurs and designers is using handspun and handwoven fabric as a canvas for contemporary fashion, sustainable production, and rural livelihoods.
Some are changing how khadi is produced, while others are rethinking how it is designed, marketed, and worn. From solar-powered charkhas in rural India to contemporary silhouettes emerging from Kerala and Mumbai, these four brands and enterprises are finding new ways to make khadi relevant to today’s consumers.
Greenwear
Textile designer Abhishek Pathak trained at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). He came across a solar charkha at the India International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, in 2016, developed by IIT Delhi and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Rural Industrialisation. Pathak saw an opportunity to address the physical drudgery of spinning that was holding traditional khadi back.
Pathak had already worked with traditional crafts. After an early clothing venture, Prakritii, shut down within six months, Pathak joined Noida-based Dhristee Foundation as a lead craft designer.
During his years there, he developed a deeper understanding of India’s handmade textile ecosystem and the challenges khadi artisans face.
This led him to start Greenwear Fashion in 2016, which began operations in 2019. Its model uses solar-powered charkhas, looms, and sewing machines to create yarn, fabric, and garments.
Rather than concentrating production in one factory, the company developed a decentralised value chain involving rural women, weavers, and artisans. Women received training and financial assistance to acquire solar charkhas, and yarn was sent to weaving clusters to be converted into finished products.
Greenwear’s model extends beyond spinning and weaving. Its current production framework includes GI-tagged Lucknow Chikankari and Zardozi, natural-fibre fabrics, contemporary apparel, maternity wear and custom fabric weaving. The company describes this as a scalable B2B manufacturing model rather than simply a retail clothing brand.
Retiyo
Retiyo describes itself as a khadi store offering clothing made from 100% khadi, with a range spanning dresses, kurtas, shirts, trousers, jackets, sarees, and other everyday clothing. Its stated ambition is to put khadi in “every urban home” while creating sustainable livelihoods for the people who make it.
Retiyo (legally registered under Rewanta Fashions Private Limited) was founded by Ashwini H Pable and Sandip Pable.
Its products carry the Khadi Mark Certificate, distinguishing its fabric from many products marketed loosely as khadi. The company describes its fabric as handspun on the charkha and handwoven on traditional looms, and says KVIC certifies its khadi.
It emphasises construction, comfort, texture, and durability. Its collections include relaxed shirts, dresses, trousers, sarees and contemporary pieces, including hand-dyed ombré designs.
Retiyo has also created a physical retail experience in Valvan, Lonavala. The store itself is built from an upcycled freight container, bringing together the brand’s emphasis on khadi, nature, and reuse.
Weavers Stores
In the summer of 2018, fashion-design students and friends Krishna Sathish and Sandra Soman worked on a documentary project with a weaving community in Payyanur, Kerala. What began as a college project eventually became the foundation for a business.
The two designers spent the next few years researching and planning before launching the Weavers Stores online store in 2022. They opened their first concept store in Kerala in 2024.
The company describes itself as a Khadi fashion and lifestyle brand, with ready-to-wear clothing and home décor made exclusively using khadi.
The founders’ experience in weaving communities also changed how they viewed the fabric.
They say they discovered how small some of the khadi communities had become and learned that a single weaver could take two to three hours to weave a metre of fabric. The experience convinced them that the textile needed not just preservation, but a larger market and greater appreciation.
That thinking forms the brand’s design philosophy. Instead of designing around seasonal trends, Weavers Stores focuses on relaxed silhouettes, versatility, and clothing meant to stay in a wardrobe for years.
The brand works with 20 weaving communities, and its fabrics come from the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC)-approved clusters, guaranteeing their authenticity as khadi.
It also incorporates upcycling and recycling into its production process, using textile waste for accessories and soft furnishings and keeping its packaging plastic-free.
Tula
Tula’s story began in Chennai in 2007, when a group of friends working on organic farming and food began looking more closely at India’s cotton economy. Their concern was not simply the environmental impact of cotton production, but what was happening to farmers, seeds and the people working throughout the textile value chain.
That led them to investigate the cotton value chain, from farmers and seeds to spinners, weavers, dyers, and tailors, and eventually to create Tula as a not-for-profit social enterprise.
The enterprise was set up with a relatively small amount of capital, Rs 15 lakh raised through crowdfunding, according to Tula co-founder Jai Shankar. Rather than investing heavily in machinery, the founders invested in people across the value chain, paying farmers and artisans as the garments moved from one stage to another.
Tula’s model begins with rain-fed, organic indigenous cotton. The company says it works with traditional desi varieties grown in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The cotton is then handspun, handwoven, naturally dyed, and stitched on manually operated machines.
Instead of an assembly-line model where sewing operators perform repetitive operations on a garment, its tailors stitch garments from beginning to end, treating the work as skilled tailoring.
Tula says that while its fabric is handspun and handwoven, it is “not Khadi—in fact, more than Khadi”, because its model additionally starts with rain-fed organic desi cotton and uses natural dyes throughout the process.
Its current range includes women’s and men’s clothing, children’s wear, fabrics, yarns, and accessories, all based around its organic desi-cotton value chain.