Bhu sattva’s field to fashion products to hit India and abroad markets

Bhu:sattva, an Ahmedabad-based organic textile designer wear brand owned by Rising Tradelink Limited that provides eco-friendly classic clothing across India, created from organic crops in soil that has also been certified as organic. Bhu:sattva redefines organic fashion as more than just khadi, offering an experience it calls “from field to fashion”.

They believe in recreating and reviving the ancient art forms of India, that were once lost in time, like hand block printing, hand embroidery and use of natural herbal dyes. Bhu:sattva brings the various art forms to the international platform so that the craftsmen and artisans get their due recognition.

Jainam Kumarpal, founder, Bhu:sattva said that they have clusters of farmers and farms growing cotton and silkworms. They provide buyback guarantees for the entire yield at a premium price, and this crop is entirely organic, right from the soil to the final product. They are one of a kind since they offer an organic experience through their clothes. From the field to fashion, their products are entirely organic.

Bhu:sattva has more than 2,000 people directly or indirectly associated with it. Initially starting with men’s wear, Bhu:sattva today has tie-ups with designers in diverse locations across the globe, including Paris and Qatar. It has also diversified into bridal wear, which was launched over the last two years, and a couple of months back, it launched footwear for women, while footwear for men is currently at a nascent stage.

They had originally started with western wear since they were catering to the overseas market; then gradually launched Indo-Western wear too.

At the time of its launch in 2009, the average ticket size for Bhu:sattva’s designer organic fashion products was R3,000-10,000. The launch of women’s wear saw the average price range rise to R40,000. Its products are sold at more than 100 stores across India, and it is currently in the process of developing a franchise model.

It has stores in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and plans to open stores elsewhere in the country. They are now looking at licensing options, and will work on that in this year.

Bhu:sattva is the first GOTS and OCS certified designer wear brand from India. Bhu:sattva’s efforts towards contributing to conscientious fashion is evident in its efforts towards “up-cycling” waste material. They have a dedicated team which works solely on up-cycling organic waste. By up-cycling, it means the waste is made into products like scarves, purses, stoles, different kinds of headgear, which are then given as free accessories with the garments a customer purchases.

A children’s fashion line is also in the pipeline for Bhu:sattva, which it hopes to launch by 2018.

However, it has not always been smooth sailing for Bhu:sattva, which had to wait six months for its first order. said Kumarpal. They faced a lot of problems, right from sourcing raw material to ensuring its perpetual flow, backward integration processes including dyeing, weaving, blending of different fibres like banana fibres and pineapple fibre, soy fibre, milk fibre and even bamboo fibre.

Getting weavers and artisans on board was also a tedious process. It took Bhu:sattva four months to convince them to work for it. There were also a lot of permutations and combinations to be considered before the products were finalised. They had to discard several ideas too, along the way, based on opinions on whether the particular product would work or not. Initially, people liked the product but did not want to buy them.

Now, Bhu:sattva has fashion agents across the globe, with three agents covering Europe alone. It also claims to have a strong presence in Brazil, Mexico, Qatar, Singapore and the Philippines. Bhu:sattva has recently begun catering to South African nations, and is also planning to launch its products in the US and Canada.

As there are a lot of non-resident Indians (NRIs) and even foreigners who would love to buy western wear made out of Indian fibres.
The firm currently has about 10 production facilities, with about 50 machines each, spread across Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad.

The website has recently been expanded to include “art-inspired clothing”, and it plans to have a mobile application on Android as well as iOS platforms within the next six months.

Bhu:sattva started its journey in the fashion fraternity seven years back. In such a short span of time, they have been immensely successful, and having participated in numerous Fashion Weeks, India. They have presence in more than 35 cities in India and in various European markets with Middle-East, South East Asia, North America, South America, Latin America and South Africa.