Producing in India

I have been working with the same factory in Bangalore, India for several years now.  I worked with them at a previous job and only recently started again with Study for the Spring 2011 collection.  The reason I approached them in the first place was because I was developing an ikat pattern raw silk in Bangalore, the same city where I had a good relationship with this factory.  So instead of shipping the fabric all the way to NY, I figured I’d develop the styles using that fabric in India as well.

I asked the factory for photos so I could post them on the blog. I have visited this factory several times before but have never taken photos myself.  I was always very impressed with the considerable lengths they took to improve their workers’ quality of life and I wanted to share their story with my followers (ie. my mom and brother, the only people who read this blog!).  I asked them to send me a few photos and a little resume about the factory.  This is what I got:

We would be happy to send you photos of the factory- the crèche, the gardens, the little doctor’s room that we have who would fall sick or need any medical attention. Will also take pictures of workers sewing your samples.

We are an International Standards Organization- ISO. We can provide you copies of the certification- that you also need.

We are also in the process of trying to make the factory more eco-friendly and are replacing diesel fire burners in the factory with alternate fire burners which use biomass briquette- mixture of peanut shells and wheat husk, etc. The residue of this can be used as manure for
gardening.

We also recycle all the used water in our factory using the ETP plant, and reuse this for gardening as well.

I’m really looking forward to visiting the factory again, hopefully in the Spring!