A Short Guide to Sourcing Fabrics from India for Export

Sourcing fabric from India is mostly straightforward once you know which questions to ask before the first order, rather than after it. We work out of New Cloth Market in Ahmedabad, one of the busiest cloth markets in the country, and the buyers who have the smoothest time are almost always the ones who pin down a few specifics early.

Start with width, because width is where a lot of quiet trouble lives. Most of our range runs at 56 or 58 inches, and the number on the spec sheet only matters if it holds from the start of the roll to the end, this lot and the next. Ask how width is checked, not just what it is. A fabric that drifts half an inch across a consignment will cost a garment maker far more in wasted cutting than they ever saved on the cloth.

Composition is the next thing to settle plainly. Our bases are 100% cotton, cambric and dhabhu mostly, chosen because they take a print cleanly and still feel right in the hand after stitching. Be specific about the base you want, because cambric and dhabhu behave differently under a print and on the body, and the right choice depends on your market and the garment.

Finishes deserve their own line in any conversation. Procion prints, foil and discharge work each travel and wash a little differently, and a buyer shipping abroad should know what to expect from each so there are no surprises at the far end. Ask for a sample, and where you can, wash it. A sample tells you more in an afternoon than a specification does in a week.

After that it comes down to lead times, design numbers and reorders. We will tell you honestly what is running, what is available in the widths you need, and what we can make to order, along with a realistic timeline rather than a hopeful one. Keep a note of the design numbers you stock; a clean D.No. is what makes a reorder quick and exact months later. And settle the routine details (GST and export documentation, sampling, packing) before the bulk, not during it. Sorted up front, an India order is dependable. The buyers who treat the second order as the real test, as we do, tend to find the whole thing easy.