Experts assessed the prospects for sales of clothes from India in Russia: too colorful

“We don’t need floral denim”

At the end of January 2023, they started talking about the fact that one of the major Indian export brands of women’s and children’s clothing is ready to enter the Russian market. The company does not have its own retail network, it is engaged in sewing things for the collections of Western brands – well, now it will probably also sew for Russian brands. However, experts are skeptical about the prospects for Indian things to enter the mass market: they are very peculiar.

Russians will not be surprised by Indian fabrics: back in the USSR, Indian jeans were considered an affordable alternative to “branded” jeans, and today Goa lovers are actively taking bright cotton scarves and shirts as souvenirs.

Indian goods are sold in Moscow at specialized fairs: there you can find shirts, bright cotton pants, scarves and just cuts of fabric intended for Indian saris. Prices range from 1,000 to 3,000 rubles per unit of goods – for some they seem quite modest, for others it is expensive.

However, the future is not for them, but for “ordinary” things made from Indian materials.

– There is no need to doubt it! India is the largest supplier of fabrics for the whole world, and many large European companies have long moved their production there. It’s not just about cotton: in India there are any fabrics – silk, linen, and wool, not to mention elite fabrics like cashmere. And you need to understand: those brands that have now left Russia also sewed in India, including some premium brands that sold cashmere items. So now we have a chance to get similar things without intermediaries, that is, cheaper, – Olga Dragunova, vice-president of the Association of Textile Workers of Russia, explained in an interview with an MK correspondent.

According to her, in the future, those firms that provided the domestic market in India may also have a chance for success in Russia: after all, this is a billion people, and they also require a wide variety of things, including the premium segment.

True, it’s all about style. As an experienced fashion designer Vladimir K. noted in a conversation with an MK correspondent, working with the fabrics that India makes for its own citizens can be very difficult: they have too specific colors.

– I have been to exhibitions and fairs many times. Difficult impressions: I like the composition of the fabric, its quality, it doesn’t matter if it is silk or cotton … but I look at it and understand that in Moscow I will not find clients who want to sew something from it. Well, maybe some unusual shirt or a bright house dressing gown. Indian prints are very difficult for our eyes to perceive. Another tricky category is printed denim. In India, this is popular, in our country it is definitely not: we are used to the fact that jeans and denim items should be plain, without flowers. So it turns out: the fabric is of high quality, but no one needs it. I see prospects for those things that will be made with an eye on export, – added the tailor.