Story of my favourite kurta

Kishore Shah, Origins Story

Khadi London

Part 1

I have a favourite kurta. Or rather a cross between a kurta and a T-shirt. It is made with organic cotton fabric, hand spun and handwoven. The fabric is soft and textured. Slubs add depth.

I am familiar with the farm and village where the cotton was grown, the place where the cotton was spun and woven and know the designer of the kurta, and about the tailor who stitched it. The kurta has a story which is worth listening to.

One strand of the story begins with Samat bhai and Gauri ben, a husband and wife team from Dharai in the Rajkot district of Gujarat, India. They had decided to go against the flow, grow organic cotton on their farm. They sowed the seeds, watched them grow into saplings and eventually reaped a decent harvest.

Udyog Bharati, a khadi cooperative nearby bought the cotton from them at a premium price and processed it locally. Ginning, carding, roving, spinning, and weaving, the whole lot.

I discovered the fabric while searching for organic khadi about a decade ago. It was difficult to locate a supplier of organic khadi back then. The search led me to Weaver Bird and its founder Medha Shah.

Medha is a granddaughter of Jagdish Shah. I met Jagdish bhai in Bihar in eastern India in the early 1970’s. I was a volunteer with Sarvodaya, a movement for village autonomy. I was part of a national campaign.  Jagdish bhai and his with fellow Sarvodaya activists from Gujarat spent a month and sometimes two months every year to be a part of the campaign.

During his lifetime Jagdish bhai had visited many villages in Gujarat as a part of the Sarvodaya movement with a simple message, to lead with a corporative way of life which would take care of the needs of everyone in the village. Dharai was one of those villages.

The movement ebbed in the mid 1970s when his son Kapil was growing up. Kapil graduated as an agricultural scientist. But he had inherited the mantle of a rebel. He went against the flow and started a movement for organic farming in Gujarat. His work extended to Dharai which decided to transit to organic farming.

Kapil’s daughter, Medha, trained as a fashion designer. She had her own thoughts about how to be a part of the profession without compromising on the values of her grandparents and parents.

After graduation she decided to spend time in Dharai, talking to farmers to understand if they would be willing to grow cotton organically. She explored the idea of paying a premium price for the cotton to help with the transition. A premium of 30% on the market price seemed about right. Samat bhai and Gauri ben were the first to join the fray.

Medha connected the farmers with Chandrakant Patel of Udyog Bharati, a khadi institute established about a hundred years ago. With a shorter staple, spinning and weaving would be difficult. The spinners and weavers were promised training and premium of 10% on their wages. Medha started her own brand, Weaver Bird, to add value to the fabrics with the hope of making it a viable venture.

The next challenge was finding a market for organic khadi fabrics and clothes. Customers in India were not yet willing to give a higher price for organic khadi. In western countries where there was a greater awareness about and demand for organic cotton, only a few designers knew about khadi.

To overcome the uncertainty, Weaver Bird asked customers to place their orders for fabrics before the sowing started. A lead time of about nine months! I remember placing an order for 150 meters.

The stock stayed with us for months as we couldn’t find the buyers. That changed when Henrietta Adam and Sareeka Linton of Henri London visited the farmers and Udyog Bharti as part of a trip to get an experience of the supply chains. Impressed by what they saw they became brand ambassadors for handmade fabrics of India, especially from the places they had visited. Organic khadi from Udyog Bharti was one of the fabrics they booted for and has since been one of our popular fabrics with ethically conscious design brands.