Raj Lakshmi Cotton Mills

Yesterday I made a trip to Raj Lakshmi Cotton Mills. I went there to source some material but more importantly to talk to people and see what this whole industry is about.

Raj Lakshmi Cotton Mills is a company based in the city of Kolkata. They produce Organic textile products. Knitting, cutting, printing embroidery and stitching is done in house with organic yarn that comes from Chetna Organic a fairtrade organic project for small scale farmers.

Knitted/Woven fabrics are dyed in the Dyeing units next to their factory. These factories are certified under Control Union & Ecocert.

On my way to the factory I was in the car with Rajat Jaipuria's (director) father. We had a very interesting conversation about the way he sees sustainability and what we as designers can do to change things. When he heard my vision he didn't seem very convinced. He said that there was no scope for this as competition would get the better of me.

He also felt that there was too much talk on this field of sustainability. People talk and "do" things that make them feel better about themselves but their donations don't get to the source. Things need to change right at the bottom of the chain before we can go forward.

Once we reached I was given a tour of the factory. Everything looked pretty clean and organised. We walked through the knitting unit, which basically consisted of 5 huge machines and a few people walking around. Each Machine was for a different type of knit, and I was told that Jersey was the type of fabric that most orders were placed for. Fabric is made to order only and generally processed further into garments. They prefer not to supply just fabric.

I was then taken to the embroidery and print units. The embroidery unit was just a set of embroidery machines with one or two people keeping an eye on things. There were huge storage spaces filled with various colours of yarn that were labeled as GOTS approved. The print unit looked a lot cleaner than the ones i've been to before and all the labourers were wearing masks (unlike other printing units ive seen in the past). The were MSDF sheets (material safety data sheet) which I didnt really understand much of hanging every where. The dyes used for printing are certified water soluble pigment dyes.

After the print units we headed to the cutting and stitching units. I couldnt help but notice all the dutch brands lying around, getting stitched labeled and packaged. Ive always known most of these things get manufactured here, but somehow its strange to actually see it happen. A lot of things that were being stitched were bags and T-shirt with slogans promoting fair trade and organic cotton in different european languages probably to be handed out at festivals and events.

Then it was time for me to head back to their storage and choose some fabrics that I would be using for my project. The huge shelves and piles of fabric were a bit overwhelming and I had no idea where and how to begin looking. Thankfully they had a swatch book with all the fabric that had been manufactured for previous clients and I was able to choose from there. I decided to go mostly with unbleached and undyed fabrics as I wasnt too sure if I liked the colours that were available. I ended up buying about 14 metres of different types of jersey and voile. I think it will be a bit too much but I didnt want to risk falling short. Its lovely fabric and im sure it wont go to waste.

I then had a long conversation with the manager about the traceability of the fabric and how they prove that something is actually produced the way that they say it is. It is a very complex process and I will probably need to talk to someone else about it to understand it better but i did get a whole file of sheets which trace my fabric back to being organic etc.

It was a very interesting day and it has made me think about quite a few things. More on my reflections in the next post.

Something about the certifications that Raj Lakshmi Cotton Mills has:

Eco Cert:

ECOCERT is an organic certification organization, founded in France in 1991. It is based in Europe but conducts inspections in over 80 countries, making it one of the largest organic certification organizations in the world.ECOCERT primarily certifies food and food products, but also certifies cosmetics, detergents, perfumes, and textiles. The company inspects about 70% of the organic food industry in France and about 30% worldwide.

Control Union
GOTS certification: This standard for organic textiles covers the production, processing, manufacturing, packaging, labelling, exportation, importation and distribution of all natural fibres.

Fairtrade:

the fairtrade union is 24 organizations working to secure a better deal for producers. From their headquarters in Bonn, Germany, they set international Fairtrade standards and support Fairtrade producers.

SA8000: SA8000 is a global social accountability standard for decent working conditions, developed and overseen by Social Accountability International (SAI)