The historiography of textiles goes a long way in documenting the progress in the field. The textile industry originated from the basic need to substitute animal skin with fabric to clothe mankind but has now progressed on to more de rigueur than the requisite needs.
Since inception, the industry has compartmentalized into various divisions like animal textiles; wool, silk, plant textiles; cotton, flax, jute, mineral textiles; asbestos, glass fiber and synthetic textiles; and nylon, polyester and acrylic. However, actual diversification was observed when these sources of fabric were tweaked and deployed to form a brand new segment of textiles that we now popularly know as Home Textiles.
India is rapidly proceeding towards changing the suffix in the adjective, which has become its identity, from ‘developing’ to ‘developed’. One of the utile landmarks in this undertaking has been the growth spurt in the number of households, their disposable incomes, and growth of the housing, office, hospitality and healthcare sectors. All these factors combine to give rise to the demand of home textiles in the country.
An observable measure to this development is the addition of the ‘Home’ tab in most, if not all, fashion apparel websites. Bed and bath linen, kitchen linen, curtains, upholstery, carpets/rugs, etc., are some examples of the products that are manufactured under the home banner of textiles, generally by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibers together. Home textiles are in great demand owing to their functional furthermore aesthetic appeal.
To have mentioned Home Textiles and have the most prominent player left out of the recital is blasphemy. Established at the dawn of the 21st century, D’décor has quite literally become a household name. What’s in the name may have been Shakespeare’s way of looking at the world, but D’décor is very self-explanatory with its label; their mission is to ‘make homes beautiful in every street, in every city, of every country in the world’. The label has now partnered with premier furniture and furnishing brands across the globe to blend fabric with fashion. It also has to its credit the honour of being the largest manufacturer of soft furnishing fabrics with a production capacity of 1,20,000 square meters of top-shelf fabric every day!
In its two decades of lifespan, the label has added many feathers to its voguish cap. Some of them include pioneering chenille upholstery and embroidered curtains in India, hosting Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan as their brand ambassadors, bringing home 13 gold trophies for Best Export Performance by SRTEPC, and earning the title of ‘World’s Largest Woven Upholstery Mill’ by Fabrics and Furnishings International. Tarapur is where the magic is created with cutting-edge technology that has given India its first water-repellent and flame-retardant fabric along with its very first robotic warehouse!
D’décor has earned itself a reputation in the innovation and customization domains as well. A dedicated team of 250 members work tirelessly towards developing new colours, design trends, substrates, weaves and finishes that have spoilt the customers with a range of 20,000 products to choose from. D’décor has also associated itself with many global big fish like Marvel, Disney and Sunbrella.
The company has turned itself into a brand known worldwide, and this feat would have been inconceivable to achieve without the transformative superintendence of its management team. Mr. Sanjay Arora, who plays the dual role of the founder as well as the Managing Director of D’décor, is particularly responsible for the brand’s rise to grandeur. He vouches: “Delivering true value and fast fashion” is the success mantra of his brand. The success owing to this mantra is reflected in their cult-like following of consumers around the world and $20 million worth of sales annually.
Along with a zealous approach and a diligent workforce, there’s another constant factor that has chaperoned D’décor in its journey right from its foundation – its partnership with Saurer. The Saurer Group is a global leader in machinery and components for yarn processing. Saurer has been reliably associated with D’décor for the past 20 years and have rightfully earned themselves the title of the ‘best suppliers’. Various generations of Saurer machinery have seen the light of the day at D’décor factories.
Mr. Arora pronounces Saurer as “great people, great company” and hopes to achieve endless milestones with this partnership in the future. 44 SP Machines, Unica Machines, Delta Machines, Epoca 5, 6 and 7 Machines, altogether make 42 embroidery machines in the D’décor warehouses from the courtesy of Saurer. The employees in the warehouses swear by the aftersales services of Saurer Machinery, they personify co-ordination with ease.
The amalgamation of D’décor with Saurer has proven to be a mutually beneficial one. The economy of India developed and as did the home textiles sector. As a result, many major players emerged in this sector but surpassing all of them, victoriously arose D’décor.
The Saurer-D’décor partnership has witnessed the achievement of innumerable landmarks across decades and they aim to continue the trend. D’décor visualizes a future for itself where it becomes for Home Textiles what iPhone is to smartphones!