Textile, Apparel, Clothing, Denim wear, Innerwear, Lingerie, Hosiery, Denim Jeans, Readymade Garments and Under Garments Industry.

The Readymade garments industry is increasing day by day due to changes of fashion in day to day life.The readymade garment industry in India owes its existence to the emergence of a highly profitable market for exports. Ready-made garments account for approximately 45% of India's total textile exports. They represent value added and less import sub sector. In the recent years, however, the domestic demand has also been growing rapidly.

The changes in the life style since the onset of the liberalization era, and given the base of the industry for the overseas market, Indian garments industry have taken big strides. The entry of the Indian and global fashion designers has stimulated the market further. With the rising tailoring costs and relatively low prices of standardized products, the Indian consumer is increasingly taking to readymades. In the past, the readymades market was confined mainly to baby dresses and small manila-shirts and dress shirts. Now it has extended to trousers, suits, and lady dresses and, of course, fashion garments for men and women. Readymades of specific brands have become not only a status symbol; these have brought a more contemporary style in offices as much as in social circles. Franchised boutiques have been established as tools for brand and image building.

The garments industry categorizes itself into many segments: formal wear and casual wear; women's dresses, men's and kids wear; suits, trousers, jackets and blazers; shirts, sportswear, tee-shirts, denims, neckwear; undergarments (men's and women's), knitwear, saris. Denim is graded in clearly defined weight classes. Lightweight denim (cambray) is used in shirts and blouses. Heavy classical denim is used to make trousers, jackets or coats.

The market segmentation by price differentials is notable: high-end for the affluent, medium priced for the core and high middle classes, low-end for the low and core middle class. Of the entire industry volume of about 5 million tonnes, polyester and polyester filament yarn account for about 1.7 million tonnes, and acrylic, nylon, and viscose taken together for 300,000 tonnes. The balance is represented by cotton textiles.

The Indian branded garment market, which is estimated at over Rs 185 billion, accounts for 25% of the Rs 745 billion readymades market. Following the entry of several new brands, the branded segment has grown at 25% annually. This represents a shift from unbranded to the branded segment. The market for men’s innerwear is estimated to be worth Rs 25 billion, with branded market valued at Rs 7 billion.

The Lead Players & Alliances in this sector globally includes Maxwell Apparel Ind., Lovable, USA, Page Apparel Mfg., Jokey Intl., USA, etc. Some of the major leading brands include Arrow, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Louis Phillipe, Park Avenue, Zodiac, Lee, Excalibur, Flying Machine, Ruf n Tuf, Newport, Peter England, Louis Straus, Stencil, Wrangler, Rod Lever, etc.

The textile industry occupies a leading position in the hierarchy of the Indian manufacturing industry. It has witnessed several new directions in the era of liberalization. While textile exports are increasing and India has become the largest exporter in world trade in cotton yarn and is an important player of readymade garments, country’s international textile trade constitutes a mere 3% of the total world textile trade. Several mills have opted for modernization and expansion and are going in for export-oriented units (EOUs) focused on production of cotton yarn. It has passed through cyclical oscillations and at present, it is witnessing a recovery after a downturn.

A major improvement in weaving efficiency has been brought about by developments in spinning technology which has enabled production of yarn of higher quality. A major share of the looms installed in composite mills is now of automatic looms. However, autolooms installed in the decentralized and powerloom segments are small in number. Shuttleless technology, direct wrapping, use of splicing technology, automatic doffing and knotting systems, help to increase mill productivity. Speed of the auto looms or shuttleless looms is 60% higher than that of non-autolooms.

The textile industry has managed to modernise the spinning sector but there is a long way to go on the weaving front. India's power loom sector has over 10,000 shuttleless looms as compared to 150,000 in China. The lead players in the Indian industry include Bombay Dyeing, Arvind Mills, Century Textiles, Coats Viyella, Morarji Gokuldas Spinning, JCT, Hindustan Spinning, etc.