Peter England, Indian menswear brand owned by Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL), has entered into a partnership with Development Commissioner Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India to develop an ‘India Handloom Brand’ collection in collaboration with handloom weavers from Mangalgiri in Andhra Pradesh and will sell handloom shirts from its stores across India.
Manish Singhai, Brand Head, Peter England stated, “In the next financial year, we intend to procure one lakh metres of fabric from clusters of India and convert them into garments. We plan to put them in 75 stores. We are presenting a total of 17 designs created with limited edition collection which are available at 15 Peter England stores in Delhi and NCR. We hope that this partnership goes deep and expand this collection to more stores.”
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Smriti Irani, Union Textiles Minister of India, who was also present when the announcement was made, stated, “Authentic handloom products have always found resonance with Indian consumer. Weavers will get the right value and visibility in men’s fashion garments market for their quality fabrics through this partnership with Peter England and their direct sales channel,” while adding that the Ministry of Textiles, India wants to ensure that not only quality products are given to the citizens worldwide, but also certify that the benefit of those procurement will go directly to the weavers.
Adding to that Alok Kumar, Development Commissioner – Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles commented, “Ministry of Textiles had done research about marketing of India Handloom Brand products. One of the major findings was that the product range has a very big gap for branded men’s formals. And hence the collaboration with Peter England, Indian formal menswear brand.”
The Indian Handloom Brand was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7th August 2016 in order to promote the branding of high quality handloom products with zero defect and zero impact on the environment.