Shri Sharad Jaipuria
President
Denim Manufacturers Association

In 1984, Websters dictionary listed the shortened English version “DENIM”. The So called “Denim” is a sturdy cotton twill fabric characterized by a 3X1 warp faced weave, in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads, producing the familiar diagonal ribbing identifiable on the reverse of the fabric. Traditionally, Denim is made with indigo dyed yarn for the warp and natural yarn for the weft. Denim, known as work wear fabric since the late 18th century, later became popular for casual wear and was used by high-fashion designers.

During late 70’s, it was observed that in Europe and United States, people wore a particular type of bottom wear, Jeans which was not produced in India. During 86-87, Denim production technology was imported to India. Dramatic change in the entire denim fashion came in the last 15 years, when a new set of specialized yarns were introduced. Then came new colours, toppings, over dyeing and coating. On the whole, a new range of denims have come into the market. Dry and wet washes with laser and ozone technique on ready Jeans changed the age old classical Blue Denim of fourteen and half ounce of Denim business of fashion.

Today, India has over 25 mills producing high quality denim fabric with a capacity of 692 million meters and exports of 128.4 million meters per annum. Indian Domestic Market is around 480 Million Mtrs. (equivalent to 0.35 Pair of Jeans / Person / Year or approx 70% consumption of total production). The Indian Denim Production is expected to grow up to 1.0 Billion Mtr. per Annum by 2015.

The Indian Denim Market is rapidly growing at CAGR of around 10-12 %. The main drivers for the growth are the favorable young demographic profile (approximate 50% population of India is in between 15-35 years), movement towards casual comfortable dressing, growth in the women / children segment, rapidly increasing incomes, more organized retail and penetration of brands into smaller towns and cities, the advent of international buying houses, more garment exports and other positive factors. The future of Indian Denim Industry is in “Product Intelligence”.

It gives me immense pleasure that DMA has been formed to bring all denim manufacturers on a common platform with the purpose to promote and preserve the interest of denim fabric.