Performance fabrics to witness huge growth in coming years

RR Décor is India’s premier textile design company, with focus on originality of designs. The company design and market exclusive furnishing and upholstery fabrics for residential and contract interiors. Rohit Khemka, Founder, RR Décor, discusses the latest trends in home textiles and outlines how his company is leveraging them.

How does RR Décor ensure Textile Quality Control while manufacturing?

RR Décor is not a manufacturer. We are basically editors. And we design all the fabrics and get it manufactured by the best factories and mills across the world and these are factories that comply with the highest quality norms of any fabric. So we are tied up with the finest and the best mills across the world who understand textiles and who understand what quality really means. So regarding qualities, we really don’t face any problem in the past.

In the recently released budget, the government allocated a sizable sum to the silk sector of Rs 900 crore. How do you believe it will assist the industry in general and your company in particular, given that RR Décor is a pioneer in the handloom silks?

With the allocation of 900 crore to the silk industry, I am sure the government would set up a lot of research centres in all the silk producing centres like Varanasi, Bhagalpur, Bangalore and I think it will greatly help the handloom sector which currently is actually in the doldrums with little amount of work.

This will also help the industry by providing technology advanced technology for dyeing and for other techniques in weaving which will improve the quality of the handloom products greatly especially in our country where a major chunk of people are dependent on the handloom industry. It will go a long way in uplifting the handloom industry. Most importantly, the quality will become better, the production will get streamlined and the government will also ensure that the yarns are available to the weavers at more competitive prices. And with the pricing coming down, I’m sure the Weaver would be able to make more money, which will result in his prosperity as well.

What does the upholstery fabric customer expect from the manufacturers today? Mention trends.

The upholstery fabric consumer, what he is expecting now keeping in mind the current trends is basically performance fabrics. Performance fabrics are poised to experience significant growth in the coming years, particularly within the next two to three years or five years. Performance fabrics means fabrics that are anti-stain and water repellent. So a customer is looking for these kind of fabrics for sustainability and also for longevity of the fabric. So that because upholstery is also going, getting a new upholstery done is also going to become expensive in the near future. So the customer is on the lookout for good quality soft feel upholstery fabrics which are performance which are anti-stain and water repellent fabrics. So and also most important pet friendly because all of us have pets in the home and the biggest scare that people have is that the fabric would become dirty because of my pet. So there’s a lot of research and development going on in this field and starting from this year, in the next three years, the biggest trend and the most successful fabric that’s going to hit the Indian market are going to be performance fabrics which are of course water repellent, anti-stain and pet friendly.

RR Décor starts researching fabrics at least a year in advance. Which parameters do you use for your research? How do you make your products stand out from the competition?

RR decor is a brand that starts researching fabrics at least a year in advance. So what we normally do is we follow greatly the fashion brands and that gives us an insight into what’s hitting the fashion and what colours hit the fashion or what colours are there in fashion. The next trends that hit our curtains and upholstery industry as well also the massive Frankfurt releases every year, the colour focus trends for the following year. So we follow that as well. And also we have a lot of market research where we speak to interior designers, architects in India as our major market is India. Also, there are certain fairs that give us a fantastic idea of what to use for upholstery and curtains, for example, the Maison & Objet fair in Paris. This gives us an insight as to what’s coming for the whole year because the fair happens in January.

However, in India, it is important to consider that the most popular colors for curtains are tops, beiges, off-white, and ivory due to the busy and eclectic nature of our interiors. With wall paintings, carpets on the floor, and artifacts scattered throughout, these neutral colors such as tops, beiges, greys, off-white, ivory, and corn are the most suitable options to complement such diverse settings.

What was the company’s performance in 2022, and what are your plans for the future?

We performed fantastically well for the year ended March 2022 and also for the year ended March 2023. And I think in the coming years we are striving to obviously achieve a better growth and higher growth and we do plan to launch a lot of performance fabrics.

Furthermore, we have strategic plans to introduce a wide range of curtain fabrics in response to the growing demand. Upholstery fabrics will also be a key focus, with a particular emphasis on performance fabrics. Additionally, we will be launching an array of decorative fabrics targeting the high-end retail segment of the residential market.