Khadi: From Mahatma Gandhi's 'Thread of Swaraj' to Fashion's Coolest Sustainable Fabric

“If we have the ‘khadi spirit’ in us, we would surround ourselves with simplicity in every walk of life,” Mahatma Gandhi once wrote in Young India, his weekly journal. To Gandhi, the ‘khadi spirit’ was more than just wearing handspun cloth—it symbolised “illimitable patience.” He wrote about how tireless spinners and weavers toiled over khadi and saw it as a metaphor for India’s struggle for independence. “Even so, must we have patience while we are spinning ‘the thread of Swaraj’.”Khadi means handspun and handwoven. The iconic fabric’s association with Gandhi began in 1918 when he launched his movement for khadi as a relief programme for the poor masses living in India’s villages. “Gandhi saw it as the end of dependency on foreign materials (symbolising foreign rule) and thus giving a first lesson in real independence,” states the website of the Gandhi Book Centre. More than a century later, khadi has come a long way—becoming one of the coolest fabrics to wear. Indian designers have revived khadi, breathing fresh life into it. Khanijo, Péro by Aneeth Arora, Rina Dhaka, and Anavila have incorporated khadi into their collections. Shani Himanshu and Mia Morikawa, co-founders of the label 11.11, launched a range of Khadi denim a few years ago. At Paris Fashion Week in 2019, designer Rahul Mishra also featured khadi in his collection. Two years ago, at FDCI x Lakmé Fashion Week, French designer Mossi Traoré showcased his interpretation of khadi, blending it with cotton, wool, and silk.However, it’s designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee who consistently includes khadi in all his designs, creating wedding lehengas that are now hugely popular. On Instagram, he wrote, “As a bridal designer, I keep thinking, ‘What’s next?’, and I keep coming back to khadi. For me, it is the equivalent of wellness, and nothing can be more luxurious than that.”At a time when the fashion industry has a massive negative impact on the environment—something many people may not be fully aware of—khadi is emerging as a sustainable champion.“Khadi has a low carbon footprint as it requires limited electricity and no energy for its manufacturing. A metre of khadi fabric consumes three litres of water, while one metre of mill-produced fabric requires 55 litres of the natural resources,” writes Aditi H Trivedi for the Gandhi Book Centre.According to the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), while the production of khadi fabrics was ₹811.08 crore in the financial year 2013-14, it reached ₹3,206 crore in 2023-24, marking an impressive 295.28% increase. “The production of khadi fabrics in the financial year 2022-23 was ₹2,915.83 crore.”