T extile and fashion industry are almost similar in some sense but have branches in

different fields. Some of them are shoes, apparels, accessories and home textiles.
Home textile was never there earlier. In only a recent trend where home furnishing has
gained massive popularity especially in business line. With the increased exposure to the
international scene in the recent past, the Indian market, and the Indian consumer has
evolved into a design and trend conscious citizen. The home textiles industry of India is
consistently growing with the growth rate of 9 per cent every year. It is the huge popularity
and demand of the textile furnishings in the domestic as well as in the international
market which is expected to make it $135 billion industry by 2015.
By Vasant R Kothari, Assistant Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

16 HOME TEXTILE VIEWS / JANUARY-MARCH 2011

T he main factors which are pushing the demand are,
increase in discretionary income (increase in double
income families leading to increase in disposable income),
urbanisation (it is expected that 100mn people will join urban
areas during the next decade who will drive the consumption
growing), Growing Eve Power (estimated 40 to 45 million
career woman across age of 20 to 40 years in urban India
over next 10 years, with increased purchase decision making
power), increase in nuclear families (growing number of
households), easy availability of housing finance, growth of
end-use sectors like, housing, office space, hospitality, health
care, restaurants. It is expected that branded hotel rooms
and organised restaurants are expected to grow by 2x and
4x times in next five years and increase in hospital beds will
also result in increased bed linen consumption.

Home textile is playing an important role in our lives today.

And the main reason behind is its beautiful designs and colours
of furnishings, which are being introduced every day. Designs,
comfort, aesthetics and colours are merged together for defining
today’s living style and furnishing. Curtains are available in
Cotton combined with polyester to create a more
attractive colours and fabric. It hardly matters whether they
durable fabric for curtains and carpets
are soft or hard colours, all types of varieties are being chosen
by people today depending upon their own taste and liking of
In recent years, it has been observed that many new fibres
living. Bed sheets and pillows too can be of any shade along
have been developed by the leading textile companies with
with quilts, bed skirts, cushions and duvets covers. There is
some unique properties, which can be used in home textile
tissue and silk which are getting every much popular. Style in
product to improve the function of the same to give
which they are place matters a lot. Fabric is really soft in touch
unmatched performance.
and looks absolutely beautiful. Another trend is in cotton with
ample of colours and other attractive features. For example, bed sheets are being made from Coolmax and
Thermolite fabrics. Coolmax fabric incorporates a moisture
The skilled designers have participated whole heartedly to
management technology and has traditionally been used in
offer new and exciting looks to the modern and contemporary
active performance wear. Thermolite is a lightweight insulation
homes, as they understand the fact that the advanced and
material which was originally designed for outdoor
well-furnished homes do not accept the conventional and
performance apparel.
dull looking home textile products. With the introduction of
different styles of home textile, people have started periodic
redecoration of their abode like it was done with their
wardrobe earlier. Changes in fashion used to change the
style of clothing before but now it’s the turn of house which
will be changed entirely with latest styles in home textiles.

Fibre usage in home textile

Cotton has been dominating the home textile market as a
whole. Before the introduction of man-made fibres, home
textiles were predominantly made from cotton, silk and wool.
Today natural fibres are blended with man-made fibres, in a
variety of combinations, to enhance the fabric’s performance.

Cotton is often combined with polyester to create a more

durable fabric. This blend is particularly important for items,
which are commonly laundered at high temperatures such
as bed sheets because the polyester reduces the risk of
wrinkling and shrinking. In addition to these advantages,
polyester is strong, warm and abrasion resistant, and it also
resists moths and mildew. As a result, polyester dominates Bed sheets are being made from Coolmax and
the carpet and curtain segments as well. Thermolite fabrics

HOME TEXTILE VIEWS / JANUARY-MARCH 2011 17

Ingeo fibre is used in different home textile product categories
thanks to its features. It is suitable for bedding fibrefill (such
as pillows, duvets and quilts), ticking fabrics, mattresses,
blankets, carpets, draperies, furnishing and panel fabrics.
Ingeo fibre for bedding fibrefill (such as pillows,
duvets and quilts)
Lyocell fibre’s cool and pleasant feel gives a great comfort.
Its smooth surface and special feature that controls moisture
guarantees a cool night that no bedclothes could provide.
Aside from a nice feel, another advantage that Lyocel has is
that it does not cause skin troubles.
Lyocell fibre gives cool and pleasant feel
with great comfort
18 HOME TEXTILE VIEWS / JANUARY-MARCH 2011
Bamboo fibres have the functions of antibiosis, bacteriostasis
and ultraviolet-proof. Wallpapers and curtains made from
bamboo fibre can absorb ultraviolet radiation in various
wavelengths thus they lessen the harm to the human body.
Bamboo fibres have the functions of antibiosis,
bacteriostasis and ultraviolet-proof
Dralon fibre not only provides softness and warmth but also
guarantees durability, tear strength and sustainable, bright
colours. Because of its excellent UV resistance, long life and
insolation do not result in decreasing fastness and other signs
of aging.
Home textiles are also being made from various functional
materials, including Lycra stretch fabric, thermally adaptive
bedding, environmentally-friendly textiles, antimicrobial
fabrics, stain protective treatments, flame retardant materials
and fragrance encapsulating technologies.
Conclusion
As per today’s trend, manufacturers of home textile product
have realised that people are getting more and more attracted
towards decorating their house and office space with all those
latest, functional and trendy interior materials and fabrics.
However, the market today is flooded with both simple as
well as designer home textiles. In today’s competitive world,
in order to attract the customer it is very important to be
different from other and for this they must think beyond colour,
design and texture. New fibres could be the best solution to
broad base the customer base and in fact to create the new
set of customers and for this it is necessary to understand the
function and application of these new fibres.
Home textiles made with the performance fibre are the gentle
gifts that every homemaker wishes to bring to their home to
make it a better, more comfortable abode
(The next edition onwards we would be covering all
the above mentioned fibres in detail.)
(Author can be contacted @ www.vasantkothari.com)