Sustainable Fashion in India 2026: Consumer Demand, Organic Cotton & the Certification Gap

India's sustainable-fashion story is usually told as a market-size number — a consultancy estimate, surrounded by circulating figures that disagree with each other by a factor of twenty. This report skips the noise and compiles what actually has primary-source backing: Bain & Company's finding that Indian consumers show the world's highest willingness to pay a premium for sustainable products; India's genuine, current-data strength in organic cotton production and GOTS certification; and a real tension the Ministry of Textiles' own 2026 survey surfaces — India's fibre demand has shifted toward synthetic materials even as its fibre production stays natural-fibre-led.

Key findings

  • Indian consumers report a 20% willingness-to-pay premium for sustainable products — the highest of 11 countries surveyed by Bain & Company, ahead of Brazil (16%) and nearly double the US (11%).[31][32]
  • India's organic-cotton-certified volume reached 436,648 tonnes in 2023/24 — about 62% of the global total by our calculation, correcting the stale, frequently-repeated "51%" figure that dates to 2018/19.[3]
  • India held 27.8% of the world's 17,800 GOTS-certified facilities in 2025 — the largest single-country base of certified organic-textile manufacturing capacity.[27]
  • The oft-cited BCG market-size figure is real: BCG and The Economic Times estimate India's sustainable-fashion market at ~US$5-6 billion, growing 10.6% a year to ~US$9-10 billion by 2025-26 — a consultancy estimate, not measured sales.[22]
  • India generates ~70.73 lakh tonnes of textile waste annually with over 70% recovery — and a nascent but real government push toward a US$3.5bn recycling market by 2030.[10]
  • National fibre demand has shifted to man-made fibre (52.2%), ahead of cotton (41.2%)[12] — even as India's production base remains natural-fibre-dominant, with cotton yarn at 68.5% of yarn production.[14]

What's in this report

  1. 1. Overview: why this isn't a market-size story
  2. 2. Consumer demand: India's world-leading willingness to pay
  3. 3. Organic cotton: India's genuine production strength
  4. 4. GOTS certification: India's manufacturing capacity
  5. 5. The fibre-mix tension: production vs. demand
  6. 6. Textile waste, recycling and the policy gap
  7. 7. Policy context: what PLI is (and isn't)
  8. 8. 2026 outlook
  9. Frequently Asked Questions

1. Overview: why this isn't a market-size story

Search for "India sustainable fashion market size" and the same figure recirculates everywhere: roughly US$9 billion by 2025, attributed to BCG, growing at 10.6% a year. That attribution holds: a circularity report BCG published with The Economic Times estimates the market at ~US$5-6 billion, growing at a 10.6% CAGR to ~US$9-10 billion by 2025-26 and US$24-25 billion by 2040.[22] It is a top-down consultancy estimate rather than measured sales, and other circulating figures for the same segment range from US$0.2 billion to US$4.4 billion depending on which low-credibility site is pulled, with no consistent methodology behind any of them.

So this report does something different: it doesn't build its headline on a single consultancy estimate. Instead it compiles the parts of India's sustainable-fashion story that ARE backed by primary, citable data — consumer demand, organic-fibre production, certification capacity, and the policy apparatus around textile waste — and is explicit about where the data runs thin. It is also the market-data companion to our buying guide, Sustainable Fashion in India: What to Look for in Ethical Resort Wear, which covers the practical side.[23]

20%India willingness-to-pay premium — highest of 11 countries[31]
436,648 tIndia organic cotton, 2023/24 (~62% global share, our calculation)[3]
27.8%India share of world GOTS-certified facilities, 2025[27]
~$9-10BIndia sustainable-fashion market by 2025-26 — BCG-ET estimate, not measured sales[22]

2. Consumer demand: India's world-leading willingness to pay

The strongest, most primary-sourced data point in this entire report is about demand, not supply. Bain & Company's consumer survey for its Visionary CEO's Guide to Sustainability — over 23,000 consumers across 11 countries — found Indian consumers report a 20% incremental willingness-to-pay premium for sustainable products, the highest of every country surveyed, ahead of Brazil (16%) and China (15%), and well above the United States (11%), Germany (9%), the United Kingdom (8%) and Japan (6%), against a 12% average.[1][31][32] The same survey found 85% of Indian consumers "very/extremely concerned" about environmental sustainability — again the highest of the 11 markets, against a 64% global average.[1][31]

Incremental willingness-to-pay premium for sustainable products, by country — India highest of 11 countries surveyed.[1][31][32]

Willingness-to-pay premium for sustainable products, % (Bain, 2023)
Country WTP premium (%)
India 20
Brazil 16
China 15
Global average 12
United States 11
Germany 9
United Kingdom 8
Japan 6

A follow-up India-specific Bain survey in April 2025 adds useful nuance: 83% of Indian consumers rate a product's packaging environmental impact as important, against a 61% global average — but the same report argues that sustainable behaviours in India typically save shoppers money rather than command a premium (its example: vegetarian diets), which complicates the willingness-to-pay headline above.[2] Separately, a 2021 Statista Consumer Insights survey found 89% of Indian respondents claimed to buy sustainable or eco-friendly fashion — the highest of the five countries surveyed, ahead of China (69%), the US (49%) and Germany (41%).[21]

But stated intent and purchase behaviour diverge. An earlier 2019 YouGov survey (dated, but the most detailed generational breakdown available) found 83% of Indians consider sustainability when purchasing fashion and 72% are aware of the term "sustainable fashion" — yet only 12% of those aware have actually purchased it. Sustainability labels mattered more to Gen X (66%) than Millennials (50%) in that survey.[20]

20%India WTP premium (highest of 11 countries)[31]
85%India consumers "very/extremely concerned" on sustainability[31]
89%India claim to buy sustainable fashion (Statista, highest of five countries)[21]
12%Of aware Indians who actually purchased sustainable fashion (2019)[20]

3. Organic cotton: India's genuine production strength

India's organic-cotton leadership is real, but the number usually cited for it is out of date. The frequently-repeated claim that "India = 51% of global organic cotton production" still appears in IBEF's Kala Cotton case study, which pairs it with 2022 production data.[5] But 51% is Textile Exchange's share for the 2018/19 harvest, from its 2020 Organic Cotton Market Report.[33] In the years after, India's share actually fell to 38.2% for the 2020/21 harvest, per Textile Exchange's 2022 report.[4]

India's share of global GOTS-certified textile facilities, 2015-2025 — declined as other countries scaled certification, now stabilising and rising again. 2015-2019 shares are our calculation from GOTS's published facility counts.[7][27][8][28][9][29][30]

India share of global GOTS-certified facilities, %
Year India share (%)
2015 37.8
2017 33.0
2019 31.0
2024 26.1
2025 27.8

The current, primary-sourced figure is stronger and more useful: Textile Exchange's Materials Market Report 2025 puts India's organic-cotton-certified volume at 436,648 tonnes in 2023/24.[3] Set against the same report's global organic-cotton total of about 706 thousand tonnes across all national programs, that works out to approximately 62% (our calculation).[3] On absolute government production data, India produced 810,934 metric tons of organic cotton in 2020-21, up sharply from 335,712 MT (2019-20) and 312,876 MT (2018-19), per the Ministry of Textiles.[6] Organic cultivation concentrates in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha. On the conventional side too, India is one of the world's two largest cotton producers: about 5.49 million tonnes in 2023/24, second only to China's ~5.6 million tonnes.[15]

436,648 tIndia organic cotton, 2023/24 (current; ~62% global, our calculation)[3]
38.2%India organic-cotton share, 2020/21 harvest (interim low)[4]
810,934 tIndia organic cotton production, 2020-21 (govt figure)[6]
5.49M tIndia total cotton production, 2023/24 — second only to China[15]

4. GOTS certification: India's manufacturing capacity

Certification capacity — not just raw fibre volume — is what lets a garment carry a verifiable organic claim. India held 27.8% of the world's 17,800 GOTS-certified facilities as of the 2025 Annual Report — the most of any country, and the world's largest single-country base of certified organic-textile manufacturing.[7][27] A year earlier, India had 4,028 of 15,441 certified facilities.[8][28] That works out to 26.1% in 2024 (our calculation, matching the report's own chart).[8][28] India's absolute facility count has grown steadily — 1,441 of 3,814 facilities worldwide in 2015, 1,658 of 5,024 in 2017 and 2,411 of 7,765 in 2019.[9][29][30] As a share, that works out to 37.8%, 33% and 31% (our calculation): a decline because other countries have scaled certification faster, not because India's own capacity shrank.[9][29][30] The 2024-2025 uptick is the first reversal of that decade-long relative decline in the data reviewed for this report.

This matters for buyers because GOTS certification is one of the few verifiable signals in a category otherwise full of vague sustainability claims — which is exactly the gap our own buying guide addresses.[23]

17,800GOTS-certified facilities worldwide, 2025[27]
27.8%India's share, 2025 — the most of any country[27]
37.8%India's share, 2015 (1,441 of 3,814; derived, peak in this dataset)[9]
95Countries with GOTS-certified facilities[27]

5. The fibre-mix tension: production vs. demand

Here is the genuine tension this report surfaces rather than smooths over. On the production side, India remains natural-fibre-dominant: cotton yarn is 68.5% of India's total yarn production in 2023-24, and CITI states plainly that "contrary to the global trend [~70% synthetic], fiber consumption in India is skewed towards natural fibers, especially cotton."[14] But on the demand side, the Ministry of Textiles' own National Household Survey 2024 — released April 2026 — found the opposite trajectory already underway: man-made fibre and blends now account for 52.2% of household fibre-consumption value, ahead of cotton at 41.2%, with silk at 5.2% and wool at 1.3%.[12]

India's domestic fibre-consumption mix by household demand value, 2024 — man-made fibre has overtaken cotton nationally.[12]

India domestic fibre-consumption mix, 2024, % of household demand value
Fibre Share (%)
Man-made fibre & blends 52.2
Cotton 41.2
Silk 5.2
Wool 1.3

These are different measures — production volume versus household demand value — so they are not strictly contradictory, but together they describe a market mid-transition: India still makes mostly natural fibre, but Indian households are increasingly buying synthetic. For a brand built on natural fibres — cotton, linen, silk, viscose, and a newer sugarcane-and-aloe-vera bio-blend — this is the actual competitive context: not riding an already-dominant natural-fibre wave, but standing somewhat ahead of a national consumption trend still moving the other way.[24]

52.2%MMF & blends — India household fibre demand, 2024[12]
41.2%Cotton — India household fibre demand, 2024[12]
68.5%Cotton yarn share of India yarn production, FY24[14]
~70%Global fibre consumption that is synthetic (context)[14]

“India grows the sustainable fibre and then exports it, which is why the honest version of this conversation starts with sourcing, not marketing.” — Ramola Bachchan, fashion designer and founder of First Resort.

6. Textile waste, recycling and the policy gap

India generates approximately 70.73 lakh tonnes (about 7.07 million tonnes) of textile waste annually — 42% pre-consumer, 58% post-consumer — with an overall recovery rate above 70% (pre-consumer recovery runs above 95%), according to the Ministry of Textiles' March 2026 report, the first government mapping of India's textile-waste value chain.[10] The same report projects India's textile recycling market to reach US$3.5 billion by 2030, with potential to create nearly one lakh new green jobs, and identifies Panipat as the country's major mechanical-recycling cluster.[11]

"India has real strength in the raw materials of sustainable fashion — organic cotton, certified manufacturing capacity, natural fibre. What's still catching up is the policy infrastructure around end-of-life textiles. That gap is closing, but it isn't closed yet, and pretending otherwise doesn't help anyone shopping honestly."— Ramola Bachchan, Founder, First Resort

What doesn't yet exist is a live regulatory framework forcing that recovery rate higher. A dedicated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for textile and garment waste remains in draft stage at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change — industry consultations closed in late 2024, with notification anticipated in FY2026-27 — distinct from India's live Plastic Packaging EPR Rules, which cover packaging only, not garments. India also has no regulation targeting textile microfibre shedding during washing, unlike France's mandated washing-machine filters.

7.07M tIndia textile waste generated annually[10]
>70%Overall textile-waste recovery rate[10]
$3.5BProjected India textile-recycling market, 2030[11]
~1 lakhProjected new green jobs from recycling by 2030[11]

7. Policy context: what PLI is (and isn't)

One correction worth making explicitly: the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Textiles — a Rs 10,683 crore outlay approved in September 2021, with 61 of 67 applications approved and a projected Rs 184,917 crore turnover and 240,134 direct jobs over five years — is sometimes cited as evidence of green government momentum in Indian fashion.[16] It isn't. PLI is a manufacturing-competitiveness scheme centred on man-made fibre (MMF) apparel and technical textiles — its own eligible-product list runs the opposite direction from a natural-fibre or circularity narrative. Citing it as sustainability policy overstates what it actually funds.

This context sits inside India's much larger textiles and apparel industry, projected by IMARC Group to grow from US$248.70 billion (2025) to US$656.31 billion by 2034 (11.38% CAGR), with Redseer separately expecting the apparel market alone to reach US$130-150 billion by 2030, growing 10-12% a year.[17][18] Within that broad base, IMARC notes a qualitative — not dollar-quantified — sustainable/organic textile sub-segment growing at roughly 25% CAGR from a small base, citing export sustainability compliance as the driver and Arvind Ltd.'s supercritical CO2 dyeing plant (opened September 2025) as a concrete example.[19]

Rs 10,683 crPLI Scheme for Textiles outlay (MMF-focused, NOT green)[16]
$248.70BIndia textiles & apparel market, 2025 (IMARC)[17]
$656.31BIndia textiles & apparel market, 2034 projection[17]
~25%Qualitative sustainable-textile sub-segment CAGR (IMARC)[19]

8. 2026 outlook

The honest 2026 picture is more interesting than the market-size headline it replaces. India's consumer base shows the world's highest stated willingness to pay for sustainability;[1] its organic-cotton and GOTS-certification base is large and, after a decade of relative decline, stabilising and growing again;[3][7] its government has, for the first time, formally mapped the country's textile-waste value chain and set a recycling-market target;[10][11] and yet its own consumers are simultaneously buying more synthetic fibre by value than natural fibre, and its flagship textile-investment scheme is built around that same synthetic shift, not against it.[12][16]

None of that supports a tidy "India is a green-fashion market worth $X billion" claim — the one sized figure in circulation is BCG-ET's projection, and nothing measures actual sales against it. What it supports is a more specific, more defensible position: brands working genuinely in natural and certified-organic fibre sit ahead of where the median Indian fashion purchase currently is, in a market whose underlying consumer sentiment — if not yet its everyday purchasing — already leans their way.

20%India's WTP premium — the real demand signal[31]
27.8%India's GOTS-certified facility share — the real supply signal[27]
52.2%MMF share of household fibre demand — the real tension[12]
~$9-10BThe one sized estimate (BCG-ET, 2025-26) — a projection, not a measurement[22]

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is India's sustainable fashion market?

The most-cited figure comes from a circularity report by BCG and The Economic Times: about US$5-6 billion, growing at a 10.6% CAGR to roughly US$9-10 billion by 2025-26 and US$24-25 billion by 2040. It is a consultancy estimate rather than measured sales, and other circulating figures vary widely. What IS well-documented is consumer demand (India shows the world's highest willingness-to-pay premium for sustainable products, per Bain) and production-side strength (organic cotton, GOTS certification) — this report leads with those instead.

Are Indian consumers willing to pay more for sustainable fashion?

Yes, more than any other country surveyed. Bain & Company's survey of over 23,000 consumers across 11 countries found Indian consumers report a 20% incremental willingness-to-pay premium for sustainable products — the highest of all 11 markets, ahead of Brazil (16%) and China (15%) and well above the US (11%) and UK (8%), against a 12% average.

Does India produce a lot of organic cotton?

Yes. India's organic-cotton-certified volume reached 436,648 tonnes in 2023/24, according to Textile Exchange's Materials Market Report 2025 — roughly 62% of that report's global organic cotton total of about 706 thousand tonnes, by our calculation. This is the current, primary-sourced figure — an older, frequently-recirculated claim of "51% global share" is Textile Exchange's figure for the 2018/19 harvest and should not be presented as current.

What is GOTS certification and how does India rank?

GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) is the leading certification for organic-fibre textile processing. India held 27.8% of the world's 17,800 GOTS-certified facilities as of the 2025 Annual Report — up from 4,028 of 15,441 facilities (about 26.1%) in 2024 — making India the largest single-country base of GOTS-certified manufacturing capacity.

Is India's textile industry shifting away from natural fibres?

On the demand side, yes — the Ministry of Textiles' National Household Survey 2024 found man-made fibre (MMF) and blends now account for 52.2% of household fibre consumption by value, ahead of cotton at 41.2%. On the production side, India remains natural-fibre-dominant: cotton yarn is 68.5% of total yarn production, and India is one of the world's two largest cotton producers. The two trends run in different directions and are both real.

How much textile waste does India generate?

India generates approximately 70.73 lakh tonnes (about 7.07 million tonnes) of textile waste annually, according to the Ministry of Textiles' March 2026 report — 42% pre-consumer and 58% post-consumer, with an overall recovery rate above 70%. The report projects India's textile recycling market to reach US$3.5 billion by 2030, creating nearly one lakh (about 100,000) new green jobs, with Panipat as the major mechanical-recycling cluster.

Does India have textile recycling regulations like the EU?

Not yet in force. A dedicated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework for textile/garment waste is still in draft stage at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, with industry consultations closed in late 2024 and notification anticipated in FY2026-27. India also has no regulation specifically targeting textile microfibre shedding, unlike France's mandated washing-machine filters.

Is the PLI Scheme for Textiles a green/sustainability policy?

No — this is a common misreading. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Textiles is a Rs 10,683 crore manufacturing-competitiveness scheme targeting man-made fibre (MMF) apparel and technical textiles, approved in September 2021. It is not a sustainability or eco-fashion scheme, and citing it as evidence of "green government policy" overstates its actual scope.

Do Indian consumers actually buy sustainable fashion, or just say they care?

There's a real gap between stated concern and purchase behaviour. A 2019 YouGov survey found 72% of Indians were aware of "sustainable fashion," but only 12% of those aware had actually purchased it — even though 83% said they consider sustainability when shopping. A separate 2021 Statista survey found 89% of Indian respondents claimed to buy sustainable fashion, ranking India #1 of 5 countries surveyed — the two data points together suggest genuine but still-developing purchase follow-through.

What natural fibres does India specialise in for sustainable fashion?

Cotton, linen and silk are India's core natural-fibre strengths, with India one of the world's two largest cotton producers (about 5.49 million tonnes in 2023/24, second only to China) and a leader in organic-cotton certified volume. First Resort also works with a newer bio-based option — a sugarcane and aloe vera fibre blend — as part of its natural-fibre range; see our fabric guide for details.

What should shoppers actually look for in sustainable Indian fashion?

Given how thin genuinely verified market data is, the most reliable signals are the ones this report backs with data: natural or certified-organic fibre content, GOTS or equivalent certification where available, and brands transparent about sourcing rather than making vague sustainability claims. See our companion guide, Sustainable Fashion in India: What to Look for in Ethical Resort Wear, for the practical buying checklist.

Read more on sustainability, fabric and the markets behind premium Indian fashion:

For shoppers: explore our sustainable and cotton collections.

Methodology. This report compiles published 2019-2026 data from Bain & Company, the Ministry of Textiles and its Press Information Bureau, Textile Exchange, Global Standard gGmbH (GOTS), CITI (Confederation of Indian Textile Industry), IMARC Group, Redseer, YouGov and Statista Consumer Insights. Several government figures (the March 2026 textile-waste mapping and the April 2026 National Household Survey) were released within the last four months and are the freshest data available on their respective topics. Where a commonly-repeated figure could not be traced to a credible primary source — most notably the "US$9bn by 2025, per BCG" India sustainable-fashion market-size claim — it is explicitly flagged as unverifiable rather than silently omitted or repeated. Where sources report different vintages of the same metric (e.g. India's organic-cotton global share: 51% in 2018/19, 38.2% in 2020/21, ~62% of a smaller reported total in 2023/24), all are shown with their year labelled, and the most recent is used as the headline figure. No internal First Resort sales data is included in this report.
About First Resort by Ramola Bachchan. First Resort by Ramola Bachchan is a designer label specialising in resort and occasion wear for women — kaftans, tunics, dresses, co-ord sets, and silhouettes built for Indian destination travel and celebration. Sizes XS to 8XL, ships globally from India. Visit firstresort.in.

Related research: Sustainable Fashion in India: What to Look for in Ethical Resort Wear · Sugarcane & Aloe Vera Fabric Guide · India's Handcraft & Embroidery Economy 2026 · Resort Wear Market in India 2026

Sources

  1. Bain & Company. The Visionary CEO's Guide to Sustainability (2023) — 64% of consumers globally highly concerned about sustainability; US consumers willing to pay an average 11% premium for products with a minimized environmental impact. View source
  2. Bain & Company. Sustainability Is a Natural Part of India's Consumer Journey — Not a Marketing Ploy — India-focused follow-up survey (~2,000 respondents), April 2025. View source
  3. Textile Exchange. Materials Market Report 2025 — 436,648 tonnes of cotton fibre certified to the India Organic Regulation in 2023/24; global organic cotton production ≈706 thousand tonnes that year. View source
  4. Textile Exchange. Organic Cotton Market Report 2022 — India's share of global organic cotton production fell to 38.2% for the 2020/21 harvest. View source
  5. IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation). A Green, Sustainable Cotton: Kala Cotton (case study) — calls India "the leading producer of organic cotton (51%), with 1.23 million tonnes produced in 2022". View source
  6. Ministry of Textiles / PIB. Organic cotton production data — India produced 810,934 metric tons of organic cotton in 2020-21, up from 335,712 MT (2019-20) and 312,876 MT (2018-19). View source
  7. Global Standard gGmbH. GOTS Annual Report 2025 — 17.800 certified facilities in 95 countries (as of 1 Jan 2026); India 27,8% of facilities (European number format). View source
  8. Global Standard gGmbH. GOTS Annual Report 2024 — 15.441 certified facilities in 87 countries; India 26,1% of facilities (European number format). View source
  9. Global Standard gGmbH. GOTS press release (Feb 2016) — certified facilities grew from 3,663 in 2014 to 3,814 in 2015; India top country with 1,441. View source
  10. Ministry of Textiles. Mapping of Textile Waste Value Chain in India — released 10 March 2026 — India generates ~70.73 lakh tonnes of textile waste annually (42% pre-consumer, 58% post-consumer), >70% overall recovery. View source
  11. Ministry of Textiles. Mapping of Textile Waste Value Chain in India — India's textile recycling market projected to reach US$ 3.5 billion by 2030, generating ~1 lakh new green jobs; Panipat identified as the major recycling cluster. View source
  12. Ministry of Textiles. Market for Textiles & Clothing: National Household Survey 2024 — released 6 April 2026 — domestic fibre-consumption mix by household demand value: MMF & blends 52.2%, cotton 41.2%, silk 5.2%, wool 1.3%. View source
  13. Ministry of Textiles. National Household Survey 2024 — India's domestic textile market grew from Rs 4.89 lakh crore (2010) to Rs 14.95 lakh crore (2024); per-capita textile spend rose from Rs 2,119 to Rs 6,066. View source
  14. CITI (Confederation of Indian Textile Industry). Production of Major Textile Items — cotton yarn is 68.5% of India's total yarn production (2023-24); "contrary to the global trend, fiber consumption in India is skewed towards natural fibers". View source
  15. Textile Exchange. Materials Market Report 2025 — cotton production by country, 2023/24: China ~5,600,000 t, India ~5,492,870 t; global virgin cotton 24.1 million tonnes. View source
  16. The Economic Times. PLI scheme for textiles: Govt approves 61 proposals of over Rs 19,000 crore — Rs 10,683 crore outlay; 61 of 67 applications approved; projected Rs 184,917 crore turnover and 240,134 jobs — targets MMF apparel and technical textiles, NOT a sustainability scheme. View source
  17. IMARC Group. Indian Textile and Apparel Market Size & Trends 2026-2034 — US$ 248.70 billion (2025) to US$ 656.31 billion (2034), 11.38% CAGR. View source
  18. Redseer. Fashion Forward: Winning in India's fast-growth apparel market (June 2025) — India's apparel market expected to hit US$ 130-150bn by 2030, growing at 10-12% CAGR. View source
  19. IMARC Group. Indian Textile and Apparel Market report — sustainable/organic textile sub-segment growing at an estimated 25% CAGR from a small base, driven by export sustainability compliance (cites Arvind Ltd.'s supercritical CO2 dyeing plant, Sept 2025). View source
  20. YouGov. More than 8 in 10 Indians are open to buying sustainable fashion items (~1,007 respondents, July 2019) — 83% consider sustainability when purchasing fashion; 72% aware of "sustainable fashion" but only 12% of those aware have purchased; sustainability labels matter more to Gen X (66%) than Millennials (50%). View source
  21. Statista Consumer Insights. 89% of Indian respondents claimed to buy sustainable/eco-friendly fashion (2021) — the highest of the five countries surveyed, ahead of China (69%), the US (49%) and Germany (41%). View source
  22. BCG and The Economic Times. Circularity report — India's sustainable fashion market estimated at ~US$ 5-6 billion, growing at a 10.6% CAGR to ~US$ 9-10 billion by 2025-26 and US$ 24-25 billion by 2040 (a consultancy estimate). View source
  23. First Resort by Ramola Bachchan. Sustainable Fashion in India: What to Look for in Ethical Resort Wear — styling and buying guide. View source
  24. First Resort by Ramola Bachchan. Sugarcane & Aloe Vera Fabric: The Guide to India's Bio-Based Resort Wear Fibre. View source
  25. First Resort by Ramola Bachchan. India's Handcraft & Embroidery Economy 2026 — Industry Data Report. View source
  26. First Resort by Ramola Bachchan. Resort Wear Market in India 2026 — Industry Data Report. View source
  27. Sourcing Journal (WWD). Global Standard Sees Wider Adoption of Voluntary Sustainability Standards — GOTS 2025 Annual Report: certified facilities up 15.3% to 17,800 across 95 countries; India has the most (27.8%). View source
  28. Ecotextile News. GOTS certifications continue to rise — 15,441 certified facilities in 2024; India 4,028, China 2,535, Turkey 1,730. View source
  29. Apparel Resources. 5,000-plus textile facilities received GOTS certification in 2017 — 5,024 facilities worldwide; India 1,658. View source
  30. Home Textiles Today. GOTS-certified facilities reach 7,765 in 2019 — India top with 2,411. View source
  31. Business Standard. Indian consumers ready to pay 20% premium for sustainable products: Survey (Nov 2023, on Bain's Visionary CEO's Guide to Sustainability) — over 23,000 consumers in 11 countries; India highest; 85% of Indians very/extremely concerned vs 64% global. View source
  32. ESG Today. Consumers Willing to Pay 12% Premium for Sustainable Products: Bain Survey — premiums of 20% in India, 16% in Brazil, 15% in China vs 11% US, 9% Germany, 8% UK. View source
  33. Textile Exchange. Organic Cotton Market Report 2020 (2018/19 harvest) — India 51% of global organic cotton fibre production. View source

Also shop: Linen

Need help choosing? Our team will help with style and size, on WhatsApp or by email. We ship worldwide from New Delhi.

WhatsApp us Email us