Knitwear Designs / India Market Interview

Indian Knitwear Gets a Design Overhaul as One Label Rejects Seasonal Limits

Indian knitwear remains largely seasonal, confined to winter essentials and mass production with limited design ambition. Saloni Jain, founder and designer of her eponymous label Saloni Jain, approaches knit as a creative discipline grounded in fibre science and construction logic. Her work in cotton, linen and lyocell reframes knitwear as a year-round design medium for the Indian market.

Richa Bansal

9 July 2026

6 minutes

Long Story, Cut Short

Knitwear demands a fundamentally different design process because yarn, structure and garment are engineered as a single integrated system.
Consumer perception rather than material limitation remains the primary obstacle to establishing knitwear as year-round clothing in India.
A garment's emotional charge and reason to exist matter more than its technical resolution when deciding what enters a collection.

Knitwear built from fibre behaviour rather than trend cycles reflects a design philosophy where the yarn itself becomes the starting point for every creative and structural decision in the garment.

MATERIAL LOGIC Knitwear built from fibre behaviour rather than trend cycles reflects a design philosophy where the yarn itself becomes the starting point for every creative and structural decision in the garment. Saloni Jain

texfash: You launched Saloni Jain in 2020 after NIFT Delhi, when knitwear in India was still largely treated as seasonal utility. What made you confident that knitwear could carry a full design language in a market more used to woven, occasion-led and climate-specific dressing?
Saloni Jain: I never saw knitwear as a winter category to begin with. At NIFT, I was introduced to knit as a construction technique and realised how limitless it could be. It can hold structure, create fluidity, develop texture and tell stories in ways that woven fabric often can't. There was an entire design language within knit that wasn't being explored in India. I also felt there was a gap in the market. Most knitwear here was either basic essentials or winter necessities, whereas globally, knit had already evolved into a medium for fashion, art and self-expression. The brand became an attempt to show that knitwear could exist beyond seasons and function as a complete creative discipline.

The brand positions knitwear as a discipline rather than a category. Where does that distinction show up most clearly: in yarn selection, machine programming, silhouette development, pricing, or how the customer is expected to understand the garment?
Saloni Jain: Honestly, it shows up in all of those things because knitwear requires a completely different way of thinking. Every decision begins with the yarn. The fibre composition determines how the garment will drape, stretch, breathe and age. We're not simply cutting fabric and sewing it together; we're engineering the fabric and the garment simultaneously. I also think customers need to understand knitwear differently. A knitted garment carries a level of technical development and craftsmanship that often isn't immediately visible. Pricing, therefore, isn't just about the final piece but about the extensive process of development, sampling and engineering behind it. I think of knitwear as a discipline rather than a category, it demands a completely different way of designing.

Your work challenges the assumption that knitwear belongs to winter. In practical terms, what has been hardest to change: the material reality of making knits suitable for India, or the consumer perception that knitwear is inherently warm?
Saloni Jain: Consumer perception, without a doubt. Technically, creating knitwear for India isn't difficult anymore. There are enough lightweight yarns, breathable fibres and open stitch structures that make knitwear suitable for different climates. We work extensively with cotton and lighter blends to ensure comfort. The bigger challenge is that people hear the word "knit" and immediately think of sweaters and winter wear. It's an association that has existed for decades, so changing it requires constant education and repetition.

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Country:

India

Individual:

Saloni Jain

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Segment:

Knitwear

Playfulness in design does not preclude discipline in construction, and garments that appear unconventional carry the same technical standards as any precisely engineered piece of clothing.

QUIET RIGOUR Playfulness in design does not preclude discipline in construction, and garments that appear unconventional carry the same technical standards as any precisely engineered piece of clothing. Saloni Jain

The press note says you spent nearly five years refining your understanding of knit before committing to it exclusively. What were the early technical failures that shaped the way you now build a garment?
Saloni Jain: Knitwear is an incredibly complex product to make because the textile and the garment are being created simultaneously. In India, the ecosystem for experimental knitwear is still developing. The industry is largely geared towards mass production and basic categories, so access to specialised machinery, technical expertise, sampling facilities and diverse yarn options is limited. A lot of learning happens through trial and error because there isn't an established infrastructure for designers who want to push knitwear beyond conventional sweaters and essentials. My early failures came from the process of experimentation. Those experiences taught me that knitwear demands both creativity and engineering, but above all, a deep understanding of process and patience, something that felt incredibly overwhelming in the beginning.

Cotton remains central to your work, with linen and lyocell entering the material vocabulary. What does each fibre allow you to do in knitwear that would be difficult or less convincing in woven construction?
Saloni Jain: Each fibre brings a different behaviour to knit. Cotton gives us structure, softness and breathability, making it ideal for everyday pieces that can be worn across seasons. Linen introduces texture and a certain irregularity that makes the fabric feel more alive and relaxed. Lyocell brings fluidity and drape, allowing the knit to move in a very elegant way. In knitwear, these fibres become even more expressive because the looped construction amplifies their inherent qualities. The same fibre can behave entirely differently in knit than it does in woven construction, and that ability to manipulate and reveal different characteristics within a material is what continually draws me to knitwear.

You describe your design philosophy as an "intentional lack of seriousness". How do you prevent that looseness from becoming gimmickry once the garment has to survive repeated wear, washing and commercial scrutiny?
Saloni Jain: For me, an intentional lack of seriousness is really about maintaining curiosity and humour in the design process. It doesn't mean a lack of rigour. The garments may appear playful or unconventional, but the making of them is incredibly disciplined. Every piece has to pass the same standards of fit, durability and functionality as any other well made garment. I think something becomes gimmicky when the idea is stronger than the product itself. We try to avoid that by ensuring that every design decision has longevity. The garment should still feel relevant and desirable after the novelty of the idea wears off. If the piece can't survive repeated use, then the concept hasn't been resolved properly.

You personally wear-test pieces for shape retention, tension behaviour and durability. What usually causes a design to fail at that stage: the yarn, the structure, the fit, or the emotional disconnect between concept and wearability?
Saloni Jain: More often than not, it's the emotional disconnect. I'm extremely discerning about what I put out because I care deeply about whether a garment has a reason to exist. It needs to contribute something beyond being another well-made piece of clothing, an emotion, a perspective, a tension or an idea. Every design should offer a new way of seeing or feeling something. If a piece doesn't carry that sense of purpose or emotional charge, it doesn't make it into the collection, regardless of how technically resolved it is.

Saloni Jain

Founder

Saloni Jain

Each fibre brings a different behaviour to knit. Cotton gives us structure, softness and breathability, making it ideal for everyday pieces that can be worn across seasons. Linen introduces texture and a certain irregularity that makes the fabric feel more alive and relaxed. Lyocell brings fluidity and drape, allowing the knit to move in a very elegant way. In knitwear, these fibres become even more expressive because the looped construction amplifies their inherent qualities.

Material and Method

The label uses cotton, linen and lyocell as primary fibres to ensure breathability and year-round wearability in Indian conditions.
Knitwear construction requires engineering fabric and garment simultaneously, a process distinct from conventional cut-and-sew production methods.
Early technical failures stemmed from India's limited experimental knitwear infrastructure including restricted access to specialised machinery and sampling facilities.
Each fibre behaves differently in looped knit construction compared to woven fabric, amplifying the material's inherent drape and texture qualities.
All garments undergo personal wear-testing for shape retention, tension behaviour and durability before entering the final collection.

Values and Direction

The label uses OEKO-TEX and GRS-certified yarns and treats sustainability as a production baseline rather than a marketing claim.
Graphic shirts draw from archives, advertisements and literary references filtered through personal interpretation rather than commercial trend cycles.
A garment is excluded from the collection if it lacks emotional charge or conceptual purpose regardless of its technical quality.
Growth remains acceptable only if it preserves control over the making process without compromising product integrity or design intention.
The brand launched in 2020 after NIFT Delhi and prioritises continuity and deliberate development over rapid commercial expansion.

The brand uses OEKO-TEX and GRS-certified yarns and frames sustainability as a baseline rather than a claim. Given how loosely sustainability language is used in fashion, what evidence do you think a small label must provide before it can speak credibly about material responsibility?
Saloni Jain: For me, sustainability isn't a marketing story, it’s simply the minimum responsibility of making clothes today. I think brands need to be very transparent about what they are actually doing rather than making broad claims. If you're making garments designed to last, demonstrate the thought and testing that goes into them. It's also important to acknowledge the limitations of being a small business. No brand is entirely sustainable, and I think credibility comes from honesty rather than perfection.

Your graphic shirts draw from archives, old advertisements, letters, odd imagery and literary references. At what point does a reference-heavy garment stop being a personal visual archive and start becoming opaque to the buyer?
Saloni Jain: I don't think every reference needs to be fully understood by the wearer. The references I use are often deeply personal, but the emotional response to them shouldn't be exclusive. Even if someone doesn't know the exact source, they should still feel something when they encounter the garment. I think a piece becomes too opaque only when the reference is doing all the work and the garment itself isn't communicating anything. The references should enrich the experience, not become a prerequisite for understanding the piece.

The brand’s stated direction is continuity rather than rapid expansion. What would count as unacceptable growth for Saloni Jain: higher production volumes, broader retail distribution, more frequent collections, or a loss of control over the making process?
Saloni Jain: The only unacceptable growth for me would be growth that compromises the integrity of the work. I want to produce more, enter new markets and expand retail distribution but I plan to do it thoughtfully. I would never want to grow at a pace where we lose control over the product, the quality of making or the intention behind each piece. I've always believed in building deliberately and staying consistent. The brand is deeply personal, and every garment that leaves the studio represents our values and our way of thinking about clothing.

Cotton provides structure and softness while linen introduces texture and irregularity, and each yarn reveals different qualities within the looped construction of knit than it would in woven fabric. Saloni Jain

Richa Bansal

RICHA BANSAL has more than 30 years of media industry experience, of which the last 20 years have been with leading fashion magazines in both B2B and B2C domains. Her areas of interest are traditional textiles and fabrics, retail operations, case studies, branding stories, and interview-driven features.

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