Kaelir is where fashion meets eco consciousness, where passion to make a difference meets cool, where fiber from the discarded banana tree is transformed into clothes, home furnishings, and even sanitary pads.
“Yaadhum oore yaavarm kaelir” wrote a poet two millennia ago. Among those that have taken it to heart and walk the talk is Gautam and his team at Kaelir.
From Tirupur to Bangalore to Milan to Chennai to Bangalore to Tirupur, the circle hasn’t closed, as Gautam’s plans for Kaelir take new root each day. “It’s just the beginning,” says Gautam, catching a break between his various trips abroad and domestic pop-up stalls to talk about his journey. Ok, so let’s start at the beginning.
Italy to Tirupur
“My background is in textiles – not in a direct way though. My father moved to Tirupur from Madurai in his youth and set up an apparel sourcing house. It is now 30 years old and has been running successfully. I have learned how this business operates, and I’ve always been inspired to start my own. I didn’t know if it would be in textiles, but I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he reminisces.
Gautam received his undergrad degree from NIFT in design and textile production. He then went on to do his master’s in Milan, Italy, in luxury brand management. Spending time in the fashion capital, Gautam got an insider view into the workings of mega brands such as Bulgari. “I also worked with a brand of wine called Vino, and I had the fortune of working with some fantastic human beings there. My studies in Italy and an internship proved to be a game changer for me. I learned a lot about branding, marketing positioning, and strategy. Unfortunately, COVID hit, and I had to return home to India.”
Armed with this new-found knowledge, Gautam wanted to put it all together. “Knowledge from textbooks and papers is not equal to real time experience. I needed to apply what I learned in Milan to real life and start my own business.”
Gautam worked in Chennai for a short while with a company that made home textiles, such as aprons, furnishings etc., but he wasn’t learning much. “I quit in less than 6 months, and moved to Bengaluru, where I worked on a really cool brand called Birdsonglife. The founders are fantastic people. I was their operations manager, and I really learned a lot of things on the job. I then reached a point where I decided that I wanted to put my learning to work and that’s when I returned to Tirupur.” With the support of his then fiancée and now wife, Gautam put their savings together and began Kaelir. His parents were a huge source of support when he was running around getting the paperwork in order. Kaelir took off but his wife decided to stay on in her job, focusing on her career. Gautam explored several possible ventures and zeroed in on manufacture of home furnishings and apparel, with banana fiber.
From Plastics to Fiber
“We started by manufacturing clothing with recycled plastic bottles. But it was still plastic, we wanted something sustainable. While we received good customer feedback, there was some confusion – we were only upcycling plastic – and that did not match our brand ethics. After much research, we came up with a new idea – to produce plant-based products. Across the world and India too, there are fabrics which are made with aloe, mango, rose, hemp, orange and many other plant fibers. But due to technical difficulties and restrictions, they’re only available on a small scale in India.” And so was born Kaelir. To transform plant waste into comfortable, wearable, usable material that everyone should be able to access and experience.
Banana fiber to fashion apparel
Gautam chose the versatile banana plant, after extensive research.
“So, farmers who grow banana plants on 30-40 acres simply cut the plant once the harvest is done and throw it away. The plant goes to waste. They cannot re-harvest the same plant for the next year. They just dump it!”, he exclaims. The process is quite long-winded and laborious. “We have a tie up with farmers, in and around Tamil Nadu—from those who have an acre or two, to some of them who have about 30 acres. After harvest, the trees are picked up and then begin their journey to emerge as textiles,” he explains. Every facility, which is a cog in the wheel, is given a logistics map. The material is transported at different stages from one facility to another, to be ready for garment manufacture.”
The farm to factory process
Gautam gives a quick round-up. “Once we collect the trees, we separate the stems and extract the fibers from the pseudo stems; from there, we transform them to raw yarn; the yarn is then converted to shredded pulp; from the pulp we separate the filament, we convert the filament to clothing yarn, from that to fabric, which is then made into clothing!” It’s complicated, but it’s apparent that each facility is efficient in turning out top quality raw material. As is the final product. “Banana has very high tensile strength. Its fiber is stronger than cotton, and our brand can stand the test of time,” he says proudly. In fact, reading up on it, products made of banana fiber include a vast variety, from currency notes (in Japan) to household products such as mats, sunshades and upholstery to tissues, silk grade sarees and of course, Kaelir shirts.
“It’s not just sustainable – it’s basically a revolution of the traditional method. Like sarees which are made from silk, which is a subproduct of a worm. This material is from the subproduct of plant waste,” he explains. “Kaelir is going to make sanitary pads from banana and expand into home furnishings too,” says Gautam enthusiastically. “We’re not going to stop with bananas; every plant that goes to waste and that has cellulose can be turned into a subproduct for daily usage. That’s our vision!”
Capital issues
What about the capital? “We are bootstrapped for now, and this business requires huge capital. But we have a super lean team, where I take care of the operations and two interns from NIFT work with us. I prefer to keep it low key and will avoid raising funding for as long as possible. That’s Kaelir,” he smiles. Gautam’s research has shown that India has huge potential, even while western countries are more aware and understand the value of such a sustainable material. However, he does encounter a lot of skepticism in the Indian consumer behavior. “That’s why a lot of big buyers and corporates are staying away from this path,” he says.
“We are currently in talks with a company in Los Angeles. We’ll soon be available in retail there, and then in Dubai”, he says proudly.
A challenging journey
Kaelir has come a long way but has miles to go. While their vision is to make clothing from plant waste, they want everybody to own one piece of banana clothing. “I want to make a change—don’t know about starting a revolution, but I want to make a change. That’s daily motivation for me,” says Gautam with a smile. “We know where our food is coming from; now we want people to know where their clothing is coming from. Once that awareness sets in, then there’s a huge window for change,” he states.
Not all is hunky dory in banana land. India does not have a specific body or department to certify the finished fabric. Hence, exporting to the US or European countries is a huge challenge. “It’s eco-friendly, biodegradable, uses minimal water, no pesticides or fertilizer, and is so easy to cultivate. It’s nothing like using polyester or taffeta which take approximately 30 to 300 years to decompose!” says our banana warrior. But Kaelir has garnered enough interest and is ready to take on the international market. A much-cherished compliment came from someone Gautam admires and respects. “Kattipudichikkalaam pole irukku!” (I feel like hugging this!) says Krishna Mckenzie, the doyen of permaculture from Auroville.
As of now Kaelir banana apparel is available only on their website (see below) and at pop-ups and events in all tier 1 cities.
To know more, check out: – www.ourkaelir.com