Nitty Gritty
“In the bylanes of the industrial area in Benares, the manufacturing unit of Ikkatdoor is firmly embedded in its culture, having the persistent influence of the textile legacy that this creative and divine city of Kashi possesses.
Almost all the hustle & bustle surrounding this area leads you directly to round the clock working factories. One of those factories is Ikkatdoor’s, churning out women’s clothing products day in day out. As soon as you enter the premises, you can sniff in the peculiar fragrance of dye, and colors.”
- Moving inside we can see the raw material stacking up in bundles or rolls one over another consisting of lengths of white cloths in huge numbers of variety of fabrics viz., cotton, linen, supernet, matka silk, tussar silk, chanderi silk, munga silk, khadi silk and many more purchased from recognized handloom houses. Afterwards, all the bundles are checked up thoroughly one by one and moved ahead into the process of degumming for removing the silicon layer coated on the raw fabric so as to make it completely raw and natural for further processing according to a specific “program” or “client’s order”.
- Thereafter, those fabrics are dyed in different tone of colors as per the order requirements and then laid & steamrolled on waxed platform for screen printing, hand printing and block printing for which we have large varieties of screen and traditional motifs in the form of cultural designs viz., ‘Baarat’ (wedding progression), Peacock Motifs, Traditional birds and many more.
- Once we are done with the printing process, the printed fabrics are moved ahead into the steam drier for the process of color fixation which plays a very crucial role in determining the color quality of final products.
- Thereafter, comes the process of washing that is executed diligently in large containers of natural water only after checking its required PH value. Then we add some essential chemicals viz., Fabric softener, Dye Fix etc so that the dried fabrics are washed proficiently and the additional or temporary colors are drained away completely leaving no question of color pigmentation or color leakage when final customer washes the same after using.
- Afterwards, we step onto the process of finishing, where the washed fabrics are dried in open air under proper supervision and then they go for calendar polishing and/or ironing as per the client’s requirement. Then, the final products are rechecked again and folded by workmen synced in rhythmic coordination leading to an efficient packaging in a well prepared plastic wrapper and then dispatched accordingly.
Henceforth, after completing so many stages of manufacturing processes and spending so many hours of day in day out rigorous work schedules, we feel extremely satisfied with what we achieve as the final product of supreme quality. As we always say, it’s not the outcome of working for one casual day by few recognized people, rather it’s a magnificent result of proper coordination and cooperation of workers working in tandem round the clock. The credit goes to the talent and hard work of the family of Ikkatdoor not just to few individuals.