IndiaPost.com - Pioneer of textiles outsourcing

India Post News Service

Long before outsourcing became a byword of trade, John Bissell of Hartford discovered Indian artisans and trained them to work for exports. Educated at the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, and at Yale, his love for India began as a child, listening to tales his father told of his time in India during World War II. After college, John Bissell worked at Macy's, and began to like the look and feel of hand-woven fabrics.

Those two interests merged in 1958, when he was given a two-year grant from the Ford Foundation to instruct Indian villagers in making goods for export. Once his grant expired, John Bissell decided to stay back. He founded a business, Fabindia Ltd., that bought locally produced items like durries, rugs and exported them.

In 1958, well before American companies were sourcing from India, John Bissell left his position as a buyer for Macy's New York to work as a consultant for the Ford Foundation in order to develop India's export potential in its emerging textile industry. What Bissell discovered was a village-based industry with a profusion of skills hidden from the world.

''The greatest thing that happened to our business was the move in Europe and America a few years back to the natural look -- natural textures, natural fibers -- and away from things like polyester and nylon,'' he said in a 1977 interview. Determined to showcase Indian handloom textiles while providing equitable employment to traditional artisans, Bissell established Fabindia in 1960 in order to fuse the best aspects of East/West collaboration.

Fifteen years later the first Fabindia retail store was opened in Greater Kailash, New Delhi with a range of upholstery fabrics, durries and home linens. By the early eighties, they started producing garments made from hand woven and hand block printed fabrics.

Over the years the focus of Fabindia's marketing shifted from exports to the local Indian retail market. What started as an export house has today become a successful retail business presenting Indian textiles in a variety of natural fabrics, and home products including furniture, lights and lamps, stationery, home accessories, pottery and cutlery. Extending this partnership to the farmers in rural areas, Fabindia launched its organic food products range in 2004.

Fabindia Sana, the company's authentic body care products range has also been launched at all Fabindia outlets. Fabindia sources its products from over 15000 craft persons and artisans across India. They blend indigenous craft techniques with contemporary designs to bring aesthetic and affordable products to today's consumers.

They provide customers with hand crafted products which help support and encourage good craftsmanship. Fabindia works closely with artisans by providing various inputs including design, quality control, access to raw materials and production coordination.

The vision continues to be to maximize the hand made element in products, whether it is textiles, block printing, embroidery or home products. John Bissell married Bimla Nanda, who served as social secretary for Chester A.

Bowles and John Kenneth Galbraith when they were United States Ambassadors to India. His business flourished despite his widely known family connection to Richard M. Bissell Jr., the legendary Central Intelligence Agency operative who was his uncle. Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, William, who now runs Fabindia, and a daughter, Monsoon.