Founder's Office Intern

About RAFA

RAFA is a premium womenswear startup focused on natural fabrics, excellent fit, and clothing designed for Indian weather.

Role Overview

RAFA is looking for a curious, resourceful, and detail-oriented Fabric Sourcing Intern in the Founder's Office to identify premium natural fabrics.

The internship will involve visiting fabric markets and suppliers, collecting swatches, comparing fabric quality, gathering commercial information, and creating an organised sourcing database.

This role is suitable for someone who is genuinely interested in textiles and wants practical experience in developing a premium fashion product from the sourcing stage.

Key Responsibilities

• Visit fabric markets, stockists, mill representatives and suppliers across Delhi NCR.
• Source premium natural-fibre fabrics, including linen, cotton-linen and suitable cotton options.
• Collect, label and organise physical fabric swatches.
• Speak directly with suppliers regarding composition, pricing, minimum order quantities and availability.
• Gather information on fabric width, GSM, finish, lead time and repeat availability.
• Assess fabrics for drape, structure, opacity, texture, creasing and suitability for womens trousers.
• Arrange approved trial meterage for sampling.
• Coordinate basic shrinkage and wash testing.
• Maintain accurate records of supplier conversations, quotations and fabric specifications.

Educational Qualifications

Applicants should meet one of the following criteria:

• Currently pursuing or recently completed a diploma, undergraduate or postgraduate programme in Textile Design, Textile Technology, Fashion Design, Fashion Technology, Apparel Production, Fashion Merchandising or a related discipline.
• Students and graduates from institutions such as NIFT, NID, Pearl Academy, UID, IIAD, Srishti, ATDC, JD Institute, Amity or comparable fashion and textile programmes are encouraged to apply.

Preferred Knowledge and Experience

• Basic understanding of woven fabrics and natural fibres.
• Familiarity with linen, cotton, cotton-linen blends and garment fabrics.
• Previous internship, academic project or practical exposure involving fabric sourcing, textile markets, garment development or merchandising.
• Familiarity with Delhi NCR fabric markets or supplier networks is preferred.
• Basic understanding of fabric weight, drape, shrinkage, opacity and surface finish.
• Ability to use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

Previous industry experience is useful but not mandatory. Demonstrated curiosity, judgement, reliability and willingness to conduct fieldwork will be given significant weight.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is:

• Passionate about textiles and premium garment quality.
• Curious about how fabric affects the fit and finish of a garment.
• Comfortable travelling independently across Delhi NCR.
• Confident speaking with suppliers and asking detailed questions.
• Organised and consistent with documentation.
• Resourceful when approaching new suppliers.
• Able to meet weekly deadlines without continuous supervision.
• Capable of distinguishing between a visually attractive fabric and a commercially reliable production fabric.

What the Internship Offers

• Practical experience in sourcing fabrics for premium womenswear.
• Direct exposure to fabric suppliers, markets and product-development decisions.
• Opportunity to work directly with RAFAs founder, a University of Chicago alumna, during the product-development stage.
• Opportunity to understand how fabric is evaluated for design, performance, cost and production.
• Portfolio-worthy sourcing and product-development experience.
• A Letter of Recommendation upon request, subject to satisfactory completion of the internship.

Application Requirements

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Please submit:

• Opportunity to understand how fabric is evaluated for design, performance, cost, and production.
• Current city
• Portfolio or examples of textile-related work