CEO of the Year: Christian R. Fabre of Fashions International

Yes, that's him above, in the saffron robe, hard at work.

He's a 63-year-old Frenchman whose present career began after a deep personal setback.

He had come to India in 1971 to work for a leather exporter, but lost his job a few years later.

Then his wife divorced him and left with their young son in the early 1980s.

His neighbors introduced him to Hinduism and yoga.

Later, he was deeply influenced by a leper who had lost his fingers and toes yet seemed content.

Fabre said, in yesterday's New York Times article by Saritha Rai, "He became my guru in my quest for happiness."

His guru urged him to return to business, so Fabre set up a garment exporting company, then founded Fashions International, which supplies clothes and home furnishings to foreign retailers like Kenzo, Catimini, and Haggar.

He's in his usual work attire above: saffron robe, beads, and ash and vermilion on his forehead.

For every 10 days he works, he retires to his ashram for two weeks, where he goes about nude.

He calls himself Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta, but at work they just call him Swami-ji, or guru.

The company exports 3.5 million pieces of apparel a year, taking a few dollars commission on each.

Swami-ji takes a monthly salary of $200.

Neither he nor his two associates, nor his 80 other employees, have contracts.

"For a sanyasi like me, contracts are redundant," he said.

He has never fired anyone in the 18 years the company has existed.

Truly the anti-Trump.

Read the wonderful story, which follows.

Off Label

For an executive whose work entails closely tracking fashion trends and couture labels, Christian R. Fabre has an unusual sense of dress.

At work, he wears the garb of a Hindu holy man: saffron robes, beads, and ash and vermilion on his forehead. In his hermitage, he goes about nude.

Mr. Fabre, a 63-year-old Frenchman who has lived in India for more than three decades, is chief executive of Fashions International, which supplies clothes and home furnishings to foreign retailers.

In this hot and humid city, often considered the last urban bastion of conservative Indian values, his dress and skin color set him apart.

But even when he travels to Europe for business, Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta, as he calls himself, creates a stir.

At the Prêt-à-Porter Paris trade fair in September, Mr. Fabre got amazed looks as he prospected for new business in his ascetic robes.

"Potential customers were shocked," Mr. Fabre said, "but when I started talking business, they discovered I speak their language."

Fashions International supplies clothing to European and American brands like Kenzo, Lee Cooper, Catimini and Haggar, and it supplies retailers including Jules and Camaïeu Femme.

The garments are made in factories across India, where Fashions International employees supervise production, quality and deadlines.

The company exports 3.5 million pieces of apparel a year, and averages a few dollars of commission each.

With profit growing at more than 25% a year, Mr. Fabre is one of the highest payers of income tax in Tamil Nadu State, of which Madras, also known as Chennai, is the capital.

Mr. Fabre takes a modest monthly salary of $200, in keeping with his faith, which requires him not just to go without clothes, but also to renounce all material attachment.

His employees earn varying percentages of the company's revenue. Mr. Fabre declined to give the company's profit and revenue figures.

Mr. Fabre is not bound to his company's headquarters.

For every 10 days he works, he retires to his ashram for two weeks.

It is an eight-hour drive to the 32-acre ashram in the remote Kolli hills southwest of Chennai, where Mr. Fabre meditates and, through a satellite-enabled Internet connection, tracks business deals while discussing spiritual matters with his followers in online chat rooms.

The retreat is open to all and offers free medical services to local people.

The way Mr. Fabre runs his business is as unusual as his appearance.

At Fashions International, now in its 18th year, he and his two associates, A. Jayapalan and Shaana Tiruchelvam, have no contract.

Neither does his personal assistant, Pinky Lahiri, nor his 80 other employees.

"For a sanyasi like me, contracts are redundant," said Mr. Fabre, using the Hindu word for renunciate.

Mr. Fabre says he has never fired an employee.

The headquarters of Fashions International are in a 10,000-square-foot building in a Chennai suburb, entered through a wooden gate, and surrounded by lush foliage.

A central courtyard houses a shrine to the Hindu gods Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, and his father, Shiva, the god of knowledge.

Here, employees scurry about carrying textile samples and confer with suppliers and clients in glass-enclosed conference rooms.

Mr. Fabre, who does not eat meat or drink, is reverentially addressed by employees as Swami-ji, or guru.

Ms. Lahiri says that "if a colleague suffers from a cold or headache, he distributes medicines, gives spiritual advice and counsels those with emotional problems."

Mr. Fabre's initiation into business, and spirituality, came after a deep personal setback.

He came to India in 1971 to work for a French-Belgian exporter of semifinished leather, but a few years later the Indian government banned exports of such goods.

Mr. Fabre lost his job; his wife divorced him soon after and left with their young son in the early 1980's.

"I lost everything," he recalled.

"It was a traumatic time."

His neighbors subsequently introduced him to yoga and Hinduism.

Later, he was deeply influenced by a leper who seemed content even though he had lost his toes and fingers.

"He became my guru in my quest for happiness," Mr. Fabre said.

His guru urged him to return to his profession.

So Mr. Fabre set up a garment exporting company, and then he and his associates founded Fashions International.

Mr. Fabre is no naïve foreign businessman in India.

His associates say he is a sharp tactician and negotiator.

Suppliers in low-cost centers like India are preparing for the end of the global textile and apparel quota system, and Fashions International has opened a buying office in Hangzhou, China.

Such moves please clients like Henri Roos, who designs for his own label, Leïko, based in Lyon, and was on his first visit to Fashions International.

Mr. Fabre "perfectly understands our every fashion need," Mr. Roos said.

Mitesh Patel, chief of Patel Exports India, a company based in Chennai that supplies brands like Brooks Brothers and Timberland, said of Mr. Fabre: "There is nobody quite as shrewd in all of the 20 buying agencies that I deal with."

On a sultry Chennai afternoon recently, Mr. Fabre seemed at ease straddling two incongruent worlds.

"Clothes are just a label of who you are and what your social status is," he commented.

Why, then, is he in the fashion and clothing business?

"I am because of the intimate certainty that what I do is useful to others," Mr. Fabre said.