The ongoing restructuring of the global textile and apparel industry brings renewed attention to processes of industrial upgrading as mechanisms of adjustment to volatile market conditions. This literature has however focused largely on external drivers of adjustment: notably, the ‘disciplining’ pressures of trade liberalization, insertion of firms within global value chains, the role of foreign buyers, global standards and preferential trade agreements in shaping export performance. I use the case of Indian apparel, and the history of its recent export growth, to highlight the domestic dimensions of export competitiveness. I argue that the role of the state, contradictory institutional legacies of India's Import Substitution Industrialization, contested shifts within local regulatory regimes and the changing structure of the domestic market were of central importance to shaping the incorporation of a shielded industry into the global economy and the nature of its export trajectory.
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