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From international runways to showcases of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art to celebrity weddings, it is handloom all the way, and how. A classic example of 'Make in India’, handloom is a favourite among fashionistas too.
“Handloom is 70 percent of finished garments in the apparel industry and it still has a long way to go. While handloom purchase has gone up more than 100 percent in the last decade it is developing itself in terms of product innovation every day,” said fashion designer Gaurang Shah whose entire collection is handloom.
According to Shah, handloom has taken over bling and people prefer handloom outfits even for their own wedding. “People are ready to pay as much for handloom as they would have paid for any other outfit. If one has a budget of Rs 2 lakhs for a wedding lehenga one would invest it in a pure silk which is an investment in itself and not on blingy outfits that lose their shine and worth with time,” said Shah.
Shah’s Paithani silk lehengas are a classic example of pure handloom bridal outfits.
Tapasee Pannu in a Gaurang Shah creation
However, it is not just Shah who has gone the handloom way. There are others who are taking handloom beyond the Indian mainland to fashion capitals of the world. For instance, there is Sanjay Garg with his brand Raw Mango. The designer who has dressed celebrities like Sonam Kapoor and Soha Ali Khan has found his way to places like New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where his handloom pieces grabbed the attention of fashionistas across the world.
For Garg handloom is sustainable fashion. “Innovation is the key to take fashion to the next level and handloom is at the peak of innovation at the moment. Handloom doesn’t need sympathy as a dying product-it needs time, innovation and investment which designers like me have dedicatedly been giving to make it prosper,” said Garg.
Not just designers, handloom has got the much-required government push too, Several Indian states have started to promote their traditional and indigenous textiles on national and international platforms.
With hefty budgetary allocations for the promotion of traditional textiles, states like West Bengal, Manipur, Assam, Telengana and Madhya Pradesh are concentrating on developing state-owned brands. These initiatives to rebrand state handloom with design intervention from the fashion designers and monetary support from the government is reviving fabrics like Pochompally, Baluchari, Narayanpet, Kutch Kala Cotton and Muga. In Bengal, for instance, there are two state-run brands Biswa Bangla and Club Muslin and it has also come up with a new brand called Baluchari dedicated to reviving of the fabric under the mentorship of designer Abhishek Dutta.
The center has also put in its best to make handloom work. In 2015 “India Handloom Brand” was launched by Narendra Modi in order to promote the branding of high-quality handloom products, with zero defects and zero impact on the environment.
India Handloom brand had also pooled in the retail backing with collaboration with brands like Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.’s Peter England to work together to promote the Indian handloom industry.
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