Women's fashion celebrating indigenous weaves

To commemorate National Handloom Day, Lakmé Fashion Week collaborated with Ministry of Textiles, Telangana and organised an engaging conversation on 'Handloom and the Future of Fashion' at Elahe Urban in Hyderabad recently.

The panel comprised designers Soham Dave, Padmaja Krishnan and Santanu Das, who work with handlooms made by various artisan clusters across the country.

The panel also had Sudha Mullapudi, project lead for Microsoft's initiative, ReWeave, reviving handloom weaving in five clusters across the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and A Gajam Govardhan, a master weaver in Ikat and Padma Shri, UNESCO Awardee from Puttapaka village in Telangana.

The discussion was moderated by Gautam Vazirani, Sustainable Fashion Curator at IMG Reliance/Lakmé Fashion Week.

The designers during the conversation talked about their collection, which they will be presenting in 'Sustainable Fashion Day at Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive'.

All the three designers Padmaja Krishnan, Soham Dave and Santanu Das showcased a couple of creations at the event and explained the intricacies involved in the designs.

Santanu Das has been working with weavers in Bengal for a long time now. His latest collection is called 'Be here', which brings to life lesser-known animal and plant organisms that are vulnerable to extinction said, "As colour is the first thing people notice, we as a brand using only one colour.

We want people to feel our garments. Fashion must have a purpose, this time we curated a collection where every garment is named after a species, which got extinct or is very rare.

This will serve us as a reminder about the climate change that is happening in our world. I have named my designs as Kurosu, which is an extinct bird, and another is Baiji, a Chinese river dolphin, is likely the first dolphin species driven to extinction by humans.

The garment has been knitted with the information of these two extinct species. We have used silk which is malda silk from Bengal and is hand weaved. Another dress is made of Khadi and is nine-and-a-half meters long."

Padmaja Krishnan is known for the use of naturally dyed fabric has been very particular about the materials used to make her garments.

"My collection is inspired by the spirit of nature and I have worked with artisans based mostly out of Madhya Pradesh to promote their craftsmanship.

I have been working with Ropin Maheswar, which is entirely hand-spun and hand-woven by women. This is a timeless classic because when you are working with hand-woven, you don't do trends.

It has different textures, which I have got using different thickness and twists of yarn. The garments that I have unveiled in this event is made of khadi fabric and dyed in natural colours, which is Aiyahoma meaning the spirit of nature.

The dye is made of recycled flowers and plants, the textures used in the blouse is micro-pleating done by hand.

All the flowers are taken from the temple and are recycled to make natural colours. The ones I have displayed are made of coconut, pomegranate and marigold extracted colour dyes."

Soham Dave will be showcasing her collection called 'Zari'. "The fabrics are woven in West Bengal. The collection is designed with gold and silver zari's and I have worked on four colour waves.

This is the first time I am introducing the formal range; I always rely on geometrical patterns which are stripes and checks. There are seven to eight different fabric patterns and silhouettes.

I have always got enquires from my customers for formal wear for occasions and so I have worked on them this time."

The event was attended by designers from Hyderabad such as Shilpa Reddy, Anju Poddar, Anjana Reddy among others.

The event also saw eminent personalities Jayesh Ranjan - Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Himaja Kumar- Officer in Charge of the Weavers Service Center, Meena Appnender, Crafts Council Telangana from Telangana Government.