Textile Treats

The Indian Textile show at LFW reiterated the popularity of Indian textiles being used in a contemporary format

This year,the Indian Textile Day at Lakme Fashion Week (LFW),recently held in Mumbai,had a new addition an Indian Textile show. The idea was to bring weavers works under the spotlight, says Saket Dhankar,Head-Fashion,IMG-Reliance,which organises the event with Lakme.

This Indian Textile show saw designer Mayank Mansingh Kaul curate the works of Gaurav Jai Gupta of Akaaro,Swati Kalsi and Ashdeen Lilaowala. While Kalsi and Lilaowala featured handwoven embroidery Sujani embroidery from Bihar and Parsi Gara embroidery,respectively in Western silhouettes,Guptas line lay emphasis on structured garments made with minimal cutting so as to work towards zero cloth wastage.

India is known as a hub of textiles and yet,its only now that we have begun to celebrate our textile culture, says Kalsi,whose LFW line of asymmetrical dresses,boleros,coats and skirt-and-blouse ensembles won the LFW Heritage Award (accompanied by a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh).

For Gupta,this show was a way of creating awareness about the concept of restoration as well as the preservation of the hand-weaving technique. My collection of dresses,tunics,shirts,trousers and jackets,titled Re-,was made using handwoven fabrics such as chanderi,banarasi and tope silk, he says.

Lilaowala has been working on the preservation and promotion of Parsi Gara embroidery and researching for a book on the Zoroastrian craft of Kusti weaving. At the show,he highlighted these in a collection of cocktail dresses,gowns and saris with motifs such as butterflies,birds and flowers.

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