Designers back to weaving rich Banarasi magic

As global fashion capitals are waking up to rich Indian handloom weaves, Indian consumers too are showing keen interest in traditional handwoven drapes. This has prompted designers to go back to craftsmen aware of age-old weaving techniques. Recently, organisers of the Lakme Fashion Week, along with designer-politician Shaina N C launched an initiative called ‘Reinvent Banaras’, to revive Banarasi handlooms.

Banarasi weaves get a designer touch

Leading designers including Shaina NC, Ritu Kumar, Manish Malhotra, Sandeep Khosla, Shruti Sancheti, Anita Dongre and Rina Dhaka have joined hands to be part of a campaign to design, manufacture and produce the best textiles in Banaras.

The initiative, to be promoted under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ theme will assist and boost talented craftsmen and weavers by promoting their art on a global scale. After working with Banarsi sari weavers, designers will work with traditional weaves like the Paithini saris from Maharashtra adopting clusters to work with the weavers.

Padma Shri Ritu Kumar, India’s most prolific and internationally well-known textile revivalist dazzled the audience with her sensational ‘Varanasi Weaves’ collection at the recent Lakme Fashion Week. Her initiative to honour Banarsi weavers supported by the Ministry of Textiles, is aimed at reviving handloom weaving in Varanasi.

Today, Varanasi, the ancient holy city situated on the banks of the River Ganges boasts of over 1,00,000 handloom weavers along with 45,000 active looms in small towns of Bijnor, Barabanki, Mubarakpur, Ramnagar, Lohta and Kotwa. Designers are working with these craftsmen to spin rich Banarasi saris as well as dresses, furnishings and fashion accessories to woo the young audiences. Motifs such as badaam (almonds), kairi (mango), the shikargah (hunting scenes) and various stylised floral butis (flower clusters) that somewhere got lost along the way after British rule to rosettes and geometric patterns, are now reappearing in pure gold and silver zari work on rich and soft Indian silk fabrics.

Initiatives to revive rich Indian weaves

Of late, a lot of effort is going into reviving the traditional crafts. The government is joining hands with designers as well as ecommerce platforms to revive, promote and help artisans create traditionally rich product ranges matching the modern day demand.

Even designers, who are already working with artisans from different clusters, would get a chance to implement government’s schemes, which in turn would help them streamline their own fashion label. Textiles such as Paithani from Maharashtra or Pochampally from Andhra Pradesh or Kanjivaram from Tamil Nadu, are getting a lot of recognition after the designers have begun working with weavers to create remarkable collections with the handcrafted fabrics.

Designers are putting in concerted efforts to identify weaver communities that are familiar with the 400-year-old original weaving method and they are also sourcing handmade yarns from the long-established silk centres like Bhagalpur in Bihar and Jharkhand.