Indian culture and craft are variegated, like a large tapestry with many different patterns woven into the cloth. And while some Indian styles are part of our daily lives, there are a lot that forgotten.
This week, textiles and jewellery from Eastern India that focus especially on Assamese silk and cotton weaves, hand-woven soft cotton, and Orissa’s ikkat and indigenous brass will be exhibited and sold as dresses, crop-tops, kurtis, saris and shoes, woven by tribal and marginalised artisans, sponsored by Subrata Pandey and Saroj Pandey’s organisation Punarnawa.
“We encourage and work with people who are not commercially accessible and do not have a market for their craftsmanship,” says Subrata. “We’re trying to build a popularity for their forgotten skill sets. For example, Orissa’s ikkat fabric does not have a popular identity because its considered too traditional. But we’re presenting the same textiles in a new format suitable for today’s fashion.”
Punarnawa is an Orissa-based body that works to revive the craft or tribal communities, marginalised sections and traditional master weavers. A 2014 Forbes entrepreneur, Subrata said that she started this initiative during what was supposed to be only a short stint in a village in Kutch. She began by holding workshops with children and by teaching village women needlework. “The experience was rewarding, I let go of the other job I was supposed to take and started considering village initiatives seriously.”
“And we’ve expanded so much. We do more than just needlework. We’re also working in Jharkand, Chattisgarh, Bihar and Assam and trained over 800 artisans to forge bamboo, cloth and metal.”
Subrata says that Punarnawa tries to keep every sale they make transparent for both the producer and the buyer. “The women who work know exactly where their product is going and who the buyer is. We discuss pricing together. We want them to be happy and encourage the pride that they have in their products. We have explained the process of the craft to customers also. And if they want fabric with a specific thread count, or with some particular design, we try and give that to them.”
“We call our fashion sustainable fashion,” Subrata adds, “So we recycle all our waste, even if the leftovers are only used to make matress stuffing.”
The Bengaluru showcase is Punarnawa’s first independent event. “We usually get about 200 to 300 customers, sometimes just from a niche crowd in a three-day exhibition. We also have international buyers, from the UK, US, Finland, Singapore and Japan for example,” says Subrata. “But I’m waiting to see the response to the exhibit here.”
The exhibit is on till June 25 at Serenity, 5th Main, Jayamahal. Visit www.punarnawa.com for more details.
