Mangaloreans interested in buying handloom garments could visit an exhibition that started in the city on Sunday.
Called the “Handloom cluster exhibition-cum-sale event” at NGO Hall, Hampankatta, it is organised by the Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Union Ministry of Textiles and the Commissioner for Textile Development and Director of Handlooms and Textiles Department Government of Karnataka under the Integrated Handloom Development Scheme, Haleangady Cluster.
The stalls have garments and home linen and handbags for women, made of handmade cotton and silk fabric. Some of the fabric is made on looms, too.
Several products have a rustic look and feel to them. Rekha, who was managing a stall, have got handbags made of silk. She had come from Bangalore. The stall had bags of different kinds such as “batuas”, “boat (shaped) bags”, and shopping bags. She said that the silk fabric was bought from export houses and the designs were in-house. The stall had purses and sarees as well. The prices of the products varied from Rs. 600 (for some of the larger bags) to Rs. 700 for sarees.
Ranganath, a weaver from Yelahanka, Bangalore, said that he had brought sarees with “kasuti” embroidery. The designs were made by an Ilkal-based designer and were machine-made, he said.
Govindappa, owner of a stall with products from Markandeshwara cooperative in Haveri, and Thukaram, owner of another stall, said that quality maked a difference to sales. They said the count of threads used (a higher number makes the cloth thicker otherwise the threads moved away and the cloth gets thin) and contemporary designs made a lot of difference to the product.
Chandrahas, at the stall of The Talipady Primary Weavers Service Cooperative Society, Kinnigoli, who has been weaving for the past six decades, said sales were “slow” and the weavers faced a challenge from technology. His stall has cotton bedsheets, lungis, towels, and sarees.
B.A. Moideen Bava, MLA Mangalore North, inaugurated the exhibition.
The exhibition will be on till June 6.
