JOIN USThis is where a venture such as Malkha steps in. The name Malkha has been coined from a permutation of two familiar terms, malmal and khadi. The objective of the project is as follows: “Cotton for Malkha is grown by smallholder farmer families.
Malkha fabrics are woven by skilled weaver families on wooden looms; field to fabric by human hands, in the village, close to nature. The Malkha innovation puts the whole textile chain through the stages of cleaning, aligning, twisting, drawing, spinning and weaving from cotton to cloth in the village. The Malkha chain links farmer to weaver, maker to user, tapping the abundant natural energies and native intelligence of village folk to make them independent producers.”
Starting from a village in Andhra Pradesh, Malkha now has hand-weaving units in Maharashtra, Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This sort of weaving became possible because of the micro-spinning line of the carding machine — draw-frame and flyer-frame — designed by L Kannan, a mechanical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The newly-designed machines, “put sophisticated modern technology at the service of the village, on a human scale.” Also, for these micro-spinning machines, cotton does not have to be harshly pressed to form a block. Consequently, high quality yarn is produced, resulting in the woven fabric being breathable and highly suitable for the production of clothes.
Malkha has taken the fashion world by storm with boutiques around the globe, from Paris to Japan. Limited supplies means that you need to queue to own a Malkha.
On the price front, Malkha is about 25 per cent more than regular handloom/khadi. Malkha fabric and garments are sold through an online portal (www.itokri.com) at exhibitions around the country, besides the brand store in Hyderabad.
We ask the grand lady behind Malkha if it’s been a realistic venture and how she visualises the future of pure handloom. “Malkha has definitely been feasible, particularly when you see the huge subsidies needed by the conventional textile industry. Eliminating baling and unbaling has reduced the carbon-footprint substantially. Hurdles such as yarn quality have successfully been crossed. Issues such as the fact that our pre-spinning machinery needs increased productivity are being looked into,” says Uzramma emphatically, adding, “I see a growing trend towards the use of handloom, khadi and Malkha by fashion designers who appreciate the superior draping qualities of these fabrics. In a few years, as a result of the lack of job opportunities in big industries, young persons who have left the villages will return, and find that handloom weaving is once again a viable occupation.”
Handloom denim?
The other project that’s been making waves is New Delhi-based Denim Club India’s (DCI) handloom denim. “The idea of experimenting with denim made on handloom had been on my mind for quite some time owing to the fact that it will help generate employment and sustain a very large number of traditional craftsmen even if a very miniscule percentage of demand for denim, which is amongst the most popular fabrics, is met through this channel,” says Rajesh Dudeja, founder, DCI.
Dudeja decided to start the trial in some villages of Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, which had a large number of traditional handloom weavers. “During the various visits to the villages in the Bijnor cluster, I noticed plenty of handlooms in disuse due to a lack of orders. Many skilled weavers had been out of work because of the dwindling demand for woven fabric, others had switched over to powerlooms run on generators because they are able to produce more compared to the handloom. It took time and effort to convince weavers to work on denim. Minor modifications had to be made to the loom to weave denim.
However, the perseverance paid off and weavers were satisfied as they earned more for every metre of denim they wove,” Dudeja tells with more than a hint of satisfaction.
Denim, by classification, is a 3x1 twill-weave fabric. What DCI has achieved is keeping the construction of handloom denim similar to the mill-made version. Encouragingly, handloom denim is softer than mill denim, has an inimitable texture, feels cool in summer and retains body warmth in winter. Dudeja proudly informs that no form of fuel is used in the entire process, thus resulting in a fabric with a very low carbon footprint. “The handloom denim distinguishes itself by being 100 per cent chemical-free. The colour used for dyeing the warp yarns is extracted from natural sources, like leaves of the eucalyptus and pomegranate rind. The extraction of colour from these sources, and also the dyeing of yarn, is done at normal temperature. The coloured fabric, thus, is completely free of hazardous chemicals, and is safe for the human skin.
DCI has fashioned a range of apparels including shirts, jackets, formal coats, dresses and Jodhpur pants from handloom denim fabric.
Back to nature’s drawing board
Closer home, the town of Anakaputhur, about 20 km from Chennai in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu, made it to the Limca Book of Records in 2011 on the basis of an accomplishment for which its weavers had persevered over a decade. They received recognition for creating sarees using as many as 25 diverse natural fibres. The most well-known natural fibres are cotton, silk and jute with yarn from oak, bamboo, pineapple and banana stem having become fairly well-known in recent years.
These weavers, led by C Sekar, president, Anakaputhur Jute Weavers Association, experimented with a wider range of plants and the implausible fibres they came up with included aloe vera, seaweed, lemon grass and hemp. With everything natural being in fashion, it goes without saying they have been receiving orders from around the country ever since. The sarees range from Rs 1,250 to Rs 4,500. In fact the small number of looms in the town prevents them from accepting bulk orders, says C Sekar.
Handloom is a precious inheritance and needs to be preserved. In India, woven cloth has always been considered sacred as most communities have a special bond with it.
Immense is the significance attached to weaving across the country. Nothing could convey that better than the Mishmi belief: one of the penalties of death is that you go to a place where there are no weavers!