Festival of drapes

The artisans of Gramin Hastkala Vikas Samiti are in the City to exhibit their ethnic weaves and traditional pure silk and cotton products for ‘National Silk Expo’. The exhibition-cum-sale is open till December 13, from 11 am to 9 pm, at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat, Kumara Kripa Road.

Founded by a group of artisans, designers, social activist, academics and environmentalists, it attempts to promote exquisite traditional skill, cotton works and creations of weavers and encourages them to be contemporary and economically relevant.

The exhibition includes gorgeous Uppadas, Banaras silks, Gadwals, Dharmavaram, Jamdanis, Jamawars and Sambalpuris. From saris, dress materials, items of silk and cotton, suit material, jewellery, home furnishing and designer clothes from each region of the country.

The exhibition provides shoppers with a kaleidoscope of India’s colour, diversity and talent. Artisans from 14 handloom weaving states, including Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal, and many designers from metros working in collaboration with the weavers, are displaying more than 1,50,000 variety of their work.

The silk and cotton handloom products on display are in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 20,000. Exquisite qualities like the natural sheen, inherent affinity for dyes and vibrant colours, high absorbance, light weight, resilience, excellent drape, and more, have made Indian handloom irresistible and inevitable companion of festivities.

Drawing inspiration from this timeless beauty and appeal of its silhouette, ‘Weaves of India’, a national level exhibition-cum-sale of exquisite handloom products, has introduced its new collection for the upcoming festive season.

The expo offers a huge collection of saris, duppattas and salwar materials in different designs and patterns such as Kosa silk, Ghicha silk, Mulberry raw silk and block-printed silk sari from Chhattisgarh. With a wide range of Bandhani, Patola, Kutch embroidery, mirror work from Gujarat, Tabi silk saree, Pashmina shawls, Chinan silk saree from Jammu and Kashmir, Chanderi, Maheshwari sarees and suits from Madhya Pradesh and Bomkai, Sambhalpur from Odisha any woman would look stunning in a casual day wear setting or an evening out with friends or family.

The organiser of National Silk Expo, Jayesh Kumar Gupta, said that the main social objective of the handloom exhibition was to promote weavers and encourage and provide a market to the handloom industry.

“The organiser has conducted over 150 exhibitions from its inception in 1997 in 25 cities across India. Through these exhibitions, we have been able to create a good market for the weavers and their handloom woven wear, even in places where exhibitions are not feasible,” he added.