The designers fraternity and the government are now joining hands promising to bring the weavers of Varanasi a ray of hope. BJP leader Shaina NC, a fashion designer herself, has roped in designers like Ritu Kumar, Manish Malhotra, Sandeep Khosla, Shruti Sancheti, Anita Dongre and Rina Dhaka to be part of a campaign to “design, manufacture and produce the best textiles in Banaras”, say media reports.
The project, which comes under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India banner, will kickoff from the PM's constituency in Varanasi. After working with the weavers of Varanasi, the project plans to move on to handloom weavers in Odisha and the Paithani weavers of Maharashtra.The designers fraternity and the government are now joining hands promising to bring the weavers of Varanasi a ray of hope. BJP leader Shaina NC, a #
Shaina along with the designers met textile minister Santosh Gangwar in New Delhi this week to formalise the project and work out the details.
"Traditional weaves and textiles are fast losing out as they have become less viable for the weavers, as they are very expensive and hence not affordable by the masses and cheaper yarns like Chinese silk have come in as substitutes for mass scale production," Shaina said about the project.
The product line that the new project will come up with will finally be exhibited in all major museums of India to showcase talent and textile, and then be promoted under the 'Make in India' brand on the international forum.
The handloom that the Indian design and craft community are largely concerned with, are those that offer a set of traditionally-specialized textile skills. The idea is to design, manufacture and produce the best textiles in Varanasi under the Make in India initiative in an effort to boost employment. "Our endeavour is to get the traditional artisans back into the mainstream of what their talent is and to produce it thereby generating employment," Shaina said. (SH)
Fibre2fashion News Desk – India