Across the country, a few designers are weaving a new handloom narrative and making it a force to reckon with. These trailblazers are preserving the sanctity of age-old handlooms even as they innovate with design and improvise on technique. Whether they are purists preserving a legacy, or creatives with an eye for experimentation, what they epitomise is the vision of a modern India, by taking a heritage craft and lending it a contemporary charm and modern appeal.
The Aane Hejje trajectory
It is in the deepest alcoves of this country that you will find the brilliance in handwoven textiles of India. And Hemalatha Jain, the founder of Punarjeevana, vouches for it. A textile expert, she lived a nomad’s life, travelling through the remote villages and hamlets of Karnataka, to learn about the handloom tradition, most of which were languishing, or had become extinct. On seeing the plight of artisans, she decided to start a handloom cluster. “During my research, I got to learn about Patteda anchu sari, which was woven in and around the villages of Gajendragarh, Belgaum, Raichur, Kodal, Bidar, Bellary, Gulbarga and Dharwad in the 10th century,” she recollects.
The cluster Punarjeevana was started as a revival project, and slowly but steadily it was converted into a sustenance model to preserve the craft and for artisans’ sustenance. They started with two weavers, and today, 45 artisans work for Punarjeevana.
“The Patteda anchu has undergone several revivals. Aane Hejje sari is my latest offering, which has finer thread count. Also known as anekal saris, it is a cotton sari, which was in vogue 60 years ago, predominantly woven and worn in and around anekal (rural district of Bengaluru),” says Hemalatha.
The designer knows how to stay relevant to the needs of the modern woman. “I got to know that women don’t wear saris anymore during my survey in Karnataka and Maharashtra, where I interviewed 10,000 women. They said saris are difficult to maintain. That is the inspiration behind the Two Pallu Saris — one pallu is formal and the other one is casual with striking colours,” she says. All these saris are ready-to-wear and zero maintenance as they are grease resistant, and the borders are thick enough so no ‘fall beading’ is required. This innovation was achieved using the combination of coarser and finer yarns in warp and weft. “And the younger population loves the ready-to-wear sari; it’s as easy as wearing jeans,” she adds.
The reincarnation of handloom
Designer and textile revivalist Sreejith Jeevan, the man behind the label Rouka, is completely dedicated in his pursuit of heritage weaves. Today, this trailblazer is preserving the sanctity of handloom weave even as he brings a lot of design innovations and modern techniques into it.
“I’m an ’80s kid who got initiated into handloom in my 20s. So, sometimes I feel I bridge the two worlds together. I connect the wearer and the weaver because sometimes they both exist in two different worlds,” says Sreejith, who guides these two worlds, balancing them on the scales of time; between the old and new.
A design graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and the Ecole Nationale Superieure Des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, Jeevan has been closely working with uplifting the Kasavu saris and making them relevant to a larger audience. He works with Indian textiles from weavers and craftsmen, from his studio in Kochi, Kerala, creating a homegrown style that derives from the essence of people and the region.
His work with the handloom Kasavu sari, considered a ceremonial garb, started as a response to the rehabilitation tasks post the floods in Kerala in 2018. “The traditional Kasavu was reimagined with a contemporary spin, which was essential to uplift the weave and its craftspersons,” says Sreejith and adds, “Working with handloom comes with its own set of contraints; the pace is always slow; the changes are gradual. But I forget those challenges because the results are worth much more.”
A new design language
From a naive, young student of textiles in good old Madras to travelling across the length and breadth of the country, working closely with weavers, artisans, and clusters in different states, and finding her feet in the capital city, Delhi, with her weaves, Woven Fables, designer Rema Kumar has come a long way. “While growing up in Chennai, I was surrounded by handlooms — from soft cottons — Mundum neriyathum, Kasavus, the Co-optex saris — to the beautiful Kanjeevarams and other weaves of Tamil Nadu, I used to observe and absorb the beauty of handlooms. So, when I ventured into textile design, I consciously gravitated towards traditional weaves,” recollects Rema.
She plays around with colours, stripes and motifs in a contemporary setting by ensuring that the basic essence of their weave is retained. “My design language is influenced to a great extent by my love for geometry, which makes unique style statements as can be seen in my latest collection of Maheshwaris and Tussars, handwoven in Champa, Chhattisgarh, and Uttara, the soft cotton twill weaves, from Uttarakhand. These would appeal to the younger generation, especially those who experiment with different sari drapes and team their saris with cropped tops and knits, a seemingly effortless upgrade to their style quotient,” she says.
This festive season, Rema has come up with a new collection that is a happy fusion of different weaves and detailing, each creation speaking a narrative that is so unique and compelling to the viewer. “The handwoven saris — Uttara, Maheshwari, and Tussar Twills — come in all hues — creams, pastels, monochromes, earthy shades and the vibrant multicoloured joyous shades; there is something for everyone,” says Rema.
Weaving cultures
Ariane Thakore Ginwala’s This and That is well known for handcrafted furniture and textiles. Her latest, The Black & White edit, offers a range of items for the home; all in the eternally chic hues of black and white. There are block-printed, handwoven and embroidered table napkins, table mats and runners, cushion covers and bed covers, and even accessories like side tables, and black and white photography.
The cushion covers in this collection tell a fascinating story. All are made using Tangaliya weave, a 700-year-old handloom technique from Gujarat. Tangaliya weave is tactile and distinctive with its raised dots or daanas. The dots are created by delicately rolling the contrasting extra weft yarn around warp threads, creating both texture and pattern. The Tangaliya weave technique is also employed on bed covers that are a part of the collection.
“Through our Tangaliya Collection, we were able work at a grassroots level in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat and not only source the yarn from Udyog Bharti in Gondal but also introduce handspun, organic cotton yarns to the weavers. The Tangaliya textile was historically woven in natural shades of desi sheep wool with accents of natural red dye. Our collection reimagined this monochromatic drape into contemporary furnishing fabrics,” says Ginwala, who works with independent craftspeople and numerous khadi organisations across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kutch.
Founded in 2016, Ginwala was fascinated by the rich diversity of Indian craft and contemporary sculpture around the world. Her innate eye for detail found a match in a carpentry workshop in Ahmedabad. Thus began a collaborative journey where design and craftsmanship constantly challenged each other, traversing geographies, cultures and materials. Winning the prestigious EDIDA award for interior products for multiple collections, This and That has carved a niche for itself in India’s design story.
In 2020, This and That launched its flagship home textile collection, crafted with textile designer Anahita Ginwala, marking the inception of a new vertical for the brand. The Kapusaor cotton bud holds in it a history of this land and a world of possibilities. From lesser known species of heirloom cottons, to 100’s count handspun muslin to textural peti charkha handspun, handwoven fabrics, their designs subtly enhance and compliment the many facets of this natural yarn with minimal block and leaf printing, painting and embroidery.
“Tangaliya weave is about weaving cultures. Historically, while the Bharwads, a pastoral community, provided the wool, the Dangasiyas would spin, dye and weave. With the wearer and weaver closely connected, the fabric evolved as an expression of social and individual identity. The weaver composed the story of their life and land, dot by dot. Through this collection, we explore how craft historically connected communities, and how we can, through design, celebrate diversity by crafting new connections,” she says and adds that the landscape is fast changing for artisans with the government e-commerce portals to various brands adopting entire villages and putting in place sustainable supply chains. “The simplest way to create a more equitable dynamic with our artisans is to compensate them in various ways and recommend their services to other designers instead of creating a monopoly,” she adds.
All the collections are available online.
— manuvipin@newindianexpress.com