Each hand woven piece of cloth is a story by itself. Like an unborn baby it is nurtured and brought to life by weavers after many days of hard labour. But handicraft is fast nearing extinction thanks to the lack of pay and appreciation. A handful of renowned designers across the country are working round the clock, silently, to preserve this old Indian art of weaving tales. And Paromita Banerjee happens to be one of them. She not only promotes handloom, but each of the fabrics used in her collections are also made to order, and conceived by her.
For Banerjee and her ilk, it’s very important that hand woven textiles survive the onslaught of factory made clothes. “There is no human touch in the dresses we wear. Very few of the weavers’ children will take up weaving as a profession since it’s not rewarding. It’s a dying art and we must do our best to preserve it,” says Banerjee, who has been working closely with about 100-150 weavers in seven clusters across the country for the past nine years.
This stylish and petite fashion graduate from NID Ahmedabad has been creating stories in weaves for the past nine years from her workshop-cum-studio nestled away from the hustle and bustle of the city in a quaint corner of a winding alley off Hazra Road in south Kolkata. The green paint on the front door probably resembles the evergreen nature of handspun clothes.
As you enter her studio, you are bound to be impressed by the understated interiors highlighting her collections more than anything else. Her USP: Simple effective textiles that will stand the test of time.
“It’s a long and tough struggle to preserve and popularise handloom and handicraft products, in the face of less expensive factory products. But I see more people valuing handloom and coming back to us for more,” says Banerjee, looking breezy in a blue, khadi top and a pair of three quarters, with her hair neatly done up in a bun.
To the lovers of handloom, Banerjee needs no introduction. A regular at national fashion weeks, her client list includes celebrities, such as, Nandita Das and Shubha Mudgal among others. She has also been recently worn by actor Vidya Balan at one of her film promotions. “But more than celebrities wearing my designs, I love it when an ordinary person picks me up. It’s more important to reach the ordinary people since they are the ones who keeps us going,” she states.
But the designer feels the only glitch in an otherwise fulfilling profession, is that there is virtually no copyright of the designs. “Copycat designers and big MNCs frequently and remorselessly lift designs. We have no option but to take it as a validation of our work,” she shrugs.
The designer, who primarily works with linen, khadi, kala cotton and silk, is also famous for her chic, anti-fit blouse tops in solid colours that turns the sari into an attractive daily wear option for the young working women. “Most of the times we shelve the idea of wearing a sari to work since we don’t have good blouses or they take a lot of effort to wear and carry throughout the day. The blouse tops give saris a very trendy look without you having to worry about the pallu being in the right place,” explains Banerjee.
Apart from a wide range of cotton, kutch khadi, linen, silk and jamdani saris in sophisticated shades of blues and pastels, Banerjee also retails nice summery dresses having jamdani weaves in shades of white. “They are light wears and extremely comfortable during the summers. My outfits are all about understated elegance and they never overpower those wearing them,” she mentions.
What’s unique about Banerjee is her resolve to manage production waste in the most fruitful manner. “We have upcycle collection which is extremely popular among our customers. The clothes and accessories of this collection are made from the leftover pieces of clothes of our previous collections, thereby making each piece unique. You get prêt pieces at the cost of couture. We have jholas, diaries, jackets and kurtas made from them and the tiniest piece of waste cloth is used to make buttons. It’s a nice way of remembering our past creations,” smiles Banerjee.
Banerjee is busy doing last minute finishing work for her upcoming Puja collections which will be unveiled sometime next month. She has mostly done stoles, saris and kurtis in Bangalore silk with jamdani weaves in jewel tones including various hues of corals, reds, oranges, gold and grey. “The work for winter collection is also going on and this time there will be a lot of work in Habutai silk mainly in shades of natural and organic black with lots of block printing, besides bright colours” stresses Banerjee.
Besides all this, the designer, also a mom to a nine-month-old daughter, Ekantika, has plans to open a kid’s wear range by the beginning of next year. “We will start a kid’s collection for 1-5 years old in pure cotton that will remind you of the dresses you wore as a child. Also, plans are on to make our collections available online very soon,” informs the couturier.
More power to Banerjee and her ilk.
You can check her collections by appointment only: 033 4067 4107