Indian fashion designers too busy to establish themselves globally, often leave hand-crafted textile, which is a traditional specialty of our country, out of their work. But that is soon to change, as signs of this transformation has started to show at the Lakmé Fashion Week 2016, where fashion designers have taken it upon themselves to promote the craftsmanship.
Through this, they hope to bring to the indigenous craftsmen of India, the respect, recognition and value in the global market they deserve for keeping alive our country’s legacy and heritage. For that, some prominent designers like Rajesh Pratap Singh from Delhi, Aneeth Arora, Anupama Bose from Jaipur, Hemang Agarwal and Asif Shaikh have collaborated with such artisans to showcase the splendour of their craft through a show ‘Walking Hand in Hand’ at the ongoing LFW’16, with the aim to take their work to the world platform.
Ahemedabad-based designer Shaikh, having worked on reinventing textile for more than 22 years, said, “The motto is to give the artisans their due for the hours of work and labour they put in to create the final garment. The aim is to encourage them for preserving the priceless art they have inherited. By giving them a global platform we also aim at making the younger generation understand the worth of this legacy.”
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Anupama, the only designer to work exclusively with lehriya pattern of Rajasthan, said, “Learning to work with the craftsman is like a tapasya (medi. You can’t work in the craftsman domain and ask them to create things according to your will. One needs to understand the shortcomings, the pros and cons of the art, but unfortunately most in the young generation don’t have the patience. Unfortunately, fashion has become synonymous with little dresses and wedge heels, which is not true. I feel as textile designers, there is a huge market for Indian craftsmanship.”
Similarly, Delhi-based Rajesh Pratap says, “I have worked all my career with various artisans. Coming together for this movement is a pleasure. It is high time for us to give credit to our artisans, who are always behind the curtains.”