Banarasi Brocades: Fantasies Woven in Threads

Banarasi brocade boasts of the traditional culture and the narration of rich Indian textiles, which is true. It has been a substance of admiration for all and from the times of Kingdoms and Palaces to the todays modish ethnicity. Introduction Banarasi Brocade is said to have its origin from the very older times like Buddhist period. There is also a second statement that it has its origins from Mughal Empire during 14th Century. Women were too much fascinated towards these fabrics, who have been attiring cottons since long time. Banaras is the center of silk weaving in India since time immemorial. The work is highly practiced in this...

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Indian Culture Fashion Guide

The level of artistry and intricacy achieved by Indian handloom fabrics is supreme and beyond the reach of modern machinery, preserving its heritage and culture. Undoubtedly cotton was the first fabric which has been used splendidly by Indian artisans. Silk and woollen follow. In the world of handlooms there are muslins of Chanderi, silk brocades of Varanasi, the ikats from Andhra and Orissa, the tie and dye from Rajasthan and Gujarat, the phulkari and khes of Punjab, jacquards fromUttar Pradesh, the phenek, tongam and bottle designs from Assam and Manipur, so on and so forth. And in today's date Indian handlooms are going global in a big...

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Tagnail weavers catch up pace with new trends

In view of Eid and Puja, the Tangail weavers are creating new designs attracting domestic as well as international buyers towards Tangail saris during the festive season.As per the President of Tangail Tant Saree Traders' Association Mr. Raghunath Basak, changing designs and colours every season is essential to match up with new trends.Saris such as Jamdani, ektari silk, dotari silk, half silk saris are witnessing prices between Taka 1,000 to Taka 4,000.The colours such as magenta, ash, black, red, yellow, orange, violet, white blue, saffron and green have become buyers’ choice, this season.Mr. Basak further said that Tangail saris carry their...

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Burdwan Cluster: Hub of Sarees

Burdwan holds an important and considerable position in the handloom industry in West Bengal. Though this district is well-off with natural resources, a significant figure of people under rural sector preserves their living from this cluster heritage through conventional skills of handloom weaving. There are about 94000 weavers at Burdwan cluster either on a full-time or part-time work basis. Apart from this, there are extraordinary designers, dyers, card makers, traders and supplementary support providers. Approximately, 60% of weaver force is from the neighboring villages of the cluster while 40% weavers are from outside the West Bengal...

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NID to help clusters improve product designs

The National Institute of Design, a leading multi-disciplinary institute in the field of design education and research, aims to improve and develop the designs of products produced in the clusters of the North- East region, and hence it plans to start its Centre at the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) at Guwahati.Clustering is a measure that is adopted to ease assimilation of micro, small and medium enterprises into the domestic and global arena. Guwahati based IIE, is at the forefront of cluster development in the region since last four years.Sriparna B. Baruah, Head of Regional Resource Centre at IIE, while speaking at a press conference...

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CG medal winners to adorned by Chanderi fabrics

Medal winners of the approaching Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi would be adorned with the outfits, made of popular Chanderi fabric, named Angvastram.The Madhya Pradesh Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation is producing this special apparel as it has bagged the contract of supplying 1,375 specially designed Angvastrams, informed the officials.The winners of the Commonwealth games, to be organized in the month of October, will be presented Angvastram with Commonwealth Games Mono and Mascot Shera, along with the medals.For the past one year, officials of the corporation had been in contact with the organizers of Commonwealth...

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Textiles & handicrafts recipients of govt largesse

Today, the Government of India extended incentives amounting to Rs 10.52 billion to exporters, mainly for labour intensive sectors like leather, handicrafts and textiles.These sops will help these industries to survive through the still-fragile global economic recovery.The benefits which have been extended are through the various schemes like DEPB, under which taxes are reimbursed to exporters, subsidized interest and incentives for import of capital goods.However the government made it clear that this would be the last time that incentives would be available on the DEPB scheme and it would not be extended again, since it is against WTO rules.Handloom,...

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Bijnore Cluster

With around 7000 looms and 13000 weavers operating here, Bijnore cluster is the prime nucleus for products like Duster cloths, Home furnishing, and Dress materials. The Bijnore handloom cluster is stretched across a length of 60 km and breadth of 40 km. About 20% of the total production is supplied to Delhi based exporters like Fab India, All India Handloom Board & other major exporters through middle-men. The rest is sold in the domestic market at Naogaon, Sadat, Nahtore, Sheohara, Dhampur and Kath etc. Fibre2fashion.com had an exclusive interview with Mr. Raman Shiv Kumar, CDP Officer of Bijnore Handloom Cluster, in which he threw...

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Implementation of Handloom Cluster & Role of WSC

Govt. of India, Development Commissioner for Handloom, New Delhi has sanctioned 419 Handloom clusters. Among that 9 handloom clusters in Gujarat State has been sanctioned during the 2008-09 to the Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad. Rest was allotted to Gujarat State Handloom & Handicraft Corporation,Gandhinagar; namely Junagarh, Amreli, Porbandar, Surendranagar, Limbdi, Palanpur, Vadgam (Banaskantha), and Bhuj. Ahmedabad cluster (Amraivadi, Geetamandir) has been sanctioned to Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad to cover up 490 Handloom Weavers under various components.Under this project, Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad has undertaken...

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Smiling Face of Chanderi Weavers(A Full Circle)

The Government of India has adopted a Cluster approach for a focused development of Handloom weavers. Office of Development Commissioner Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, took imperative step to nurture, promote and develop the exclusiveness of the handloom sector. In the first phase 20 Pilot clusters were selected across 12 States of the country. Several innovative strategic approaches brought the success to its credit under the four year programme. The turn around story of the Chanderi Cluster was one of them. For the development of Chanderi Cluster, the weavers of Chanderi were organized into small Self Help Groups which further formed a federation i.e.; Chanderi Handlooms Cluster Development Company Limited, ensuring the participation and transparency for realizing...

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Gadag handloom cluster transforming with changing times

Gadag cluster is a famous cotton trading centre for Jayadhar variety of cotton. It has also occupied a significant place in the handloom industry of Karnataka. There are about 3,600 active working handlooms in the cluster. A round 10,000 people are depending in this industry for their livelihood. The cluster is also very much popular for its traditional product called Gaadi Dhadi Sarees .History of the Gadag handloom cluster shows the rise and fall of products and goods manufactured in the past years. Even the products manufactured here have been changed from ordinary cotton sarees to mercerized cotton saris and high quality of silk saris. Today...

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