Soon after taking over as Minister of Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani fired her first salvo with her # I Wear Handloom campaign that went viral. in a country of 43 lakh handloom weavers, this kind of attention could be a good thing. The high-profile minister helming a portfolio that’s so far flown under the radar speaks to Vogue about the road ahead.
‘Unique’ is an overwrought word, sprinkled liberally to add a beatific halo to things we’re desperate to pluck out of the mundane. Sometimes, though, it applies perfectly; it may even sound a little inadequate. Like when we’re describing Indian textiles—the rich brocades of Benares, wrapped in butter paper, gracing many a trousseau, comprising many an heirloom; the ikats of Patan, Pochampally and Sambalpur across the west and east that confound and astonish in equal measure; the saris of Venkatagiri, where luminescent, rich zari marries cotton that looks too fragile to carry it; the Balucharis of West Bengal that have entire scenes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana woven on the pallu. Few nations have a legacy of handwoven textiles as rich as our own.
That, however, is only half the story. The Indian textile industry is a multipronged machine, directly employing more than 45 million people, covering handlooms, handicrafts and powerlooms, cotton, silk and jute, the domestic market and exports, ancient know-how and new technology. There are the poetic aspects, and the thousands of seemingly mundane things that power them.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2016 من VOGUE India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2016 من VOGUE India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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