Smriti Irani: The Hallmark Would Be A New Policy

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. 

- Shalini Shah

‘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.