Weaves To Woo The World

Hemang Agrawal, Creative Director, Surekha Group, Benares, a graduate from NIFT and a textile & apparel maker speaks to Brinda Gill to elaborate on how Benares is the finest handloom weaving centre in the world, with an ability to produce a spectrum of weaves, from ornate to the edgy.

- Brinda Gill

HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO WORK WITH WEAVES OF BENARES?

I believe I started working with Benares weaves by default rather than by design. I was born in Benares, growing up in a household that was surrounded by textiles. Somewhere at the back of my mind, design and textiles were always there. Even during my school days and when studying business management at Sydenham College in Mumbai I always wanted to be in the field of design. So I studied fashion design at NIFT. I studied fashion design rather than textile design because textiles are ancillary to the final garment. Fashion gives you a holistic perspective on how textiles are going to be used so I thought it would keep me in good stead and I studied fashion.

After finishing the course, I worked for a couple of years in a Mumbai-based export house and then I returned to Benares. For a couple of years, I was studying about the loom, learning from master weavers as well as studying at IIHT in Varanasi. Initially, I joined my father’s business of saris. However, very soon, we started new verticals of yardages, made-ups and garments. Besides our B2B lines, The Surekha Group also has a B2C division. Our retail division has a website, www.holyweaves.com which is about handwoven handloom saris of India.

YOU PREFER NOT BE CALLED A FASHION DESIGNER?

The term ‘fashion’ as well as ‘designer’ is used too loosely, specially in our country. I simply make textiles and I make garments. For technical reasons you could call it a fashion and textile designer but I do not know why the term designer should have so much of importance attached to it.

PLEASE COULD YOU SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE BEAUTY OF BENARES WEAVES?