A Glorious Weave

It’s been a good year for fashion designer Madhu Jain. At 57, she has come into her own, with awards for her work as textile revivalist as well as a show at the Amazon Fashion Week in October of three weaves: the coarse bamboo, subtle silk, and damatic ikat. The self taught queen of ikat learnt on the job, interning with master weavers across India and later in Southeast Asia and Central Asia.Jain has been working with artisansal livelihoods, reviving and reinventing traditional weaves. One of her primary examples is the bamboo textile, which embodies her sustainability ideal, given that India is the second largest producer of bamboo in the world. Here is Jain, in conversation with Kaveree Bamzai on handloom, Nurjehan and weavers’ clusters.

How has your work in the technique of ikat progressed?

Ikat is a highly specialised weaving technique and like all traditional art forms, is passed on from father to son. When I work with weavers, my input is design intervention and a clear idea of what I’d like the finished weave to look like. However, this means that I have to keep their sensibilities in mind, even when I’m trying to reinterpret “their” weave. For instance, before fashioning my Indo-Uzbeki ikat line, I learnt from master weavers in Uzbekistan.

Is ikat indigenous to India? And if so, how did it go all over the world and what are the lessons in this for the Indian weaver and designer?