Wisps of delicate handspun muslin jamdani saris almost float off the racks, so light and airy they are in feel. Curated by Saiful Islam—the renowned textile revivalist of the original Dhakai jamdani from Bangladesh—these saris were on display at the Delhi showroom of Taneira, a sub-brand of the Tata family that retails exclusive handloom saris. Part of the fifth edition of the brand’s Threads of Tradition series, the event brought the story of muslin fabric and its revival to the city audience with a documentary—Legend of the Loom, produced by Islam, and a book, Muslin. Our Story.
For his documentary, Islam travelled to the UK, US, France, Italy and Bangladesh, besides extensively within India. In today’s world there are a lot of varieties of jamdani—from heavy silks to brocades—but in its purely classical form it is always 100 percent cotton. “My idea is to borrow but not distort tradition. It could last another 100 years if we do something to ensure its survival,” Islam says, and goes on to add, “Taneira and we share common goals of highlighting the strength of our heritage, showcasing the uniqueness of our fabrics and telling the story of the true heroes, our craftspeople. The brand has a strong marketing presence and expertise, while we have product knowledge and research strength. Taneira approached me to bring the story, through our publication, film and the muslin saris we have woven, to their audience.”
Shyamala Ramanan, business head, Taneira, explains, “Threads of Tradition allows us to open conversations with experts in the field of textiles to a larger audience. It shares their knowledge, love and passion for the textiles with the women who wear this work of art. The 5,000-year-old heritage of sari is replete with history, unravelling which is no ordinary task. We truly believe that every sari has a story to tell, it is not just a piece of fabric but a culmination of art, craft, tradition, culture and emotion.”
Taneira, that celebrates the diverse textiles and craftsmanship of India, offers close to 3,000 saris from over 70 regions in the Indian subcontinent. Derived from the word ‘tan’ meaning body and ‘Eira’, the Sanskrit name for Goddess Saraswati (patron goddess of art, music, craft and knowledge) and meaning ‘earth’ in Greek, Taneira aims to provide the rooted yet progressive Indian woman with exclusive design, diverse workmanship, and authenticity of handcraft.
Launched in February 2017, Taneira is the youngest brand of the Titan Company Limited. Today, it has a presence across Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The brand is trying its best to make inclusivity a trademark in its relationship with the weaver community and various clusters that it interacts with.
“We are taking baby steps in this journey, learning as we grow and creating a roadmap for the same,” says Ramanan. Taneira sources from an extensive network of weavers, master weavers, aggregators, co-operative societies and NGOs. The brand has adopted a couple of clusters and is working with the artistans in those regions.
“While working with the weavers, we consciously ensure and enable fair-price trade and on-time payments, which are table stakes for us. We believe that handcraft must bring out the best of what human hands can do and so we have invested in a robust quality control process. We help weavers in increasing their ease of business and quality of their products through recommendations like process of dyeing and use of specific yarn. We also help them apply for GST and labels etc,” she adds.For the brand, this is just the beginning of the journey and it is confident that it will form deeper connections with partner communities.