Calling all textile titans on a global platform

It’s an exciting time for Indian textiles, and it promises to just get better.
Designers with Smriti Zubin Irani
Designers with Smriti Zubin Irani

NEW DELHI: It’s an exciting time for Indian textiles, and it promises to just get better.
All roads will lead to Gandhinagar, Gujarat, between June 30 and July 2, when the government will showcase Textiles India 2017 at Mahatma Mandir there. The event is poised to put forth the achievements of the textile sector along with the promise of a spectacular growth that it will witness over the next few years.

It also aims to encourage the kaarigar community so that it can create handcrafted brilliance for the world to experience. At the event in Gujarat, craftsmen, retail chains and India’s top designers—Tarun Tahiliani, Ritu Kumar, Abraham & Thakore, Manish Malhotra, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Manish Arora, Anita Dongre, Wendell Rodricks, Rohit Bal, Sanjay Garg, Sabyasachi, Samant Chauhan, Madhu Jain, Rahul Misra, Amit Aggarwal, Masaba Gupta, Hemant Agarwal, and Rimzim Dadu, among others—will exhibit from 1,000 stalls in the presence of over 2,500 international buyers and 15,000 domestic buyers.

The three-day event will also include a valedictory session presided over b

y the Union Minister for Finance, Defence & Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley, conferences with six themes to be chaired by Union Ministers, and over 33 roundtables with prominent international speakers and industry leaders discussing the textile sector.

If the recently-concluded curtain raiser at Crafts Museum in Delhi is anything to go by, the first-ever global textile and handicrafts B2B event, promises to be massively impactful. At the event held in the national capital on April 18, Irani said that Textiles India 2017 holds the promise of becoming a landmark annual trade event for the Indian textiles and apparel industry at the global level.

Apart from an exhibition of the textile traditions from across India, kaarigars were also awarded in different categories such as carpet weaving, white metal work, Barmer embroidery, wood inlay, and crewel embroidery. But the highlight of the event was the fashion show orchestrated by designers and Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) President Sunil Sethi. It not only showcased Indian kaarigari and textile heritage in a contemporary avatar, but also gave a glimpse of what’s in store.
It looks like a new wave of development is about to sweep the Indian textile sector.

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The New Indian Express
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