KOCHI: The weavers and silk clothes merchants from traditional silk producing states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir will participate in the six-day ‘Silk Mark’ expo, which will kick off from Tuesday in the city. Cine artist Miya will inaugurate the ‘Silk mark Vanya Silk Expo 2015’, an initiative of Central Silk Board, under the Union Ministry of Textiles.
The exhibition cum sale, which is being held at Gokulam Park Convention Centre, Kaloor, is one of the 23 Silk Mark Expos conducted by the Silk Mark Organisation of India (SMOI) nationwide.
The expo will have a wide range of Tussar, Eri and Muga silk clothes, commonly known as Vanya silk apart from the South Indian favourites of Mulberry silk products, said K S Menon, Chief Executive Officer, SMOI, at a news conference here.
He said weavers, silk clothes merchants, co-operative organizations and government departments from the traditional silk producing states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala will exhibit their collection of silk products at the expo.
Apart from the diverse collection of silk like Kanchipuram, Aarani, Crape, Kantha, Tribal work, Chantheri, Georgette and many more, the Vanya Silk expo will also provide a number of silk products like silk carpets, bedspreads, cushions, wallets and also shirts, churidars and scarves. “The main aim of SMOI is to educate people about the quality of the silk products. They should be able to recognize silk which is 100 per cent pure from the fake ones. To create awareness, we have arranged Silk games to identify original silk along with the expo.
The viewers will also be able to see the different stages of silkworms, silk extraction and weaving, live for themselves,” he said.
SMOI has 13 chapters across India including the Palakkad Chapter which controls the Silk Mark operations in Kerala.
With almost 2700 Silk Mark authorized silk merchants in Kerala, this is the seventh time, SMOI is conducting an exhibition here which will begin from 11 am.