THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Weaving a dhoti on a handloom loom, would take one and a half days for a weaver. It is estimated that the weaver’s hands and legs were moving one and half lakh times to make a dhoti. The value for the hard-earned labour is only about Rs 350 to Rs 400. Being a traditional sector and once touched the bottom, many handlooms cooperative societies faced with the threat of closing down.
However, now thanks to central and state government initiatives, Kerala’s handloom sector is ramping up to endless heights of imagination, especially from young minds. For a continuous third term, one such an effort has been organized by Kerala Arts and Crafts Village (KACV) in collaboration with the Ministry of Textiles- ‘Envashion’ – a fashion show of handloom dresses held in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
25 young designers from various districts of the state took part with the hand-woven cloths by adding new colours, textures and dimensions less known to this age-old traditional industry. Inspiration has been taken from art forms like Kathakali, Pooram, Ottanthullal, and percussion using Chenda as pictures were drawn by hand on dresses. Even the 1970s Hippy culture had also walked the ramps with elegance and grace.
The fashion show competition was held in Kerala Arts and Crafts Village at Vellar. The show would be telecasted on OTT channel IFTV later. “We organise the programme to make way for new marketing opportunities for handloom clothes and further make better lives for the craftsmen,” N Satheesh Kumar Business Development Manager of KACV told TNIE.
“The handlooms were selected from five major handloom centres- Kuthampully Handloom Village, Balaramapuram, Chendamangalam, Azhikode and Kasargod. In these villages, clothes are only produced. We thought if we could come up with a trendy apparatus it would make a good difference in the industry. Through design innovations, the value of the product will also be increased. For a dhoti which would usually cost just Rs 500 would cause Rs 2,000, if it is produced with new designs. The value addition is a very important process”, he said.
Many of the contenders were students and some are working in the fashion industry for years. BS Sumesh who is a fashion designer for seven years saw the competition as an opportunity to use new colours instead of traditional ones. “It opens up infinite options as we can use digital printing in clothes which was not used before”, he said.
Merin Joseph, a student of fashion design and garment management used Chendamangalam handloom for designing. “This material is very cool compared to others. I used designs inspired by Kerala culture. Kathakali, Pooram and Chenda melam were used in my dresses as designs. I also brought in streetwear from the 1990s”, she said. Eventually Merin won the first prize with a prize money of Rs 1 lakh.
Another competitor, Anie has chosen the colours used in the dresses used by Ottanthullal artists. I also used yellow, green and pink colours in party wear”, she said. A mother of two children, Sony is attracted to the industry by sheer passion. She has chosen the 1970s Hippy culture as her theme.
“Natural colours extracted from Carrot and Beetroot were used”, she said. Many competitors have also used a tie-dye process consisting of folding, twisting, pleating or crumpling the garment which is not seen in traditional handloom. “Designing in handloom dresses was a challenge. In other cloth material, we could get all colours. Here we have to be innovative to come up with a new design”, Shibitha BS who is competing in her fifth fashion show said.
Of the Rs 3,000 collected as registration fee from the 25 designers the money of Rs 2 lakh with employee’s contribution was donated to the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund. Each designer was allowed to present 5 designs.