Textile Tales: Reviving traditional weaves

After completing her masters in Textile Designing and Clothing from Chennai, she has been working with weavers and master craftsmen across the country for the last 20 years. Delhi-based designer Rema Kumar will be in the city later this week with her latest collection. 

“My collection — Textile Tales — explores India’s diverse and celebrated surface detail techniques on different weaves — Ajrakh, Batik, Handblocks, Kalamkari and Shibori. The appliqué work of Pipli (Odisha) and Patti ka Kaam (Aligarh) take a contemporary twist in the vibrant stoles, dupattas and saris. It is a happy fusion and coming together of different weaves and detailing, each creation speaking a narrative that is so unique and compelling to the viewer,” she explains. 

The design expert has been working with weavers and craftsmen from across the country to produce saris, dupattas, stoles and shawls. Her main objective is to produce exclusive textiles and accessories. “In the last few years, it has been extremely satisfying to see the results of constantly trying to make them think out of the box, in order to create new and contemporary designs while not yet completely losing out on the traditional touch,” shares Rema. 

She is currently working in collaboration with an NGO, Mulberry based in Guwahati, Assam to innovate and revive a few intricate and forgotten tribal weaves in saris. “The women weavers only have time to weave after their household chores, festivals, village functions and daily village panchayat meetings, issues that arise due to militant insurgency and so on which considerably reduce their output. I was so touched by their strength and positive attitude despite a tough life,” quips Rema.  

Speaking about her upcoming projects, she says, “I will be working on some of the tribal weaves and motifs that are slowly vanishing. Thanks to the powerlooms that are slowly and steadily taking over! The tribes that have left their villages and migrated to different cities to earn a livelihood are leaving their looms far behind.” She is also planning to do a design intervention project with a group of women weavers and artisans in the Kumaon hills.“I am quite excited about it, as I have the earlier experience of working in Uttarakhand where the range of ‘Uttara’ saris was conceived. Varanasi is also a centre I will be focussing on this year, to create a collection of lighter saris for those who shy away from the heavy, opulent Benaresis that are on every bride’s trousseau list.” 

According to Rema, designing is a creative process. “We have been fortunate enough to be born in a country so rich in its textile and craft traditions. It was only a matter of time before the designers realised the wealth that is available to us from which to draw inspiration again and again, tweak it to suit the contemporary fashion scene and experiment their creativity with new fusions. The Instagram generation laps it up as it is trendy, different and one ends up with a unique style quotient.” 

We are living in a time when there is so much emphasis on the rapid decline of ‘handmade’. Everyone wants to talk about handloom and would love to patronise it. But will it be back in vogue? “With a revival of interest in the saris and handlooms, let us hope that we would see an upsurge in the sense of pride for them, thus creating and sustaining their demand, which would eventually percolate down to that humble weaver in his village, still questioning himself whether he should abandon his craft or hang in there a little bit longer,” signs off Rema.