Designer Ritu Kumar with a kalamkari etching in the background at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)
These places look exotic, but trust me they were not. The place where these weavers and artisans were working — in Bengal — there were so many mosquitoes. In contrast, the weavers sitting under a mango tree in Banaras were better off,” says Ritu Kumar, 74, one of India’s premier textile revivalists and fashion designers, pointing at a painting placed next to a magenta Banarasi sari at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre.
Kumar completes 50 years in the fashion industry this year. The landmark coincides with the unveiling of a project that the designer has been working on for a while now. Phase one of the project is an exhibition curated by textile designer and historian Mayank Mansingh Kaul. The exhibition comprises musings, travelogues and documentation accumulated by Kumar over the last half century. Titled ‘Crossroads: Textile Journeys with Ritu Kumar’, the exhibition has textiles, photographs, clothes, paintings and even printing blocks on display.
The word crossroads keeps popping up as we meet the designer on the sidelines of her exhibition, where a group of about 30 people are listening in rapt attention to Kaul, as he takes them through the travels and tales of Kumar. “We are at a crossroads. We have these wonderful weaves and textiles as living forms, they are tangible, we see them, live them every day. But we are so close to losing them. The exhibition was just one small way to share that wealth, which is fast depleting. Most cultures of the world have lost their crafts, with majority now only seen in studios and museums; we are very close to that. And if we forget it, we will end up wearing the same high street labels and synthetic fibers,” she says.
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The Banaras section at the exhibition that features paintings, Banarasi saris and jackets.
The exhibition is a sneak peak into the first of a 15-chapter book that Kumar is writing. In this, each chapter will focus on one geographical region and its textile and artisanal heritage. The first chapter of the book — on Uzbekistan — was also released at the exhibition.
The exhibition includes wall panels devoted to different regions. Ikat — the geometric weave from southeast coastal India — has its own panel. The simpler Odisha ikat, which is often used as an offering to Lord Jagannath, is juxtaposed with the more flamboyant and colourful ikat from Uzbekistan. “Uzbekistan was very interesting. The rather harsh and stark landscape of the place has amazing architectural marvels. They used to have these bustling bukhara bazaars, which no longer exist. In India we still have the haats and weekly markets, where we touch and feel stuff ,” she says. Varanasi features prominently through Banarasi sari and artwork, Kashmir finds portrayal in a vintage jacket embroidered in silver thread, and Andhra Pradesh has giant etchings of kalamkari motifs on canvas.
Bengal, too, has its place of pride in the exhibition, given the special connect Kumar has with the region — that’s where she discovered the magic of Indian textiles. “I had come back from my art history course in the US and was doing a course in museology in Calcutta. I had gone to the surrounding areas on field visits and that’s where I saw weaving, embroidery and printing. No young person was interested in this field. No one even knew that these things existed. Today, you at least have a Dilli Haat but in those days there was only foreign printed fabric coming into India,” she laments.
A weaver in Uzbekistan while working on an ikat fabric
About five decades ago, Kumar started working out of Kolkata, and made evening and bridal wear, and in about 20 years she had a presence in the international market as well. Her label titled Label, which she launched with son Amrish about 15 years ago, was a more contemporary take on her aesthetics, comprised sharper silhouettes and western wear. She was one of the first designers to be coveted by brides for their wedding day. Today, that space has many players, something that she is happy about. “At least this way embroidery will sustain. Where is this embroidery coming from — the zardozi workers. The employment generated from these markets for this artist community is huge, we shouldn’t underestimate it. I’m looking at it in a holistic way. There is a huge demand from both India and Europe,” says Kumar, who has often spoken about the rights of 16 million weavers and textile workers and the need to make them self-sustainable.
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“These are just some things I’m familiar with,” says Kumar, about the vast treasury of Indian textiles, and the road ahead. “I visited Kutch and saw the Rabari women doing this minuscule, super intricate embroidery work for something that would adorn a camel’s back. There is so much I have not touched upon. Kota doriya for example. I hope somebody else focuses on it,” she says.
Jackets in Uzbeki ikat patterns are more flamboyant than the sedate ones from Odisha — both have been used prominently by Kumar
After spending half a century within the design fraternity, she is cautiously optimistic about the future of Indian design and handloom. “These young designers are brave and doing a lot to revive weaves and textiles. It’s very encouraging, or else we would only have high street labels from Europe flooding our markets. The weaver or the artisan can’t get their products into a store. These crafts are all rural, we need catalysts who can facilitate that access to rural India. The young lot is efficiently translating it all — be it bandhani or simple shibori, they are doing a phenomenal job,” says Kumar.
