The forthcoming edition of Lakme Fashion Week winter-festive 2015 will support the “Woven Wonders of Varanasi” exhibition curated by designer-politician Shaina NC at a museum in Varanasi recently, according to media reports. Lakme Fashion Week earlier this month launched its ‘Re-invent Banaras’ initiative as part of the Indian Handloom and Textile Day celebrations for the upcoming season. The exhibition showcased garments fashioned from hand crafted textiles of Banarasi weavers designed by India’s top fashion designers like Ritu Kumar, Rohit Bal, Anita Dongre, Ritu Beri, Gaurav Gupta, Varun Bahl, Anju Modi, Rina Dhaka among others. Master weavers from different neighbourhoods of Varanasi stepped out of their obscurity to find pride of place next to some of the country’s top designers. After a month of display at the museum, ‘Woven Wonders’ of Varanasi will move to Delhi and then to London. ‘Woven Wonders of Varanasi’, a nationwide campaign led by Shaina NC, is focused to uplift the Banaras handloom industry as a part of the ‘Make In India’ initiative supported by the Ministry of Textiles. The exhibition with a social overtone brings together weavers, textile workers and eminent designers to showcase possibilities beyond the sari with the craft of Benarasi weaving. The weaving community’s numbers have fallen sharply over the years from three lakh to 40, 000 despite being lone guardians of the craft with excellent skills. Many of the younger generation are moving away from weaving to more profitable jobs.
