Be it roping in designers for the development of different clusters or inviting fashion designers to showcase at the mega event -Textiles India 2017 - held in Gandhinagar, the
Ministry of Textiles has been taking several steps to help the designer and weaver community work together. In another such step, the Development Commissioner (Handlooms) came up with the 'Designer Chaupal' at Crafts Museum. The event was attended by a group of handloom designers and weavers. The session was headed by Textile Minister
Smriti Irani and attended by Anant Kumar Singh, textile secretary of India; Pushpa Subrahmanyam, additional secretary, Textiles Ministry, and
Sunil Sethi
, president of the
Fashion Design Council of India
(FDCI).
Among designers who were invited to participate in Chaupal were Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anavila Misra, Samant Chauhan, Sanjay Garg, Shruti Sancheti, Pratima Pandey, Jenjum Gadi and Shalini James. The designers were chosen keeping in mind their cluster or area of work. Sanjay Garg was chosen for Banarasi and Chanderi, Shruti Sancheti for jamdani, brocade, cotton and tussar, Dhruv Vaish for Chanderi and Banarasi from Champa and Chhattisgarh, Jenjum Gadi for ikat, and Shalini James for handmade, vegetable-dyed organic cotton, ikat, kalamkari and bagru.
The idea of Designer Chaupal was to have an interaction with the weavers and designers and discuss steps to take their collaboration to the next level.