Spinning a fine tale with traditional muslin

KOLKATA: Club Muslin showroom at Dakshinapan has opened its doors to sell the fine traditional fabric of Bengal, which is so delicate that it can fit through a finger ring and so light that it is called ‘woven air’ in Rome.
From the traditional ‘geele Punjabi’ and ‘kochano dhuti’ to shirts, pants, kurtis, dresses, upholstery, bags and even jewellery—everything that can be made of muslin is on offer at the store.Mostly in white, the hand-woven collection does not have a shred of synthetic fibre. “Below 100 counts of thread, the cloth is called khadi. Beyond 100, the cloth turns finer and is called muslin. We have muslin clothes of up to 500 thread count,” said Mayukhi Basak, textile consultant of Biswa Bangla.
The store has a section of ethnic wear designed by Agnimitra Paul. “This was my first experiment with muslin. I am planning to design a range of bridal muslin sarees for those daring women who want to go beyond the traditional red for her D-day. Some samples should hit this store within the coming year,” said Agnimitra, who is the chief design consultant for Club Muslin.
A part of the Project Muslin by the state’s Biswa Bangla initiative, the showroom was inaugurated on Tuesday by the principal secretary of medium, small and micro enterprises and textile department, Rajiva Sinha, designers Agnimitra and Abhishek Dutta and actor Hiran. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the showroom from Nadia, the epicentre of the project.
The Rs 62-crore Project Muslin, which took off three months ago in seven districts, has employed 790 families that add up to 2,300 artisans. In batches of 20, they attended two-month workshops by master weavers who taught them to think beyond their traditional skills and develop design and dyeing techniques.
“We will provide the artisans with livelihood support, such as education and health,” said Sinha. Every family is likely to be given an advanced ‘charka’ worth at least Rs 15,000.
“The project aims at reviving the dying art of muslin. We also hope to rope in khadi artisans,” said Harish Dey, secretary of the state khadi and village industries board.
But the collection is pricey as the cotton “can’t be woven in monsoon or when it is too hot or cold”. “It takes three to seven days to weave 11m of khadi, while a muslin cloth will take 40-60 days,” said Biswajit Sarkar, planning and evolution officer, WBKVIB.