This project is done in Odisha, supported by the Department of Textiles, Government of Odisha. It’s about the diversified tailored end products from handloom tassar silk and silk blends of different parts of Odisha. In earlier days, the product of the weavers was meant for the local people. Their work is mostly rooted in the textile traditions that Odisha has nurtured to make traditional loom products. There are six government institutes of Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC) in Odisha those are Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Cuttack, Berhampur, Baripada and Sambalpur.
So the idea was to bring together and display the skills of these weavers and tailors on a single platform through design intervention to develop a cloth line for a definite consumer segment. I worked with the cooperative handloom weavers of Makidia and Nuapatna to develop plain , textured and yarn dyed fabrics using their expertise. Pattern masters and tailors were sourced from Baripada, Mayurbhanj for the construction of garments. Target consumers are the females in age group between 25 to 35 years across India and abroad. The products shall be marketed through Boyanika, the co-operative society that sale the products of the co-operative weavers of Odisha and through 1-Handicraft and textile exhibitions across India, 2-Online marketing. Development of different end products like yarn, fabric and apparel involved various departments like spinning, sericulture, reeling, yarn banks, looms, and stitching units. Study of the interlinked system of the handloom sector, its marketing cells and the government body, that supports and promotes the sector made me understand how a team works at the grass-roots level in villages and grows to reach its end users. Thus the project as a whole was a valuable learning experience.
bottlenecks in cooperative societies, Fiber to Garment, Handloom of Odisha, natural colors, Wild Silk of Mayurbhanj
