Carnival of summer colours

COTTON GARMENTS are the clothes for the upper crust, these days, and the fashion trend is not lost on the Directorate of Handlooms. It has decided to celebrate cotton with a carnival on Saturday.

Tamil Nadu's handlooms are known for their excellence in weaving and craftsmanship, especially cotton varieties, but they lack publicity and marketing. It is the middlemen who exploit weavers, by paying a pittance to weavers while handloom products that hit shelves have high price tags.

Now, the scene is set to change and the Department of Handlooms has launched a series of measures to help weavers realise the true worth of their craftsmanship.

Recently it organised a handloom sarees exhibition in a star hotel in the city where silk and cotton saress from various cooperative societies were put on display. The response to the exhibition was overwhelming as nearly Rs. six lakh worth of sarees were sold on a single day - nearly 95 per cent cotton.

Now, the Department has rolled out its celebration plan, a sale- cum-exhibition, which is called the Cotton Carnival. It will be cotton sarees only at this expo. The various cooperative societies in the State have recently introduced a wider range of sarees with elegant design and colour combination exclusively for the summer.

Kanchi Cotton from Paramakudi, Woraiyur and Musiri, intrinsically designed fine textures from traditional Chinnalapatti chungudi sarees from Madurai, impressive and attractive designs from Salem, and ethnic Kalakshetra cotton sarees will be available at the exhibition. The exhibition-cum-sale is being held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Conference Hall of the Directorate of Handloom and Textiles, Kuralagam on May 5. Price band: Rs. 250 to Rs. 1,000.

Coming next is its website which will make sarees available throughout the world.

By S. Vydhianathan

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