Popular fabric

HAVING married into the Singhania family, Vidhi could have chosen to be the wife of a rich man. However, she chose to blend family life with an urge to be independent and an individual. A Marwari home is often a joint family with many responsibilities, but Vidhi has taken things in her stride, even managing to start a business.

Her success story began when she lived in Kotah, Rajasthan, for a few years. Her friends asked her to buy Kotah saris. She realised the demands of the market. "My work is the culmination of a few years spent in Kotah," she says. She began visiting villages around Kotah and in other parts of the State, where weavers create the pure zari woven fabric with the characteristic small checks.

She had an edge in the market because the demand for handmade goods was at its peak. Kotah is a handmade, traditional Muslim fabric made of cotton and silk threads. It is woven with alternating threads of cotton and silk both in the warp and weft in an open weave. It is mixed with vibrant colours with gold thread, called zari or jari. The work is done by weavers from a close knit Muslim community who pass the art down from generation to generation. From graph making, dyeing the yarn and fabric, the weaving is done by hand. There are about 2,000 weavers and their families involved in this craft.

Vidhi found that these saris were extremely popular but were difficult to procure in metropolitan markets. Hence she became a pioneer in bringing this fabric to the market. Vidhi did not stick to old traditional patterns but experimented with contemporary designs too.

She says: "I have been able to use their (weavers') designs and patterns and modify them to suit the contemporary needs. Thus creating affordable elegance from the looms of Rajasthan."

She takes her inspiration from the weavers who, she claims, have given her ample love, knowledge of their skills and their humility.

She saw that the karigars or artisans were afraid of power-looms. "In order to provide fillip and more stable, gainful employment to them and keep their looms going all through the year, my strategy was to move larger volumes of these saris with innovative, interesting designs and colour combinations and, in turn, boost their morale and income."

She gives incentive to these weavers. She has organised eight solo exhibitions in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore and Chennai. Her saris are named after the wives, sisters and daughters of her weavers and the colours are named after her weavers.

ALKA PANDE

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