BHUBANESWAR: Women of every household have started the search for the most appropriate fabric to drape this summer. Like each year, this one seems no different as city women go for clothes made of natural fibres.
From summer clothes to sunglasses, the list of items required to beat the heat this summer is long. One would be smart to choose clothes which would make our body acclimatised to rising temperatures. However, one can be stylish at the same time realize that summer is not only smart, but can if he/she if he/she does a bit of research before buying the right attire.
While machines are groaning in cloth factories producing nylon, rayon and polyester, our body is seeking help in absence of adequate air to breathe in inside our machine made, artificial comfort. As there is no substitute of mother’s milk to a new born baby, there is no better fabric than our natural fibres.
As far as fashion and style are concerned, a lot is happening out there and all we need to do is to look around and select what is right for us. Orissa Post interacted with city designers to delve deeper into the subject. Sudheshna from Duheeta said, “Nothing truly matches Linen. However, one can always opt for many other choices like Cotton and Tussar.
For Designer Reshma Parimal of Innovative Fashion, there is no dearth of fabrics. However, one must know more about them. Linen is a flax seed fibre which is delicate to weave, but extremely strong in nature. It is widely used in all handloom clusters, especially in Bengal, Bihar, Benaras and Chhattisgarh. While Bengal is giving their tradition jamdani motif in linen sarees, Benaras is weaving royal buta in bright colours.
Gone are those days when cotton was considered as meek and mute. From indigo block print from Jaipur to enchanting Ajrakh (which is believed to be inexistence since the Mohanjedaro era) from Kutch, hand dyes Ikkat from Odisha to Kalamkari in Andhra Pradesh, the indisputable comfort of cotton is now entwined with an irresistible style quotient and ladies are draping them on every occasion with pride.
Whenever you go to a shop and see a saree whose root seems unfamiliar, the store assistant will invariable name it as Chanderi. However, Chanderi is not a synthetic silk and is made with diligent effort on mulberry silk which mostly comes with hand block print.
Machines have still not invaded block print art and till now, it’s a manual process done painstakingly by using only one block at a time. Chanderi block print is done in Chanderi (Madhya Pradesh).
Mekhla, the traditional attire of Assamese women, is now extremely popular amongst all ages, because of their mélange with traditional motifs and contemporary appeal. Pat silk, the traditional Assamese fibre, is used for summer Mekhla, along with cotton, khadi and meena work done in an extremely stylish manner. One can team it up with traditional beads neckpiece which is done mostly by the wives of weavers who remain busy in making Mekhla
Tussar is our Siberian crane in fabrics. They come during winters, fascinate us with its beauty and disappear even before the spring ends. However, Tussar fabric with block print will be sought after even during summers due to the comfort it offers. From Tussar to Mekhla, city women seem to have their work cut out in terms of finding these sought after fabrics to beat the heat this summer.
