An Unconventional Take On Telangana Textiles

At Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/ Resort 2020, Eka by designer Rina Singh presented an unconventional take on Telangana textiles in collaboration with the Telangana State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society Ltd (TSCO).

Encouraged by the modern spirit of ‘Jo March’ from Louisa May Alcott’s 19th-century classic, The Women, Eka’s Autumn-Winter 2020 collection explores different paths to female self-actualization with a deeply romantic aesthetic.

A registered apex organization for Telangana State (Government undertaking), TSCO’s main motto is to uplift the handloom sector by offering continuous employment and market access to handloom weavers. This Cooperative Society also gives requisite training, including the development of new designs, to the weavers and special efforts have been put forth to revive the languishing handloom products such as Gollabhama saris, Pitambari saris, Armoor saris, and Himroo fabric.

One of the interesting additions is the buniyaad machine that will increase productivity as well as quality. The Ministry of Textiles has planned to give 20 machines to the cluster.

Eka worked with weavers in Telangana associated with project Reweave. Reweave is an initiative by Microsoft’s philanthropic for reviving handloom ecosystems by providing digital skills, design interventions, and market access. With her extensive understanding of India and the modern world, Rina has worked with patterns, color combinations and yarn blends that lend a commercially viable and contemporary look to the traditional products.

“With Lakmé Fashion Week’s global outreach and Eka’s scale of international business, we truly look forward to globalizing Telangana textile,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of the Industries & Commerce and IT Departments of the Telangana government.

Rina said that she was excited and honored to partner with TSCO to showcase the development of Telangana textiles at Lakme Fashion Week.