Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend. Yesterday, I went to Chitra Kala Parishath for the Vastrabharana Exhibition. Vastrabharana is held every year to showcase hand-crafted textiles from around the country. The exhibition primarily showcases saris and jewellery with a few collection of dress materials and stoles. Of all the handloom exhibitions I’ve visited, this one wins hands down. Each stall is unique and rich in its own way with no room for mediocrity in design, style or price.
To say, you would come back awed by the hand-woven saris collection would be an understatement. First off, hats off to the talent and diversity we have in our country; it’s unparalleled. Do you ever make a mental note to not go back to one of these exhibitions again because you can’t pick everything and that is depressing?
From Telia Rumal of Andhra Pradesh, hand-woven Tussar from West Bengal, Chattisgarh, M.P., and Bihar, chanderi, maheshwari, ajrakh, bagh, hand-dyed fabric to Mura Collectives and handwoven Kanchipuram cotton saris, you’ll find it all.
I went going back in circles not knowing what to click, what images to soak in – the pure pleasure of feeling silk against your palm and the wide array of colors.
The picture you see below is of the Bandhini stall from Gujarat.
One of my favorites; I was tempted to pick this Tussar raw silk one in off-white/turquoise combination from Chattisgarh. It costs Rs.4,000 and comes in attractive combinations like beige/fuchisa, beige/olive green, beige/maroon etc. The stole in the same colors cost Rs.1,200.
This black and red pochampally or Telia Rumal from Andhra Pradesh was the one I liked the most. At Rs.7,300 it stole the show.
Intricate kantha work saris from Shanthiniketan, West Bengal.
More details:
The exhibition is on from 28th Sept. to 2nd Oct. 2013 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
4 Comments
WOW! Looks like a heaven for ladies ;) Nice clicks Lakshmi!
It indeed was, Priti. Sigh! Feel like going back.
Laksh:
Oh my god, this is so amazing! I love collecting sarees form all over India and i recently did a post on Aalayam (our blog) on the textile heritage of india.
i have heard about the Vastrabharana exhibition and now looking at your lovely pictures I long to go :(
lovely post!
check us out at aalayam
~deepa
Thanks for the comment, Deepa. Just saw your post on textiles and then a few more (make it a dozen actually!).Not the right thing to do on a Monday morning :) but well it was captivating! Loved the Dasavatharam posts.