Started in 2006, Weaves: the cotton and silk spectrum, is an initiative by Hyderabad-based Revathi Creative Communications where weavers and designers can sell their garments directly to customers. A bi-annual exhibition that takes place in Hyderabad and Secunderabad separately, besides travelling to 23 other cities in the country, this year’s Hyderabad edition is currently on in the city. With about 50 stalls put up, buyers can choose from a range of textiles that represent most parts of the country.
From Gadwals, Pochampally, Venkatagiri and Mangalgiri from Andhra Pradesh, Kanjeevaram and Chettinad silk from Tamil Nadu, Maheshwari and Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthani Kota, Lucknowi Chicken-kari, Bengali silk and Daccai work, Orissa’s Sambalpuri, Kutch embroidery from Gujarat and Kashmiri embroidery, the exhibition is a confluence of all things Indian.
The usual sarees and dress materials are available, besides kurtis for the younger lot. But Weaves also boasts of home furnishings like bed-sheets and bed spreads.
A mix of the usual materials dot the stalls - cotton, silk, georgette, chiffon, cotton-silk mixes, khadi-jute and so on. However, given the festive season, quite surprisingly, there wasn’t a particular colour swaying the trend for the season. From the typical reds and maroons, to the brighter oranges and auspicious greens, the colour palette was fairly balanced.
Kicking up a trend was however two Begali stalls that had heavily decorated blouse materials in shiny gold and silver, patterns made in appliqué, cut-work and even good-old embroidery. Mostly in blacks and maroons, besides the more gaudy metallic colours, the blouses follows in the footsteps of the mix-and-match trend. With prices starting from `400 for a kurta to an average Rs 3000 for silk sarees, the scale is relatively economical.
Talking about the response, Madhavi Naidu of Revathi Creative Communications said, “We’ve built ourselves over the years to a brand that people look forward to, mostly because our vendors are good and our post-sales support is convenient. But in the past year or so, there have been several other exhibitions that came to town under the same name, prefixed or suffixed to sound slightly different, that has been confusing our customer base. Due to that, on day one., we saw only about 15 per cent of our usual footfall.”
Explaining how a few customers contacted them for an exchange of garments bought at one of these similar sounding exhibitions, she said, “As a part of our post-sales support, in case of a garment being found damaged, we either replace it if possible or return the money. We had a few people come to us with their bills asking for replacement, except that the exhibition that they shopped at wasn’t ours. We urge people to please check the organisers before stepping into an exhibition that’s named Weaves or something similar.”
Weaves: the cotton and silk spectrum is on at the Sri Satya Sai Nigamagamam in Sri Nagar Colony till October 9, from 11 am to 9 pm.
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