'There are very less number of active weavers'
The second edition of the North-East Indian Fashion Week is set to showcase the very best of handcrafted textiles in Itanagar this Summer.
Starting August 19th, the show will give a platform to designers and weavers from India’s North-East states and is supported by Assam’s own Adil Hussain.
The fashion week will include showcase stalls and live demos to allow lesser known weavers and designers the opportunity to network. Trips to meet the weavers in their place of work will also take place.
NEIFW Chief Operating Officer Yana Ngoba Chakpu stressed that due to waning numbers, encouraging more people to take up weaving was very important.
“I am one of the northeast designers who works with weavers from all the northeast states’, she told the New Indian Express. ‘There are very less number of active weavers. So to encourage them and work with them, we met weavers of Meghalaya, Mizoram and other northeast states’
The second edition of the NEIFW will feature 25 weavers and designers, and also includes Bansala Mishra from Bihar and Archana Kabra from Rajasthan.
The Life of Pi actor Adil Hussain is on board as brand ambassador for the fashion week, and talked about how the interest of big names could help boost the popularity of handmade textiles:
“Popular names need to endorse such work so that others think that ‘Oh! this is also okay to wear. The designs are also in and it’s cool to wear these designs”.
A curious British connection plays a part for NEIFW too. London Fashion Week has boosted interest in handloom products, and the British-Asian connection could help give designers better exposure in the west.
Chakpu has announced that a special collaborative NEIFW boutique will open in London in September where the work of designers and weavers participating in the fashion week will be put on display for sale.
Alongside the boutique, an online store will also open, allowing designers an easy way to reach out to an international customer base.
The NEIFW will take place between the 19th and 21st of August.
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