UNIQUE INITIATIVE
INNOVATION OVER INTERVENTION
In a conversation with Brinda Gill, Iti Tyagi stresses on the importance of empowering
craftspeople by creating alternative, innovative models, and providing them with the space to
create in ways that they know best.
Iti Tyagi, an alumna of National Institute of Fashion Technology
(NIFT) and KLC School of Design, London, is the founder of Crafts
Village, New Delhi. Craft Village is a social organisation that works
towards the training and promotion of the crafts and craftspeople
of India. A recipient of the Nari Shakti Puraskar conferred by the
Government of India, she is indeed a force to be reckoned with.
In the conversation below, she talks about her spearheading work
in the crafts sector, the country’s artisans, nuances of design
intervention, as well as the future of India’s apparel.
WHAT IS THE TRAJECTORY THAT INDIA’S
HANDLOOMS HAVE BEEN TAKING?
Indian textiles have played a pivotal role in domestic and
international markets, and the handloom has certainly had its era.
But today, power looms increasingly dominate the sector. We have
lost a huge portion of textile production to Bangladesh and China,
due to which handloom clusters have been struggling. We forget
that China and Bangladesh may be able to eat significantly into the
power-loom business, but they would never be able to compete
with the handloom sector as it requires lineage, legacy, and an
inherent know-how.
The reason why more preference is given to machine-made
products is that handmade items are expensive as well as time-
consuming. 1990, all the way into 2010, has been a golden yet
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December 2019