Apparel July 2019 Apparel July 2019 issue | 页面 134

LLDC
LLDC
FEATURE
LENDING THE PAST A FUTURE
Museums and textile galleries play an important role in informing viewers, inspiring
designers, and providing valuable material to textile scholars regarding the beauty
of Indian textile masterpieces. Brinda Gill explains how.
Ancient Indian texts speak of textiles as soft
as fresh blossoms, as light as smoke, and as
delicate and transparent as vapour. Archaic
archaeological fragments of cotton textiles and
terracotta figurines depicting attire—as also
depictions of textiles on ancient cave paintings
and sculptures—fascinate the seeker with their
fluidity and patterns.
Manuscripts and paintings from the early
medieval centuries, along with literary references,
narratives of travellers, accounts of trade to South
East Asia and Europe, and other sources tell
of elaborately and intricately patterned textiles,
naturally dyed and woven cloth, and hand-
embellished fabrics by artisans. Sadly, these have
been lost due to the inherent fragility of cloth, and
buried under the weight of fast fashion.
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Yet, in a textile museum, gallery or even a
private collection, is seen the beauty of fabled
Indian textiles. These precious exhibits reflect
the skills of the country’s textile artisans, the
millennia-old tradition of textile crafts and natural
dyeing in India, and the spell long cast by Indian
textiles over traders, invaders, travellers, and
wearers. These exhibits convey the importance of
collecting, preserving, conserving, displaying, and
sharing to create awareness about Indian textiles,
and inspire designers to revisit their roots and
reinvent them in a modern setting.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXTILE
MUSEUMS
Just as museums of any craft or art in any part
of the world play an important role in showcasing