Apparel July 2019 Apparel July 2019 issue | Page 138

FEATURE
fabrics and attire of the era of the Nizams of
Hyderabad, renowned for their elegance, may
be seen at Hyderabad’s Salar Jung Museum and
Chowmahalla Palace. The city also houses the
Nizam’s Museum, which is touted to have one of
the world’s largest walk-in wardrobes.
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT
OLD MASTERPIECES OF
TEXTILES BE PRESERVED
BY PRIVATE COLLECTORS,
INSTITUTIONS, AND
GOVERNMENT BODIES.
The National Handicrafts and Handlooms
Museum in New Delhi (popularly referred to as
the Crafts Museum) has a wonderful collection
of textiles from different parts of the country,
and also throws lights on various weaving
techniques. Also in the city is Sanskriti Museum
of Indian Textiles that owes its origins to a private
collection of Shri O P Jain, and is a valuable
resource for studying Indian textiles. In Mumbai,
the textile gallery at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) has an interesting
representative collection of Indian weaves.
That some of the most spectacular Indian
textiles and garments were created for the royalty
is attested by the displays at galleries in palaces
owned by royal families, in different parts of the
country. The textile gallery at Jaipur’s City Palace
displays textiles and garments owned by the
then maharajas of the state, going back three
centuries. Gorgeous woven and embroidered
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CONSERVATION AND DISPLAY
Given the fragile nature of textiles, it is paramount
that old textiles are conserved carefully for future
generations. Museums can display textiles in a
way that protects them (they have temperature-
and humidity-controlled environments with low
lighting) and showcases the dimensions and
the technical aspects of weaving, printing, or
embroidering (by draping them from ceiling
to floor behind glass cases or placing them
in swivelling panels). Many museums also
offer details of the textile such as dimensions,
provenance, function, and technique of
production. Museums also have publications of
their collections (such as Textiles and Garments
at the Jaipur Court written by textile historian
Rahul Jain, and published by City Palace, Jaipur)
along with many more subjects related to
Indian textiles.
In this way, museums and textile galleries
play an invaluable role in showing visitors—from
the lay public to scholars and designers—the
wealth of Indian textiles and skill of India’s textile
artisans. As time passes, it is important that old
masterpieces of textiles be preserved by private
collectors, institutions, and government bodies.
Setting up textile museums, adding textile
galleries to those museums, and establishing
galleries at Weavers’ Service Centres (focused on
a particular textile being crafted at that centre),
documenting collections with detailed information
(such as fabric construction or surface
embellishment techniques or even different styles
of draping unstitched textiles), and bringing out
directories of master artisans to foster connection
and collaboration, with all certainty, help in
creating and conserving beautiful textiles rooted
in the true ethos of India.