Apparel November 2019 Apparel November 2019 issue | Page 74

FABRIC SPEAK
Mapping Muslin
A few months back, I had the opportunity to
watch a well-researched film called Legend
of the Loom, which traces the journey of a
2,000-year-old fabric known as muslin—from the
Mahabharata to the rivers of Bengal, where the
cotton plant grew.
Directed by Saiful Islam, a Bangladeshi textile
revivalist who shuttles between the United
Kingdom and Bangladesh, the film takes the
viewer through muslin’s long-standing
history, its favourable qualities, as well as its
production processes.
The fabric itself is so fine that there have been
tales of an entire muslin sari that was able to pass
through a ring alone. In fact, so exquisite it is in its
make that the 14th-century Sufi poet and scholar
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I APPAREL I
November 2019
Bindu Gopal Rao shines the spotlight on muslin, whose soothing nature makes
it a fabric of choice.