Apparel November 2019 Apparel November 2019 issue | Seite 79

FABRIC SPEAK
In India, traditional mulberry silk can be
procured in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu,
and Andhra Pradesh, among others places.
Whilst weaving the silk, however, many artisans
merge in Chinese silk with it, to create a mix
of Chinese silk on the warp and Indian silk on
the weft, which is sturdier. It is competitive
pricewise and takes in dyes easily. Kanchipuram
and pockets in Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and
Dharmavaram in Andhra Pradesh are hotbeds
of silk saris. In Karnataka, it is the Mysore crepe
(handmade as well as machine-made), which
is popular. Uppada and Pochampally in Andhra
Pradesh are also known for their exclusive silk
weaves. Recently, silk from Uppada has become
a favourite with designers, as it allows them much
experimentation. In a similar vein, the iconic,
sought-after Benarasi silk saris from the ancient
city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have caught
MULBERRY SILKS
Mulberry silk is the most common of all silks, and
it derives its name from the mulberry plant that
the caterpillar feeds on. Nearly 90 per cent of all
Indian silk produced is mulberry silk—most of
the silk used in the export market and consumed
domestically (by the sari sector) is also mulberry.
It is also widely utilised to craft stoles, furnishings,
finished garments, and more. Mulberry silk is
coveted both in India and abroad because as
they say, it simply gets better with every wash and
can last a lifetime.
KANCHIPURAM AND POCKETS
IN MADURAI IN TAMIL NADU,
AND DHARMAVARAM IN ANDHRA
PRADESH ARE HOTBEDS OF
SILK SARIS.
silk in the Indus Valley pushes back the earliest
date of silk outside of China by a millennium and
is roughly contemporaneous with the earliest
evidence for silk from within China.”
The paper also elaborates on how fibres found
on a coiled copper wire necklace has traces of
what we today call tussar. This goes on to show
that silk has been a part of the Indian vocabulary
for over 4,000 years. In the present, though,
much of the silk yarn used for weaving in India is
imported from China.
The Indian silk sector is uniquely rich. Let us
deconstruct it by type:
APPAREL
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November 2019
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