In February 2023, I put on my first exhibition at Liverpool John Moores University Public Exhibition Space. It drew on several years of travelling to India conducting research and collecting textiles and the stories of their makers. This exhibition showcases a selection of these textiles and stories, including ones that have been designed and made by artisans in the region of Kutch, western India and the small town of Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, central India. It also includes a selection of garments from small fashion brands that incorporate traditional crafts from these two regions and a film that was made during my PhD research which documents the handloom weaving process in Kutch along with interviews with artisan-designers. A symposium was held to coincide with the exhibition which explored the challenges and opportunities of utilising craft in contemporary fashion.
Kutch is a semi-desert region in the state of Gujarat and is home to a huge range of traditional craft practices that have caught the attention of travellers, traders, designers and buyers for centuries. Maheshwar is a traditional centre of handloom saris and other textiles that were patronised by Maharani Ahilyabhai Holkar in the eighteenth century. Despite attempts at mechanisation in both regions, craftspeople have been savvy to adapting their designs and traditional processes for luxury markets seeking handmade products with a distinct cultural identity.
Craft provides a significant form of employment to rural dwellers across India yet have been subjugated and marginalised against more ‘modern’ occupations and industries, such as banking, engineering and IT, despite craftspeople having extensive creative capacity and technical skill. Up until recently in both Kutch and Maheshwar, craftspeople did not have access to the fashion and design education available to the urban English-speaking middle classes of India, yet many of the graduates of these institutes will employ craftspeople to work on their collections. The pieces in this exhibition are by artisan-designers who have graduated from pioneering design and business education institutes: Somaiya Kala Vidya in Kutch and The Handloom School in Maheshwar, both which aim to connect artisans directly with viable luxury markets and to provide sustainable, creative occupations in handloom.
There is an ongoing emphasis on the need to challenge the inequalities in the fashion industry between designers and garment manufactures and to diversify and decolonise the industry and fashion education. There has also been an increasing recognition of the benefits of craft processes in slowing down fashion production and making it more environmentally sustainable, while also acknowledging and respecting the owners of these crafts, often marginalised and exploited in fashion’s constant search for the new and exotic. This exhibition and the accompanying events and workshops aim to open up fashion creatives to the possibilities of working with handmade fabrics, collaborating with artisans and taking informed inspiration from global cultures of dress to develop ethical and cultural awareness in the design and communication process.
Future research will investigate collaborative research, co-curation and co-creation in and of craft and fashion and textile design, as ways to challenge the rigid hierarchical structures that have existed/do exist in academia, museums and galleries and fashion and design systems.
Curated by: Dr Ruth Clifford
Supported by the LMU Quality Research grant and the V&A Karan Thakar grant.
With thanks to:
Lokesh Ghai: Facilitator and consultant: UPES University, Dehra Dun
Laxmi Puvar, Anwarhussain Khatri, Suresh Parbat Vankar: Artisan-designers
Ellie Childs: Flyer/poster design
Claudine Sealey, Aimee Godfrey, Aislinn Rowlands, Marybeth Hughes, Isabella Llewelyn: exhibition curatorial support
Martin Gee: Exhibition display construction
Graham Gildea and Kevin McCormack: IT Support
