Khadi thrills the crowd at Lakme Fashion Week

Khadi is not a mere coarse fabric; rather it was this versatile signature fabric – for which the foreign traders used to give equal weight of gold to purchase it once upon a time and India was better known as ‘Sone ki chidiya (The Golden Bird).”, said the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Chairman, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, while delivering a keynote address on ‘Khadi and Sustainable Development’ at the inaugural session of the 14^th edition of the Sustainable Fashion Day at Lakme Fashion Week on 23^rd August 2018 in St Regis Hotel, Mumbai. Incidentally, it was also the first occasion that the KVIC had collaborated with Lakme Fashion Week, in which collections made by four designer labels with hand-spun and hand-woven Khadi fabric were exhibited – hand-spun in sleepy cluster areas of Elgandal (Telangana), Kanjarpur (Madhya Pradesh), Bastar (Chhattisgarh), Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Malda, Burdwan and Murshidabad (West Bengal) as per information available from PIB.

Shri Saxena further said that showcasing Khadi on this ramp would definitely change the common man’s perception about Khadi being a stereotype fabric made for a particular class. “As Khadi signifies honesty, dedication, sincerity, purity, only human Resource, hand-spun and hand-woven, empowering the poorest of the poor and Swadeshi, it is the only product in the modern history that has stood the test of time as a vehicle of sustainable development self reliance. In Khadi, we spin employment and weave prosperity in India. Charkha is not a symbol of commercial war, but of commercial peace,” he said.

Expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for catching Khadi’s latent potential, Shri Saxena said that the Prime Minister had often called this phase as ‘Khadi for fashion’ and ‘Khadi for Economic Transformation’. “Even in the changing times, although the models of development have changed to some extent, sustainability has always been at the core for Khadi. With its diversified canvass, Khadi’s principles of sustainable development reverberate from all directions: from helping terrorism affected families to find life support to giving economic freedom to tiger attack victim families and from rehabilitating poaching affected communities to self employing displaced people the Narmada valley,” he said.

The season’s most coveted designers were seen under one roof, working magic with styles and trends that make fashion and beauty nothing less than grandeur. Variou facets of Khadi were showcased by renowned fashion designers at the LFW.  While Lars Anderson showcased Khadi Matka Love Story, the Third floor clothing by Saloni Sakaria, Jamdaani fabric of Pallavi Shantam, Murshidabad Khadi by Jewellyn Nalvares and Buna’s Collection were majestic in exploring immense potential of India’s heritage fabric. The four sequence events, with one sequence of each designer and 26 models rocking on ramp in Khadi designer fabric virtually thrilled the spectators.