Dhoti-sari
Bappaditya Biswas,
founder of the Byloom store in Kolkata, has been working with weavers
in Bengal to revive some forgotten practices. This year, he worked with
weavers from the Hooghly district who used to weave dhotis to create the dhoti-sari. “The people who weave dhotis in Bengal are used to weaving fine cotton yardage but there are not as many takers for dhotis today. Hence we decided to help these weavers find work by creating a dhoti-sari,” explains Biswas. To begin with, most of the weavers were not used to the idea of weaving six yards since most dhotis are about four yards. “Also, most did not know how to use dyes, since dhotis are kora
(a shade between white and off-white). We had to change the structure
of their loom so that they could weave these saris. We have also taught
them to make an inch-thick border in shades of red, purple and orange.
Now, we are working on teaching the weavers how to create pallus for
these saris,” says Biswas, who showed a few of these saris for the
first time at Sarees 2012, an exhibition held by the Delhi Crafts
Council in October in New Delhi.
The dhoti-sari range starts at Rs.1,150. For more information, go to
www.bailou.net or visit Byloom, Hindusthan Park, Kalighat, Kolkata (033-24198727).
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