Going places:Wendell Rodricks began a grassroots campaign to revive the
Kunbi sari in a designer avatar in July 2009.
PANAJI: The Kunbi sari is all set for a major revival as celebrated
fashion designer Wendell Rodricks will present his Kunbi Tribe
collection at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi on
October 24.
Speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday, Mr. Rodricks said that the
collection was the fruit of many years of research and would serve as a
catalyst to revive the art of weaving in the State of Goa.
“Marginalised by mainstream society, the Kunbis deserve to be addressed
as the original inhabitants of the land,” said Mr. Rodricks.
Expertly mixing cotton and silk, woven and knitted textures, the Kunbi
Tribe collection is a celebration of revivalism. Reviving the
traditional Kunbi sari was a daunting task considering the stigma
associated with it.
He said that the project of reviving the ethnic sari and dresses of Goa
was taken up seven years ago. In July 2009, he began a grassroots
campaign to revive the Kunbi sari in a designer avatar.
“Goa needed to have its own place in ethnic and traditional collections;
have its own sari. I have always felt embarrassed that Kashmiris had
their own shawl and many States had their own saris, but that Goa
didn't,” said Mr. Rodricks.
After closely working with a couple of traditional weavers, who are
sadly on the decline, he described his project as his ambition “to leave
a legacy of Goan weaving heritage”.
Speaking about the weaving of ethnic tribal clothes, Mr. Rodricks said
that tribal women, owing to stigma associated with the sari, had
virtually given up weaving. The sari is traditionally worn by women from
the ‘lower caste'. “I wanted to change that perspective,” said Mr. Rodricks.
Praising the sari, actor and filmmaker Nandita Das, in a promotional
video, says, “This Goan ethnic sari can proudly stand alongside any sari
in India.”
Mr. Rodricks thanked Goa Tourism Department for supporting the Kunbi
Weave project.
He has presented the sari to President Pratibha Patil through the Goa
Governor, Chief Minister of Goa Digambar Kamat, AICC president Sonia
Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
SOURCE: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2010/10/21/stories/2010102153920200.htm
