Saree splendour marks India Day at London Fashion Week

Sarees from different parts of India were at the heart of a first-of-its-kind India Day celebration at the London Fashion Week on Saturday. Kashmiri and Phulkari from the north, Kantha and Baluchari from West Bengal, Ghatchola from Gujarat, Paithni from Maharashtra, Kanjivaram from Tamil Nadu and Kasavu from Kerala were among 17 different varieties of sarees selected for a unique catwalk organized by the Indian High Commission in London.

"This event is a true labor of love, with sarees borrowed from personal wardrobes, including mine, to showcase this living heritage that is such a part of our daily lives," said Ruchi Ghanashyam, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK. "This is a tribute to all the wonderful craftspeople and weavers who create these most amazing combinations. Each state has a different weave and so much of science, art, and creativity goes into the making into each saree," said the envoy, for whom the saree is the outfit of choice at all events in the UK.

India Day, planned as a means of making sarees a visible presence within London's mainstream fashion consciousness, opened with a showcase of designs by young Indian designers from the Inter National Institute of Fashion Design (INIFD) in India and was backed by the London School of Trends. "These thousands of weaves bring to you the rich diversity of Indian textile. The saree is not only a cloth, a significant reflection of our textile legacy, it is also a matter of Indian pride," said Smriti Irani, the Union minister of textiles, in a video message screened at the event.

UK Foreign Office minister Lord Tariq Ahmad, Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev and Bangladeshi High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem were among some of the special guests at India Day at the London Fashion Week, which opened on Friday and concludes on Tuesday.