NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 31, 2003: Khadi is haute and happening. At the Singapore Fashion Week Giorgio Armani himself sang paeans to the stuff of which Indian nationalism is made. “The khadi made in India is among the most skin-friendly fabrics we know. In fact the day isn’t far when khadi-based designs will rule the world,” he says. No mean praise coming from the man who has defined style for well over four decades. First used by Mahatma Gandhi to make a strong statement of patriotism and self-reliance, hand-spun, hand-woven khadi is today the toast of fashion houses in France and Italy. “It was a Herculean task repackaging khadi for Indian and European tastes while preserving its essential appeal. Designers abroad were completely unaware that a quintessentially Indian material could be used for making Western clothes. Today after two years of rigorous effort, khadi has finally been accepted in the international markets. We now cater to front-line couturiers like Donna Karen, Gucci and Giorgio Armani,” says J. Nagarajan, advisor to the Sarvoday Ashram, New Delhi. The ashram caters to over eighty percent of Europe’s requirement of khadi. From being a dull, coarse material khadi today bears a multicolored look thanks to vegetable and chemical dyes and can be spun as fine as muslin by weavers in Andhra Pradesh and west Bengal. The West is slowly but surely waking up to the charms of this wonder fabric.
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