Lalit Sengar, 31, is a Delhi-based designer who is bringing the modern face of handloom to the forefront with his initiative ‘Project Artisans’ with 55 families, 200 artisans and 36 crafts across India so far. As an individual, he is closely associated with An Initiative Touch Your Soul (AITYS) for educating children and developing professional skills in the youngsters as well. In a detailed conversation with TMM, he shares the story of his interaction with handloom and everything related to his project.
Handloom connect
In 2016, Lalit was appointed as the design manager at Amazon, where he worked with a lot of national and international brands and realised the status of Indian handloom industry. Later in 2018, Ministry of Textile approached him through NIFT to be a part of the 25th anniversary of ASEAN meet and showcase his Indian handloom work, it was then he went deep down the sector and realized the vicious circle of Emporio and middlemen in the market. He recollects, “In 2018, when I got a huge order of handloom shirts by a client in Australia, I went to handloom artisans and weavers across the country and realised that they had no work because nobody was buying their fabrics.”
The monotony
It was during the process, Lalit realised that apart from middlemen, another reason behind the decline in demand was the monotony of prints and designs. He mentions. “For years, these artisans and weavers are working on the same lines they have inherited and there had been no design intervention.” To bridge the gap, Lalit started working with artisans in different parts of the country in 2018 and drafted the fashion forecast in the Indian context and developed swatches with them. Suddenly their business picked up and they started working with him.
The dying art
During his trip to Sanganer, a town in Rajasthan, he met a family that is earning its livelihood from the 900-year-old legacy of making fabrics and at present the four generations of the family are surviving together with mere Rs. 6000 a month. Lalit informs, “During my interaction with the family, I was informed that the youngest kid of the family has made his mind to drive an auto instead of carrying the family legacy of dying and making fabrics.” Lalit feels that the only way to stop this action is through the intervention of governing bodies and cut out the game of middlemen who are indirectly affecting the entire work chain. Also, he stresses that these artisans need to be trained with the art of selling their products and last but not the least is getting them acquainted with the social media world. “They have mobile phones, Facebook account and Instagram App, all they need is the guidance about how to use these resources for the growth of their businesses,” Lalit urges.
The backfire
As soon as Lalit Sengar tried to teach them that the art is dying and social media and e-commerce is the way to protect it, their ego came in between and it backfired right at his face. He recollects, “While I was trying to teach them the alternatives, they were reluctant to understand and it said it all.”
The uniqueness
Lalit Sengar recalls, “As I was trying to explore what all can be done in terms of fabric dying with the family of four generations living together, the grandfather asked me to join him in the verandah where he was working and in an hour time, he showed me 14 shades of indigo using different food items and dried and fresh herbs.” “During the process, I tried to understand his psychology and realised there is no acceptance of the fact that the art is dying.” He informs, “To make them accept it, I had to show them that there is money in it and it’s just that they need to be active enough to bring in it the change and this is what I am working on at present, no matter how much time it takes.”
A ray of hope
While having his last sip of Hot Chocolate, Lalit looks outside the door and says, “I know things will change and I have seen that faith in the eyes of young artisans.” He adds, “I got this faith after an artisan had shown the interest in learning how to channelize his work via social media and make the best of technology. “It’s a very slow process and I need to have the patience to let it happen and I will surely make it happen,” he concludes.
Lalit Sengar for TMM
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