Tutorial on Natural Fabrics of India

Pallavi, our host principal, has been wonderful about exposing us to opportunities and people in Pune outside of the school day experience. Over the last several days we have met dozens of people doing interesting things in education, the arts, and children’s literature. Tonight we met Neeta Deshpande, who started a natural fabrics store in the early 1990s when buying natural, Indian-made cotton textiles was not in high demand. Not only did we get a chance to visit the store and shop, Pallavi arranged for a full on tutorial about natural fabrics. Neeta was so passionate about her work and feels strongly about the importance of sourcing the materials directly from the weavers, dyers, painters, and sewers she buys directly from. She has traveled all over India to live with the artisans and learn more about their processes. She was able to explain to us differences between patterns and techniques in over 20 states in India and kept imploring that everything she was telling us was just the simplified version because it was obviously way more complicated than she could capture in an hour. Bottom line — the artistry and skill involved in producing these textiles was way beyond what I imagined. I have enjoyed buying textiles for years, and while I am drawn to hand crafted pieces, I never really knew the intensity of the process of production; one embroidered silk piece we looked at took about 5-6 weeks for one person to put together. The whole experience underlined the importance of being deliberate about what you purchase if you can — textiles and otherwise — and it was a reminder of how important it is to support these types of businesses here and at home in the interest of economic, environmental, and social sustainability.