Clothes of Nettle
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| Japanese Trousers - Met Museum |
Ramie is a fabric made from the nettles that grow wild by the
roadside in rainfall rich states like Meghalaya. The fabric is so old that it
was used to wrap ancient Egyptian Mummys and burial shrouds in China over 2,000
years ago - long before cotton was introduced to the Far East. So it’s
fascinating to see this centuries-old fabric find its way down from Meghalaya
into the lexicon of 17 of India’s most avant-garde fashion designers.
“It’s visually very appealing”, enthuses
Alan Alexander Kaleekal, the young Kochi based modernist designer. “It’s woven
by the silk weavers of Meghalaya so it has silk-like qualities and it’s easy to
touch. And it acts like linen, without the crumpling“. At a recent exhibition
at the French Ambassador's residence in New Delhi, he showcased the
deconstruction & reconstruction of a suit.
Meghalaya Government representatives got designer
Hemant Sagar interested in this ancient fabric during a visit to Shillong in
May. At the same time, the French Government asked him to organize a workshop. Along with co-curator Caroline Young, they
chose designers Alan Alexander of KALEEKAL, Lecoanet Hemant, Ruchika Sachdeva
of Bodice, Atsu Sekhose of Atsu, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Payal Khandwala, Dhruv
Kapur of DRVV, Shyma Shetty and Pranav Mishra of HUEMN, Rekha Bhatia &
Nikki Kalia of Kishmish, Savio Jon Fernandes of Saviojon, Aneeth Arora of péro,
Priyanka Ella of P.E.L.L.A., Amrita Khanna and Gursi Singh of Lovebirds, Peachoo
Singh and Shristi Arora of AKIHI.
200 metres of cloth was created from the
first batch of the new harvest of ramie. It was woven into eight weaves in
off-white, natural and black. These were distributed democratically amongst the
designers in December. They, in turn, created jewellery, clothes and even
furnishings with the fabric, often combining it with other textiles.
Most of the designers have tried to create
long term sustainable works. Rajesh Pratap Singh, for example, has tried to
keep the silhouette and colour in his jacket, cowl shirt and pleated skirt as
true to the fabrics’ natural state as possible. Payal Khandwala has created an
architecturally inspired waistcoat, belt and pleated sumo pants. Aneeth Arora, on
the other hand, has tried to show how different fabrics work together through a
multi-panel garment that uses different woven ramie fabrics to provide contrast
and juxtaposition. And in a personal vision of tribal Meghalaya's journey
towards embracing its newest material, Lecoanet Hemant have emphasized old time
glamour with an oversized cape and a high-waisted skirt accessorized with a
tribal necklace assembled from pieces of coral and amber and raw ramie fibre.
Priyanka Ella for P.E.L.L.A stitched
together a combination of thin, fragile rice paper and hardy ramie using
hieroglyphic symbols. The main glyph used is for 'Bast - 'the Egyptian goddess
of healing. She’s used a single block of ramie, zero waste pattern-making and
relief- work technique that requires minimum measurement and sewing. The cloth
is hand-stitched using Kantha stitches and is then hand-rolled and blind
hemmed. And then there’s interior designer Adil Iqbal Ahmad who’s covered a
chair with the fabric and peacock feathers, while Srishti Arora of AKIHI has used
ramie as a canvas and designed jewellery from zari mounted on plated brass
frames. While HUEMN by Shyma Shetty & Pranav Misra has created a
documentary of 25 photographs that places ramie as the protagonist in everyday
India.
“It’s
not necessary that the plant that’s easiest to cultivate is the best. A kilo of
cotton requires around a kilo of pesticides and other chemicals to grow. It’s a terrible polluter”, says Sagar. “But
we’ve built cotton into our consciousness because we associate it with the
national movement”. Ramie’s main requirement is water which is freely available
in the Northeast. You can harvest it four times in a year and it lives for
around twenty-five years. It regulates body heat, which makes it ideal for t-shirts,
skirts, trousers and even furnishings. It
also doesn’t use too much machinery or chemicals while processing. But it is
labour intensive since the fibre needs to be degummed before processing. It’s yet to be planted industrially or in an
organized manner in India.
“Going forward, we’re in the planning phase
of how to incorporate it for regular use, but I can immediately see it used in
knits since it’s breathable and long-lasting. We’re also trying to find a
laboratory to conduct clinical textile research and give us all-round advice”,
says Sagar. “It's anti-bacterial”, Kaleekal mentions. “Even if it’s kept in damp
spaces, it isn’t affected by fungus. In fact, it becomes stronger when wet. So another use is in hospitals to make bed
linen and garments”.
As a child, we’d read the fairytale of the
sister who sewed shirts from nettles for her seven swan brothers. Perhaps we
should read our fairy tales with care in case they propagate another such renewable, sustainable and anti-bacterial fabric sources.
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