It's designers' duty to keep handlooms alive: Krishna Mehta

Fashion designer Krishna Mehta has worked with Manipuri handloom for her new line which she will showcase at the upcoming Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Winter/ Festive 2013 here. She says the onus of keeping handloom alive lies upon designers.

"It is our duty as designers to ensure that we keep handloom alive," Mehta told IANS.

Through her collection, she wants to give handloom and craftsmen from Manipur a worthy platform.

"I would like to bring forth the work which they do for the other designers to see. Just because they don't really know what the world is like, they are in their own cocoon and in a valley with limited access. They are cut out from fashion. But if we can guide them with the right colours, textures," she added.

Mehta said she has plans to continue her association with the weavers.

"I would like to go back to Manipur and give them design guidance and show them products which have a larger market," she said.

The designer says the journey of creating her latest line was interesting.

"Its been an interesting journey for me. Manipur is a remote place. So it was challenging to be there and work there. The way they work is different, their looms are different.

"It was a bit of a challenge working through the way they work, but once you get into it, you realise that they are just so much more beautiful. There is depth in their work. They don't have embroideries and sophisticated ways of working and all of that... they are still what they used to be years ago."

Mehta has been a part of the bi-annual Lakme Fashion Week event since long, and she says, she tries to bring something new to the ramp each time.

"I have been blessed. I feel good when there is something new which comes up, which motivates me to go on and do something different and new each time. This season, I am working with a remote region," she said.

Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Winter/ Festive 2013 will be held Aug 23-27.