Kalamkari India exhibition, at Manohar Mangal Karyalaya, Kothrud, in its 5th year brings in new designs. A wide range for Men’s and Women’s traditional kalamakari as well as an interesting accessories.
Brainchild of Ashwini Gokhale, she began this business when she fell in love with the traditional Indian fabric and decided into get into the business of bringing Kalamkari to Pune. “I realized that many people were unaware of what a good Kalamkari material is like. So I visited South of India, went to see the production of this brilliant fabric, began buying it straight from the artists who are trying to keep this traditional art on fabric alive. I started doing my own designs by trial and error and found that there were many people who were interested in owning atleast one piece of Kalamkari. Hence began this business with my friend Rajni Bappur.
In this exhibition, which is open from 10 am to 8 pm on the weekend, one will get to see some really chic long jackets which are her signature pieces, along with the long dresses done up with some fantastic patchwork of Kalamkari. “The uniqueness of these patchwork is that during the 2 years of lockdown, I began stiching together 58 metres of kalamkari leftover pieces,” said Gokhale, who was also in the 100 best entrepreneur (MSME) list released by Government of India last year.
This gave her some new ideas of creating a whole new line of Kurtas for men and women, which are on display at the exhibition. She has also got some very beautiful sling bags, shoulder bags, holdalls, and small bags which are sold very quickly.
There are some really elegant stories from Ramayana and other mythological stories in blockprinted black and white sarees which are at Rs 4560. There is something for everyone in budget from Rs 100 to Rs 1500 and a multi hues of colours in Kalamkari.
8 and 9 January 2022 at Manohar Mangal Karyalaya, Kothrud, from 10 am to 8pm
