GAMCHA- THE UNDERDOG FABRIC BACK TO BASIC WITH TWIST ‘N TURNS

Standing in 2019, where sky has no limits in expressing one’s thoughts, believes, culture , choices through an accessible medium called wearable fashion and art.

Indian crafts and craftsmanship has been always the foundation of fashion industry in India , but somehow some crafts and some materials couldn’t get the spot lights cause of their roles which are been set up by our traditional culture in terms of needs and priorities in our lives.
But it’s never too late, and it’s never too early in fashion !

Gamcha-

It is a traditional thin, coarse cotton fabric with checked designs , often uses as soft towel in most of the part of East part of India. It has been used religiously in various parts of Asia, mostly South and South Asia. The purpose of this thin cloth is to dry the body after taking bath, it has made out with pure cotton threads, so the soaking power is higher than ever.The appearance of this fabric , depending upon the purpose and different culture ,in Orissa men usually wear it as a scarf, some villagers wear it as dhoti, tribal children in Orissa wear gamcha as a dhoti until they grow up. In west Bengal the same cloth used by people to dry up their body after bath, also in some religious events as a symbol of goddess and purity, also Assamees wear it as scarf and they treat it as an important part of their traditional wear, also they use it as memento.

Weavers of traditional tantubaya or jugi community migrated from Bangladesh to India and other parts of India and produces good quality of this fabric, which are comes in usual stripped and checked patterns of red, green , yellow , orange , white etc.

Life cycle if we talk about it has long lasting purpose to serve also the fact it is very much economically sustainable fabric and accessible to the mass , so various people uses various way , as India is the blend of variety colors of cultures , so it blends finely with their choices.

Coming to the fashion purpose, the pioneer in making of Gamcha as a fashionable wear or the Gamcha print gets famous with the name of BIBI Russell, a Bangladeshi Designer, who brought worldwide fame to the indigenous towel woven back home nearly in 1995. It wasn’t just about business, but her inspiration lay in uplifting the lives of the native weavers, by bringing their work on spot light making their lives more sustainable and giving mainstream fashion a very different perspective altogether .also the Indian climate does suit with the cotton fabric most as it’s 6 months of summer and 3 months of monsoon and winter , so wear something which is comfortable yet trendy what else do any shopper would need in their bucket list.

The second most vibrant home for the “gamcha noise” is Kolkata , West-Bengal , where this cloth has gone through a lot of experiments, some gets famous some gets appreciations and some gets popularity but no one has been doomed by buyers as it has different structures of labeling the price tag ; some brands sale their cloths in premium level , some in affordable level, as it also depends upon the quality of threads and colors that weavers use .

Some brands and designers who has been successful in making this Underdog fabric into fashion bold and sustainable statements.

One of a trendy ongoing Kolkata based brand’s name “145 East” by the name anyone can guess the location , theme , projection and concepts. They used prints of Gamcha and also used high quality gamcha. Chinar Farooqui’s homegrown textile brand and the team and the co-founder,22, Rishabh Baboni made the journey inspiring and trendy to the consumer to have premium perspective while looking at Gamcha pints / fabric in trendy silhouettes. The brand speaks of rebel, young spontaneous soul which is the symbol of joy and celebration, the fluidity of the brand make it more aspirational and attractive.

As Monica Dogra and many other stars are been very much into endorsing this brand and turning the Instagram into visual relaxation with so many mixed emotions in one bag

.Designer , Kolkata based , Sanjukta Roy , the label Sanjukta, started out in 2012 from Kolkata and has made a name for it’s self , unique sale price of this brand –“ they make one-of-a-kind clothes and never repeats. They believe in gender fluidity as per the fashion is been concerned , their faith goes on to comfort and variety shapes for various shape of people . as they say “I’m in love with the shape of you “, pinch of pockets starts from 1500 for dresses and for sarees it starts from 6,050.it comes under premium brand phases.

The multi-colored gamcha is everything a fashion lover can crave for , as millennials mostly turning the world upside down by changing their unhealthy lifestyle to sustainable valuable lifestyle , with the most polite humble fabric “Gamcha”. More above Bourgeois Bohemian clothes have been in fashion eternally if they have ever fade away , they just return more over very dramatically with modern ensembles, gamcha prints have craved a niche in the fashion map.