Carnival celebrates traditional cultures of North-East

A colourful carnival from North East comprising of fashion shows, music, cultural programmes and handicrafts has travelled to the capital city.
The two-day fiesta, "Celebrating North-East", encapsulates the essence of North East while showcasing some of the best designers as well as regional delicacies form the seven states.
Organised by North East Institute of Fashion Technology (NEIFT) along with CARE LUIT, the festival seeks to highlight the potential of seven sisters as best tourist destination across the world.
Tangkhul Naga, who has come from Manipur seeks to draw appreciation and good sales for traditional jewellery and dresses which she weaves back in her town.

Tangluk works with authentic 'loinloom weaving' technique to create ponchos, saronges and shawls.
"The clothes you see here are a legacy of my community but to make it appealing for masses I have modernised some of the traditional dresses. The jewellery which I am showcasing is made from Naga special stones, beads, high quality bones and glasses which are auspicious to us and we wear them during our traditional ceremony," Tangluk says.

The festival, which is being held at The Plaza, DLF Place, Saket here, seeks to provide an international marketing platform to the weavers, artisans as well as crafts from North East.

Indigenous wild silks-- golden Muga, white Pat and warm Eri -- have been transformed in luxury wear by Assam-based designers Jyoti and Kashmiri.
Their stall is representing 'Gamusha', one of the important traditional clothing of Assam, in a completely new avatar.
They will also be showcasing their collection at a fashion show during the festival.
Topwears and dresses made from famous 'Mekhla Chador' and sarees weaved in tusser silk are also popular.
"It is difficult for the weavers to spend days weaving a saree in original tusser silk since the sales are not that high. The final products cost too much for the buyers so we now mix silk with other fabrics to lower down the costs," says Bandana, who hails from the weavers community in Assam.

The festival, which is being supported by Ministry of Tourism, Textiles as well as MSME, is also providing an eclectic mix of talented musicians and bands from the region such as Retrosonic, Trouble Clef and Kelly Jordan.
Food stalls offering pork ribs, mouth-watering curries and duck delicacies are drawing a huge crowd.
'The Blue Caterpillar', a brain-child of two young entrepreneurs, is a collection of text based t-shirts in pop colours which have been printed in Assamese texts.
"We wanted to promote our state with a completely new idea. Text based t-shirts pull huge crowd including youngsters these days. So we thought why not print t-shirts in Assamese text. It has be a hit at least amongst students from our own state," says Nilutpol Borah, a student of Amity University.