Despite man's quest for new designs in garments, fashion remains timeless as most of the designs adopted now are traditional forms like Patola, Ikat and Bandhani, says a fashion expert in a new book.
"In today's fast changing world of fashion, designers and manufacturers are faced with the challenge of providing new designs to suit the rapidly growing fashion consciousness in the market," says Prof Swagat Kumar Rout Ray, principal of Apparel Training & Design Centre (ATDC), Chhindwara.
Most designs even now are traditional textile designs from Kalamkari, Madhubani, Patola, Ikat and Bandhani, says Rout Ray in his book "Traditional Motifs of Indian Textiles," released recently by Union Minister Kamalnath.
Designs from stone-works, frescoes, carpets, ceramics, jewellery and folk paintings are also being used liberally in textiles, says Ray, also head of Western Region Apparel Training & Design Centre's (ATDC) SMART ToT Academy.
"In a certain way, fashion is timeless. This is the irony of fashion: always up-to-date, yet always dated. To be original in traditional design is to make the best use of the old vocabulary," Ray said.
In terms of the last few centuries of art, with their ever-higher estimate of the value of originality, this is a peculiar idea about invention, he says in the book.
The export market offers a big opportunity for design development to budding designers in an era of globalisation.
