UK, India fashion designers join forces to give female textile workers exposure

Fashion designers from the UK and India are set to come together to be part of a project aimed at benefiting female textile workers of the north-east of India.

The British Council and IMG Reliance signed an agreement last month to help exotic indigenous textile products of the region get a global platform through the project – ‘A Telegram from Tripura’, a senior official of the Council said.

“The project will bring UK designer Bethany Williams and Indian designer Aratrik Dev Varman together to explore new fashion systems and approaches with women textile workers of the north-east region in focus,” said director of the British Council in India, Alan Gemmell.

IMG Reliance is a joint venture between IMG Worldwide of the US and Reliance Industries.

However, it is not immediately known when the UK designer would reach India and meet Dev Varman, who hails from Tripura.

The final work, to be presented at the Lakme Fashion Week in February next year, will showcase female textile artisans and demonstrate how design innovation can promote a fairer, more inclusive fashion industry, Gemmell said.

“We want friendship between India and the northeast, in particular by bringing art and culture, and educational opportunities from our country,” he said.

The British Council has given scholarships to 500 students from India for academic exchange programme in 44 universities of the UK, the official said.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Council in India, it also awarded scholarships to 100 Indian women, to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects at premier higher education institutions in the UK, Gemell said.

“Out of these 100 women, six are from the north-east… This year we want to inspire young people across Arunachal Pradesh and the north-east region to think about the UK as a place to study…,” he added.