SRINAGAR: A team of Faculty and students of School of Fashion Technology, Pune today interacted with the Director Handicrafts & Handloom Kashmir, Mahmood Ahmad Shah.
The students and faculty are presently on tour to Kashmir to explore the possibilities of interacting and engaging with the craftsmen particularly in the Kani Shawl, Sozni and Paper Machie crafts. The objective of the tour is to customize the fabric based designs and to use them for their upcoming fashion show scheduled in the month of March at Pune.
This intervention is first of its kind between the School of Technology, Pune and Department of Handicrafts & Handloom Kashmir. This engagement shall be followed by a study tour of more than 50 students from the institute in the month of February, 2023 who will be exclusively on craft tour to the valley. The department is expecting that due to this engagement the design evolution will improve and the handicrafts will be showcased at the fashion shows which will give more opportunities to the artisans to market their products.
Today’s meeting is significant after Srinagar being recognized as the UNESCO’s Creative City in the field of Craft and Folk Art in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) and launch of craft Safaris which have gained a lot of attraction from people not only within the country but abroad also. The Department is working on conducting more craft tours in the coming days.
Reema Chaugle, a faculty member from the institute expressed her satisfaction about the meeting and said “We are happy to hear the positive feedback from the department of Handicrafts & Handloom Kashmir and the discussions are incredibly relevant in today’s emerging talent.”
The team is scheduled to visit the School of Designs, Srinagar and craft concentrated clusters of the valley on their three-day visit to the valley.