Agra Youth Festival and Talent Hunt culminated with two days of events, at the I Love Agra selfie point, on the outskirts of the city, on Sunday. The event was jointly organised by the World Designing Forum and Agra Development Authority.
On Saturday night, the city’s selfie point came to life with models walking the ramp to showcase attire especially made by weavers representing traditional designs from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh and handlooms from these states were put on show.
The idea was to highlight the hard work done by weavers in making handloom products, from converting thread to cloth, colouring, painting, etc, all by hand.
About 50 models who sashayed down the ramp, exhibited the designs of fashion designers from different parts of the country.
The fashion show had three rounds: Ethnic, Western and Indo-Western with the inclusion of handloom-based bridal dresses, gowns, salwar kurtas. An exhibition was also organised to showcase the talent of fashion designers gathered in Agra for the grand closing function of Youth Festival and Talent Hunt.
The penultimate day’s events on Saturday were inaugurated by Puran Dawar, president, Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Export Council, in the presence of former MLA Ramsakal Gujjar, leading women’s activist and businesswoman, Dr Ranjana Bansal, Sabyasachi, Nehal Chudasama, actor Shanthi Priya besides others.
{{/usCountry}}The penultimate day’s events on Saturday were inaugurated by Puran Dawar, president, Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Export Council, in the presence of former MLA Ramsakal Gujjar, leading women’s activist and businesswoman, Dr Ranjana Bansal, Sabyasachi, Nehal Chudasama, actor Shanthi Priya besides others.
{{/usCountry}}“I am happy to be a part of this event organised by the World Designing Forum exhibiting Indian woven handloom,” said actor Shanthi Priya.
“We need to keep alive our traditional arts and for this we need to promote weavers. This event is to celebrate and share the traditional art and culture of the nation with the youth through such festivals,” said Ankush Anami, CEO, World Designing Forum.
The galaxy of talent included Hima Bindu, an engineer by profession, but a known name in the Kalamkari (an art form of Andhra Pradesh) world too.
“Kalamkari on a single saree takes three to four months and is done by colours prepared from leaves, fruits, parts of tree and water,” said Bindu while Gayatri Varshi from Mumbai highlighted purses, belts and dresses made from biodegradable leather manufactured by growing bacteria over algae.