Khadi becomes a style statement

Over the years the poor man's cloth popularised by Mahatama Gandhi during the freedom struggle has become a style statement with top Hollywood actors.

Khadi is now gaining popularity with the country's youth as jeans made in Khadi hit markets.

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Over the years the poor man's cloth popularised by Mahatama Gandhi during the freedom struggle has become a style statement with top Hollywood actors including Richard Gere and Kate Winslet wearing it to film premieres and award ceremonies.

Indian designers as well have brought out entire range of apparel made in the cool, somber looking fabric, suited almost perfectly to Asia's humid and often extremely hot climate but this is the first time experiments have been made with jeans.

K. Mohan Rao, director of the Khadi Village Industries in southern Andhra Pradesh state, said though machines have long overtaken the weaver's profile, the basic principle for manufacture of denim, the original fabric for jeans, and Khadi is the same and allows weavers to do a range of experimentation and innovations.

"They (weavers) have started manufacturing this jeans. The Khadi defines hand woven and hand spun, so even jeans cloth also is made by hand spinning, they are getting the yarn by hand weaving only," Rao said at the launch of the new range in capital Hyderabad.

A million weavers produce nearly 70 million metres of Khadi a year but it accounts for less than one percent of India's total cotton textile production.