Kotpad Project
The negative impacts of colonialism and globalisation on India’s cultural textile sector have been well-documented (Jena, 2019, Bannerjee and Mazzarella, 2022). Western design cultures continue to propagate specific concepts of modernity, globally, at the expense of local, non-western and sustainable traditions which have been described as “sacrifice zones” in the expansion of the global fashion industry (Niessen, 2020: 859, Escobar, 2018, Cheang et al, 2021). In addition to the large number of international students that enrol in design schools in the UK and Europe each year (HESA 21/22, Eurostat 2023), one of the enablers of neocolonialism has been the international expansion of many western design schools. Is there, now, a responsibility for these schools to help to preserve and promote the cultural crafts and clothing systems that the global fashion industry has all but erased? Are there, in fact, some particular advantages that these schools might bring to supporting endangered traditions?
Lalita washing yarn before dyeing, Kotpad 2023. Photo by Tanvi Vora
This one-year collaborative project, between team members at Istituto Marangoni Mumbai, Istituto Marangoni London, Hyderabad-based Creative Bee and the dyeing and weaving artisans of Kotpad will attempt to preserve and promote an endangered textile knowledge system. Kotpad is a predominantly tribal village in a remote region of Odisha, India, close to the border with Chattisgarh. IMM and IML were invited into the collaboration by Creative Bee, who have worked with the Kotpad artisans for many years and two research visits have taken place. The Kotpad artisans face multiple challenges in continuing their ancient and distinctive craft: the women produce a beautiful, natural, dark red dye from the roots of the aal tree; the men weave complex and symbolic patterns and motifs, using the historic practice of pit-loom weaving.
There are now only a small number of people left with the knowledge and skill to continue this textile practice. IML and IM Mumbai are documenting the histories, value chain, materials, techniques, processes and products created by the Kotapd artisans, producing a documentary and a coffee table book, as well as supporting them with product development for the sustainable luxury market, through student projects and tutor engagement. From a socio-cultural research perspective, the project provides an important lens through which to examine the complex issues that are effectively strangling this indigenous textile culture and will try to develop a good practice model for supportive intervention.
The project advocates for the importance of embedding localisation in learning and teaching practices – and by privileging local traditions and skills over dominant fashion mores – international design schools may decolonise design teaching and support cultural resilience, while developing curricula and activities that offer multiple benefits to students, faculty and the wider community. If collaboration is formed with a community that has suffered as a result of colonialism and globalisation - led by their voices rather than imposed in an unequal power dynamic - there may be opportunity to redress (in part) violence committed by the global fashion system.
References:
Banerjee , A. and Mazzarella, F. (2022). ‘Designing Innovative Craft Enterprises in India: A Framework for Change Makers’, in She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, Volume 8, Issue 2, Summer 2022, pp 192-216, found at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405872622000193?via%3Dihub [accessed 22/11/23].
Cheang, S., De Greef, E. and Takagi, Y. (2021). Rethinking Fashion Globalization. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Durham, North Carolina, US: Duke University Press
Eurostat. (2023). Mobile students from abroad enrolled by education level, sex and country of origin. Found at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from. [accessed on 01/12/23].
HESA.(21/22). Where Do HE Students Come From? Found at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from. [accessed 01/12/23]
Jena, B.B. (2019). ‘Revival Of Sustainable Community Business: A Case Study Of Kotpad Village’, in 2019 IACB, ICE, ICTE, & ISEC Proceedings, found at https://www.cluteinstitute.com/conference-proceedings/NY19Proceedings.pdf [accessed 22/11/23] pp179-1-179-11.
Niessen, S. (2020). ‘Fashion, its Sacrifice Zone, and Sustainability’, Fashion Theory, 24:6, 859-877, DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2020.1800984
Short clip of docufilm about Kotpad dyeing and weaving, filmed by Sushant Gawad and Pranav Dhage, oiceover by Mevin Burden