India: Pure silk is being replaced by manmade fabrics
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admin
PublishDate:
2007-06-25 13:54:00
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264
Kolkata: Ready to wear apparel made of artificial fabrics that are so easy to maintain and which lasts for a long time, is easy to wash and requires no ironing and made of polyester has become common. Nobody is worried about health aspect and comfort level.
Pure silk may be hard to find because India's silk is being eaten into by manmade fabrics. Soon, mill-made pure cotton fabric may be out of our reach because they have a huge export market and rough, handloom cotton with ethnic prints have carefully hogged the market.
The niche clientele of big-time designers opts for the cotton, mulmul, silk-based chiffon and georgette. Silk stretches are expensive. So, to cut costs, an ambitious designer would use synthetic net or synthetic lycra wrapped in cotton.
Many commercial designers of man-made fabrics minimise consumption of pure cotton and silk fabrics by continuously churning out blends.
The rough handloom is being showcased by way of celebrity preferences as they are the trend-setters.
Even bed linen and table linen have become rough and tough with lovely colours and weaves that are irresistible. Handloom requires dry cleaning to prevent vegetable dye from bleeding.
The bulk production of synthetic fibre is done in China. These are produced in computerised machines and at a time 10,000 to 20,000 metres of fabric is produced. A long unbroken fibre, giving a smooth finish comes out.
South India抯 silk looms are being killed as China is weaving South Indian silks. All sorts of silks with synthetic blends are available that are obviously cheaper and even the middle-class will in future find it tougher to wear the real thing very soon. Polyester is a strong fibre and probably the most dangerous, though it is resistant to crease and stays in shape.
Source:Industry Website