India: Tuni - For the weavers, by the weavers

Rendezvous

India: Tuni - For the weavers, by the weavers

Swati Unakar always had a dream of creating a contemporary idiom in hand woven fabrics. Her vision was always clear, as she wanted to work with the weavers at the basic level and craft their work with an edge. Her endeavor Tuni celebrates weaving and handcrafted textiles. In an interview with Anurima Das, Swati pours her heart out on all things difficult and nice. In her own words…

Tell us something about the beginning of Tuni.

Over the past couple of decades I have worked with many artisans all over India. Some of my most memorable experiences have been working with weavers in Kutch, Gujarat; Phulia, Bengal and Koraput, Orissa. I really admire some of the weavers who are fighting all odds to continue their craft. Weavers like Shyamjibhai of Bhujoodi, Kapil from Koraput really inspire me.Most weavers typically are afraid to move out of their comfort zone to experiment. This is because the process of weaving is slow and time consuming. Therefore I felt that in order to experiment I needed to set up a studio, with looms and two traditional weavers who are full time employees. Also there are very few Indian designers who work with weaves and weavers to create truly contemporary fabrics. So I felt there was untapped potential here.

Why the name Tuni? Describe the endeavor briefly.

Tuni means cloth in Tamil and Malayalam. I have always been inspired by a Japanese company called NUNO, which incidentally means cloth in Japanese, that is how the name Tuni. Also I felt it was short, had a lovely ring to it and sounded contemporary despite being a colloquial term. The endeavor is to work with traditional and local materials and techniques in combination with newer materials on the handloom to create contemporary fabrics and textures. Here again the inspiration is NUNO and weavers/designers like Junichi Arai and Reiko Sudo.

Of course, there are a lot of Indian designers that inspire me as well, Abraham and Thakore, Neeru Kumar, Rita Kapur Chisti, Ritu Kumar and my greatest inspiration is Gandhiji for his vision of rural India. Over the years I have been visiting the traditional silk sari weavers in Yelahanka old town in Bangalore where I live and found that with each passing year the number of handlooms are dwindling. The idea is that the studio would be an experimental space, which will eventually help sustain the hand weavers to continue their craft. At the moment due to small batch production, we produce in-house.

Tuni has received a lot of appreciation. Did you ever imagine such success?

No not really. But I feel true success will come when I am able to support a larger weaving community to achieve a sustained livelihood.

You are reinventing weaves, what were the challenges that you have faced till now?

Well many challenges, since I work with only the most basic loom. One is to use the flexibility of the handloom to create fabrics that cannot be easily replicated by a powerloom. Second challenge is to use hand intensive techniques but to create a product that is cost effective, specifically because the complexity of weaving as an activity is not understood by the layperson or the customer. Of course marketing is always a challenge to art and design professionals.

What inspired you to start this initiative?

I have always been extremely passionate about weaving; I felt more textile designers had to support the rich heritage and tradition of weaving in our country by giving it a new avatar. Most designers working with rural artisans only tweak the colors or the pattern a little bit. My endeavor was to create new textures and structures in weaves - having a conversation between the traditional and the contemporary.

From your personal experiences and associations, tell us about the weaver situation in India?

That is a loaded question! The weavers' situation has been precarious for years now. If you recall there were a lot of weaver suicides in Andhra Pradesh in the 1980s as their market, which was primarily in Africa just reduced and then completely disappeared. In the past few years the Banaras weavers' situation has been much discussed. All over India weavers live in poverty. The younger generations do not want to take up the profession. Numbers of handloom weavers are dwindling. A lot of NGOs and individuals are doing amazing work with some of the weavers. In places such as Kutch and Bengal where there have been sustained inputs by various agencies such as government, NGOs as well as individuals the situation is much better. Karnataka has suffered as there has been very little done for the weavers here. A lot of the traditions are lost. The new definition of handloom proposed by the Ministry of Textiles is really unfair. If it was implemented it would be the death knell of handlooms. Luckily, better sense prevailed, and the definition has been left unchanged.

Which part of India is the maximum taker for Tuni?

I have started marketing in India only since mid 2013 so that is a difficult question to answer. I still have to tap a lot of the urban markets such as Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, which I have not done as yet.

Social media has seen a firm presence of Tuni, so any logistics issue that you have faced up till now?

Not really. I just need to become savvy about using social media more effectively. I have faced challenges and logistics issues with my website though.

Tell us about the help or appreciation you have received from the government of India.

Oh we haven't received any help or appreciation from the government. Being a woman entrepreneur there are many schemes, but I do wish there would be simpler ways to access funding. My big challenge is to have a sustained working capital fund. I need to invest a lot of money in materials, experimentation and stock.

So what next? Are you planning to export your products as well or maybe seek for a product variety in future?

I have been exporting since December 2011 to The Guggenheim Museum store in New York and The Joss Graham Gallery in London. I have started selling in India only recently. The Indian retail market seems to be quiet a challenge. Yes I am definitely working on product variety. Apart from the stoles and saris that we weave we have also done an experimental project. We worked with leather waste from garment industries in South India to weave and create home and personal accessories. These are still to be launched in the market.