Our nation's skilled artisans spend days, sometimes weeks and months, weaving everything from gorgeous shawls to fantastic rugs, along with saris, using techniques passed down from father to son over centuries.
This National Handloom Day, take inspiration from these celebrities who are celebrating handwoven textiles.
Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI 2026 gave us dramatic silhouettes, experimental fashion and plenty of celebrity moments.
From guns to handlooms. From forest trails to a public runway. Women who had once been associated with that conflict walked into the spotlight wearing Bastar's traditional textiles.
It's not just fabric; it's history, heritage and legacy all woven together.
'I worked with Sridevi ma'am on a Malayalam film in the early '90s, which only deepened my admiration for these incredible textiles and the culture they represent as she and I went shopping in Chennai.'
Some people collect sneakers. Some are obsessed with bags. And then there are those who can never say no to a beautiful sari. Actress Smeha Manimegalai clearly belongs to the last category.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a range of exquisite Indian handicrafts and textiles, including Kanchivaram silk, Maheshwari silk, and Toda embroidered shawls, to the top leadership of Seychelles and their spouses during his recent three-day visit to the island nation.
How to celebrate National Handloom Day on a stylish note.
Starting a social media campaign, Irani has urged people to follow suit and share pictures of themselves in handloom textiles, tagging five others.
They saluted 'the hands that weave timeless stories'.
Till 1995, about 500,000 people were engaged in the sector despite facing serious problems like low productivity, inadequate working capital, weak marketing line and competition from the mill sector. But today the number has come down drastically to less than 200,000 with more than 50 per cent of the cooperative societies closing down in the last decade.
Actor Disha Patani wore a sculpted lehenga, turning showstopper for designer Amit Aggarwal at the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week.
India has set an ambitious target of textile exports worth $100 billion by 2030, but the recent data released by the Ministry of Textiles pertaining to India's textile and apparel trade puts achievement of the goal in jeopardy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a range of culturally significant gifts during his recent five-nation tour, including a Muga silk stole for the Italian Prime Minister and Madhubani painting for the Dutch Prime Minister, showcasing India's rich artistic heritage.
To curb raw material imports from China and promote textiles, the Uttar Pradesh government is looking to set up nearly a dozen private textile parks in the state. The textile parks would be established under the UP Textile and Garmenting Policy 2022.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wore stunning Banarasi during her India visit. See how fashion became smart diplomacy.
'Women weavers are hardworking, open to learning, resilient.' 'They finish their cooking, housework, puja, then they come to weave.' 'They care about design. They care about beauty.'
India and the European Union are set to announce on January 27 the conclusion of negotiations and finalisation of a free trade agreement, which is aimed at boosting economic ties between the two regions amid disruptions in global trade due to US tariffs, an official said.
These pics will make you fall in love with handloom.
Manufacturing's share in the profit pool of companies had declined before the pandemic.
When Nitin Gadkari was president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party had announced it would set up a separate ministry for handlooms and handicraft. Instead of doing that, the BJP government has abolished the only institution that took into account the voice of the weavers.
Movie star Rakul Preet Singh was the showstopper for Archana Kochhar's Malwa Melange line.
Famous homegrown faces wear India on their sleeves.
Designer Soumitra Mondal continues to promote the cause closest to his heart on the runway -- khadi and traditional textiles. Here is a glimpse of his collection 'Frome' on Day One of the LFW.
Aishwarya walked the red carpet for the screening of the film The History of Sound.
They sealed the deal after their visit to\nthe Kashmir Handloom Corporation and placed an order for 12,000 meters of tweeds and\nother handloom products.
As India's top designers including Tarun Tahiliani, Vikram Phadnis, David Abraham, Rohit Bal, Rajesh Pratap Singh and Wendell Rodricks gather in Varanasi today to try and give a boost to the Benarasi handloom sari, in an initiative by designer turned BJP politician Shaina NC, Rashme Sehgal outlines the crisis facing the weavers.
Textile stocks have exhibited a mixed performance so far this calendar year (CY23), amidst higher domestic cotton prices and tepid global demand. Shares of Page Industries, Dollar Industries, Lux Industries, and VIP Clothing have declined up to 13 per cent so far in CY23, as against a 9 per cent jump in the S&P BSE Sensex. On the contrary, shares of Arvind, Welspun India, Raymond, and Gokaldas Exports have gained up to 51 per cent, during the same period.
Modi said the government is committed to enhancing the income level of the handloom weavers apart from putting in place a robust social cover for the weavers' families.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, while presenting the Union Budget in Parliament on Monday, announced that it is proposed to add one handloom mega cluster each in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and one powerloom mega cluster in Rajasthan.
Powerlooms and a lack of policy have pushed heritage art towards extinction, say Shreya Jai and Subhayan Chakraborty.
The initiative is spearheaded by the UK based Conran Shop, which has picked up the 14 designers, including five who specialize in textiles, to travel to Conran Shops in London, Paris, New York and Tokyo.
Backed by the China-plus-one policy, India's textile and apparel exports have seen a 53 per cent growth during the April-November period of the current fiscal year at around $26 billion. This compares to the figure of $17 billion during the same period in FY21. According to Wazir Textile Index, all major companies including Welspun, Vardhman, Trident, KPR Mills, Indo Count, RSWM, Filatex, Nahar Spg and Indorama have posted higher sales during the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the pre-pandemic year.
After Multi Fiber Arrangement is phased out, the textile industry of developing economies like India will have a reason to be optimistic about the long-term growth opportunity.
R Gandhi and K N Nehru, as ministers for handlooms-textiles and municipal administration respectively, would report to Chief Minister Stalin.
The tech community, which was getting ready to use the ChatGPT fever and raise unlimited capital for their businesses, is going to face tougher obstacles now, predicts Ajit Balakrishnan.
Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran has hailed the Budget proposals-2010-11 presented in Parliament on Friday. The minister said that these initiative for the textiles sector as a growth spurring initiatives , which dovetail with economic revival, infrastructure development, agriculture development, inclusive growth and restoring export growth.
'Could the impending new crisis, vibe coding, similarly create not a disaster like what befell Indian handlooms during the Industrial Revolution but another opportunity like what the Y2K crisis created?' asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
