Sargatex 2024, a one-stop destination for sustainable and traditional fashion

Discover a wide range of traditional handloom products from across India at 'Sargatex 2004', the ultimate sustainable fashion destination.

Imagine anything in handloom and all the traditional styles in weaving and embroidery from various parts of India and find them under one roof. That is ‘Sargatex 2004’, also known as ‘Hathkargha Mela’ which began at Sargaalaya Arts and Crafts Village at Iringal near Vadakara recently.

Organised by the Development Commissioner of Handlooms and the National Design Centre under the Ministry of Textiles, the handloom expo is a one-stop destination for sustainable and traditional fashion.

A salient feature of the expo is that it features only those products that bear the handloom mark. Onam shoppers can find a number of stalls by local weavers featuring traditional Kerala sarees, set mundu, men’s dhotis, shirts, and other handloom products such as bedsheets. Balaramapuram, Koothampulli and Kannur weavers have separate stalls.

For those who wish for something different for Onam, Chanderi, Bhagalpuri, Maheshwari, Chettinmad, Venkatagiri, Mangalgiri, Jamdani, Kotadora, and many more styles are on the platter. Traditional prints such as Ikkat, Kalamkari, Ajrakh, Daboo, Bandani, and Batik, traditional embroidery styles such as Chikankari, Phulkari, and Kashmiri Kashida are also available.

The variety in Khadi handloom shirts and kurtas from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana could be the greatest attraction for men. A handloom theme pavilion by the Indian Institute of Handloom Technology, Kannur, and a display of the India Book of Record winning entry of ‘the biggest handloom skirt in the world’ by Kozhikode-based fashion designer Shemina Sasikumar are some of the major attractions.

Weavers’ Service Centre deputy director S.T. Subrahmanian inaugurated the expo on September 1. The expo features 78 stalls of weavers from 17 States. It will conclude on September 14.