खेस ✥ Khesh blue & white tunic ✥ l

Khesh weaving is a tradition which has been practiced for a couple of years now. The weaving technique essentially involves tearing old sarees into thin strips - the warp has the new thread and the weft uses the thin strips of sarees. The weavers collect cotton sarees and it is the women who tear the sari into long strips. It is up to the weaver to match the warp with the weft to create newer innovative designs. The beauty of a Khesh fabric that the color of the recycled weft fabric keeps changing, sometimes even within a single meter of fabric and that precisely is the uniqueness of this fabric.

The garment very aptly narrates the sustainability story of brand Prathaa and captures the tradition of Khesh weaving. We work with weavers in and around Bolpur who have narrated the story of how this technique was developed at the "Shilpa Sadan" in the early 1920s. Shilpa Sadan is avocational training center that Rabindranath Tagore had set up in Sriniketan, adjacent to Santiniketan which was where his academic institute, Visva Bharatiwas set up.

Team Prathaa has been working with the cluster for the last2 years and the designing, color combinations, etc. are directly discussed, planned and executed along with the weavers. The raw materials created along with the weavers come directly from the loom from which designs are handcrafted. Comfort, sustainability, and style are the uniqueness of this weave and Prathaa have handcrafted them into varied silhouettes which are extremely popular among their patrons ...