Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Contact Us

UPPADA SAREES Pvt. Ltd

B-63, 1st Floor,
Durgabai Deshmukh Colony,
Shivam Cross Road,
Hyderabad - 500 007.

Tel : 040- 27425666
Mobile : 9440051735

Email: sarode1@gmail.com,
Website: www.uppada.com

Director: Ghanshyan Sarode, Textile Designer

Paithani Sarees

Royal charm & Woven dreams, unparalleled design, motif and craftsmanship add to the legacy of Paithani Sarees

In recent years Paithanis' soaring popularity has led people to back track to its root learn about the creation process of the Paithani sarees .The weaving technique is either it is called Tapestry and also it is called Brocade which is age old weaving technique. Yet after so much research and writings, people still get lured into the tale of Paithani sarees weaving history, like they get lured into an old folktale, over and over again.
Paithani weaving were amongst most prized contribution to the rich textile heritage of India. The Victoria and Albert Museum of London have a fine collection of Paithanies, also these sarees can be seen in Salarjung musium in Hyderabad. The saris with their distinct decorative patterns seem to hold an especially high status in the society. Being the work of two to three people takes months of time, the price for a Brocade Paithani saree lies well above the ordinary weaves of the saree, and one of the costliest sarees.
Paithani- bright colours and rich tradition in fine silk come to one’s mind. Though Paithani symbolizes traditions that transcend time and fashion cycles, these sarees continue to be a part of the contemporary women’s collection of saris, a reflection of their discerning and refined taste.
Paithani is the original magnificence of an ancient textile craft that personified the glory of princely India. Paithani sarees reflects the valuable legacy that was passed from generation to generation and gives the elegance of textile and fabric that lent the splendor to the royal durbar of erstwhile India.
A Paithani sari in soft silk catches the eye of a woman. The designs themselves are recreated from the antique paintings of Ajanta, the royal brocades of the Nawabs of Bengal, Mughal architecture.
The NIZAM NAVAB of Hyderabad was also attracted to the Paithanis .His daughter-in-law, Niloufer, is believed to have introduced new motifs to the border and pallav (outer end of the sari) designs.

Among the most gorgeous of Indian Paithani sarees, of the most celebrated textile—the gold embroidered Paithani saris, the royal charm, with its wonderful designs.

Collection:

The collection offers a feast of dazzling colors and intricate designs that blossomed from her efforts to revive the original magnificence of an ancient textile craft that personified the glory of princely India. The collections of intricate and rare designs are a rare opportunity for all sari lovers to a see a complete Paithani collection.

Sensing the loss of this magnificent textile and national heritage, we have started this endeavor of reviving the art of original Paithani creations and restored to its formal glory.

Unique Feature:
Each Paithani sari is a unique work of art, depending on the intricacy of design and pattern, buying a Paithan saree is like an investment in a work of art albeit with practical use.
The process of "embroidering" these patterns is unique and involves all the four requisites of excellence; much time, patience, skill and mostly the wall of silk yarn is laid on the loom with the motif, drawn to actual size, placed.

History:
It is famous in history; Greek historical records describe it as a great centre of trade (300-200 BC). It is mentioned in the fourteenth Edict of Asoka and was the capital of eminent Andhra King in the first century A.D. During the first two decades the last century the weavers worked with threads of pure gold and silver, drawing their inspiration for color and design solely from the frescoes of Ajanta practiced exclusively by a certain section of the people of paithan for the past 600 years.
Paithani is an art of traditional handloom textile creation in finest mulberry silk, gold and silver zari, arresting colours and intricate designs and motifs that one admires in museum as proud relics of bygone era.

The art is more than 2000 years old, developed in the then splendid city of Pratishthan ruled by the legendary Satavahanas ruler Shalivahana (See Shalivahana era) now Paithan by the Godavari in Marathwada, some 50 km from Aurangabad). In the far past it had been an international trade centre for silk and zari. Paithan was the capital of the Satavahanas dynasty (200 B.C.) and used to export cotton and silks to the great Roman Empire. During the 17th century, Aurangzeb patronized the weavers and the designs in this era came to be known as "Aurangzebi". Yeola is another place where Paithani is still alive, although few families practice the art now. It is said that the Peshwas encouraged this fascinating art of Paithani and patronized the production in Yeola, making Yeola as important as Paithan. This technique of tapestry is one of the most ancient methods of creating Paithani with weaving in a multiple weft threads of different colours. It is likely that this technique was practiced all over the Deccan as weavers with mastery over the skill have been in Garwal, Hyderabad as well as Paithan and Yeola. The Peshwas in the 18th century had a special love for Paithani textiles and it is believed that Madhavrao Peshwa even asked for the supply of asavali dupattas in red, green, saffron, pomegranate and pink colours. Paithani weave was at the peak of its popularity during the reign of the Peshwas.

It is believed that the Nizam of Hyderabad was also attracted to the Paithanis and made several trips to the small town of Paithan. His daughter-in-law, Niloufer, is believed to have introduced new motifs to the border and pallu (outer end of the sari) designs. Literature, both classical and folk, testifies to the existence of Paithani silk even before the Mughal age, though the last munificent patrons were the Peshwa rulers. The men wore the stole over their dhoti and kurta, while their women were resplendent in Paithani saris at weddings, festivals and religious ceremonies. As with most of the traditional arts and crafts of India, Paithani too suffered a decline under the British Raj. Once there were over 500 families practicing this hereditary art which required high technical skill and aesthetic sense, and tremendous discipline to do the slow, tedious work. Their migrations began with Muslim aggressions. The khatri community of weavers got scattered in search of work and settled down to whatever they found.

Description:

This is a hand woven silk saree with a rich, ornamental Jari (gold thread) pallow and border. On a Jari warp thread the weft is interlocked with different colours using tiny cloth pins or 'tillies'. The motifs are traditional vines and flowers, shapes of fruit and stylized forms of birds and the saree is often known by the motif that dominates its border or pallow. The perennial beauty and painstaking workmanship of the Paithani Saree takes at least a month and a half for creating the simplest Paithani and up to nine months to make the more richly ornamented elaborate one. Because of their enduring quality and beauty Paithani sarees are handed down as an heirloom from mother to daughter for several generations. Paithani sarees are woven in thick silk and the weaving is similar to Tapestry Weaving in plain weave. The specialty is that the design being woven is done without the assistance of a mechanical contrivance like the jacquard or jala on a frame loom. It uses multiple "Tillis" or spindles to weave in the design.

Weaving Technique of Paithani Saree:
It is a revival of hundreds of years tradition in weaving and the technique is unique work of art, it is the tapestry weave, in the pallu and the border, the gold was woven as a solid tissue background and woven patterns were inlaid in brilliant colored silk threads using the double interlock technique that is the filling threads (picks) do not move directly from one end to the other breadth-wise, but they return being interlaced with the threads of different colors. This procedure of returning of thread has no Indian technical name but still it is called brocade weaving and also it is called tapestry weave. The above technique is nowhere in world used and there is no Indian name of it

Ghanshyam Sarode’s work in handloom is interesting, but for the approaching into what goes behind the tempt of the long-established hand-weaving in India. When one buys these sarees, she is buying a feeling in owning such an astonishing design.

The exploration in the field of Handlooms has made few accepted techniques emerge from an exasperatingly lengthy, dense &complex with time intense process.

Ghanshyam Sarode

Ghanshyam Sarode is a textile designer with a difference and only designers who have chosen to work with handloom textiles. He creates contemporary fashion using intricate weaves, and allows his creations to be sold by boutiques with their tag. He is most established designer in India in terms of infrastructure and distribution; He holds the status of a revivalist in the Indian ethnic fashion industry. His designed sarees are well known to the personalities in India and abroad. He had four extremely successful exhibitions in USA. Sarode traveled all over the world on several occasions like textile fairs mainly to UK, Europe, Korea, Hong Kong, Dubai and East Asian countries.

Inspiring Fashion enthusiasts over a period of two decades; he has woven his way through an enriching experience of textiles and varied surface treatments. He travels extensively in his search for the skilled weavers and having worked with the artisans and weavers all over the country, he has unmatched knowledge of the traditional craft forms in weaving patterns. His stand apart quality lies in modifying these traditional crafts for the modern consumer yet preserving the richness of the craft and tradition.

His aesthetics lie in treating silhouettes with subtle fabrics, passionate colors and the richness created with zari.His creations include Pure Jari Uppada sarees,brocaded Paithani sarees, cotton Jamdani sarees ,finest kalamkaris , natural dyed fabrics and dupttas and exclusive Khadis sarees. Since 2003 Mrs.Gandhi using the white khadi sarees with interlock border with intricate Jamdani buties. These khadis are marketed by Govt. emporia -Central Cottages Industries, Janpath, New Delhi.

During the year 1988 he re-introduced an age old weaving technique called jamdani in a tiny village named Uppada in Andhra Pradesh and thus a new brand has been emerged as "Uppada Sarees" which took almost a decade of its soaring popularity. Today, his masterpieces are sold upto $10,000.

In traditional jamdani weaving, no mechanical aids had been used to create the pattern. Reproducing a jamdani proved exceptionally difficult because of the great distance of time that separated the weavers from the skill and intricacy of the purely hand-manipulated process. In the end, they took recourse to the sophisticated naqsha-jala mechanism used in for patterning silk. The density of the brocading is such that even with the assistance of this mechanical device. The warp and weft of this sari were vat-dyed in a deep blue that the closely approximated the natural indigo of the historic examples. The gold and silver zaris used for the jamdani patterns are distributed, as in the historic pieces, with great discrimination.
He is manufacturinging the most intricate weaves.