Experience the fashion of India Friday at the Hunar Revolution fashion show at the W. Duke Kimbrell Atrium, Centennial Textiles Complex as part of a partnership between the College of Textiles and the Association for India’s Development.

According to Erin Roberts, a junior studying textile technology management and president of the Greater Good Textile Group, the show will feature terracotta jewelry, flowing blouses, skirts, dresses and scarves in a range of colorful prints and patterns made by underprivileged women in Jaipur, India. 

The show will be divided into four sections or “runs,” with dance and musical performances interlaced between them, as well as traditional Indian cuisine, Roberts said. Anna Troupe, a student who graduated from the university last year with a master’s studying textiles, came up with some of the designs for the show and traveled to Jaipur, India in July to work with the women there.

“The first set is going to be Anna’s clothes, and we’re going to tell her story, so that’s going to be the tunic and the few designs that she did and taught to the women in Jaipur,” Roberts said. “And then we are going to be doing pants and blouses, and we got to style those, and the different types of jewelry, and sort of look at their traditional clothing and style it in a Western demographic that is sort of what we would wear so we can sell it to students here.”

The third part of the show will consist of designs made by students of Andre West, a textile and apparel technology and management assistant professor, using fabrics sent in from Hunar, according to Roberts. Scarves and skirts will finish the show.

Attendees may purchase pieces from the show after it concludes, according to Roberts. All proceeds will benefit Hunar and the women who made them, according to Tushar Ghosh, a textile engineering chemistry and science professor.

Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and the show will run from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. To purchase tickets, visit: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/953220.

The women behind the show’s looks 

The women who handmade the clothes that will be modeled at the Hunar Revolution fashion show Friday have tough lives back at home in India, according to Srinivas Naga Chadaram, a member of the Association for India’s Development board of directors. Here are a few of their stories:

Sangeeta 

Sangeeta had a rough marriage because of domestic inequality. After her husband left her and her 6-year-old son, she moved back in with her parents. She travels about 15 kilometers by bus to get to the training center.

“For people traveling that distance in India is quite an ordeal,” Chadaram said. “It takes about four hours to get there and back to this training center, but she has been doing it every day for six days a week just to participate in this program. She’s learning skills like tailoring, and they are also training her to become a marketing person because she’s good at interacting with people.” 

Sarfarz Banu

A widow early in life, Banu’s in-laws would not allow her to work because that meant leaving the house. Before she started working with Hunar, she would stich all day in a “dingy room” at home on a hand machine. So she could leave the house, Hunar set up a training center at her brother’s house where she now runs the center.

“She is a fast learner,” Chadaram said. “She’s really empowered and become one of the leaders of the group.”

Saira Khatoon

Khatoon lives with a husband who does not treat her well, along with her three children. She works the maximum number of hours allowed with Hunar because her husband does not work and takes all of her earnings for alcohol, among other things.

Since working with Hunar she has seen improvement in her technical skills and can now stitch as well as embroider.

“She became an independent woman with the group’s support, and that was not possible in the beginning for her,” Chadaram said.