Dastkar Nature Bazaar

I've been too much away and too busy travelling this past month. Diwali in the desert was amazing and now that I'm packing and getting ready to leave Delhi I thought I'd just share a few pictures from the previous Nature Bazaar held by Dastkar.

Market stalls - you can see Malkha from where I got fabrics from at a previous market. I can't wait to receive the final piece from my tailor tomorrow.

Amazing camel leather bags with Gujarati emboridery.

  

The fair provides the biggest choice of fair trade, naturally dyed, hand spun scarves and bags that I've ever seen.

This is a detail shot of a sari that I simply had to return for when Diwali parties came closer. The peacocks are painted by hand in a technique called kalamkari.

At a friend's Diwali party with SartorialDiary

If you want to visit the Dastkar market in Delhi there is supposedly a chance again this December. Keep yourself posted on their facebook-page where people will start asking for the dates long before they are published. The location is walkable from Chhatarpur station and the food is great too.


UPDATE: the winter bazaar in the theme of Winter Weaves will be running from 20th to 25th December.

Navratri Festivities in Gujarat

Last week I had one of my most exhilarating experiences ever. I went to Ahmedabad in Gujarat for Navratri, a festival celebrating that the goddess Durga fought a demon for 9 days and in the end succeeded because of her feminine strengths, I think. There's a wiki page here, but the most important thing is the Garba. The Garba ground is a massive circle where people dance the traditional steps back-and-forth-round-and-clap-back-and-forth-clap-step-back-step-forth.

My couchsurfing hosts told me that many of the women save up to this festival all year, spend months sewing their costumes, often with different outfits for each day. But not only the women dress up, the men are dressed in equal grandeur and have trained just as much. The most children in Gujarat are born 9 months after Navratri. The splendid dress and mesmerizing dancing creates an atmosphere out of the ordinary in an otherwise alcohol-free state.

So many of the women's outfits were breathtaking. And when you realise that all the colours are embroidered you feel like stopping them all from dancing so wildly and taking them all to a museum, but of course that would be a horrible idea. I was so inspired and in love with it all. We weren't allowed to bring in cameras, but fortunately nobody minded having their picture taken when I asked.

The girl in the first picture was an amazing 10-yearold girl who practically kidnapped me away from the people I went with. She showed me the steps and her friends laughed with me so hard at my clumsiness. I think several hours went by in an instant until her elder sisters joined. At one point we found a group of more than 20 men doing what can best be described as sit-up-dancing. They were sitting in a circle on the floor shaking their hands over their heads as they moved their upper bodies back and forth. We joined them and got a great work-out.

The event was live-streamed every day. If you want to see me catching a breath, I'm standing behind some dancing Europeans around 1h 34m into the clip above. In retrospect these videos are actually quite trippy, and I suggest you put them on to celebrate an epic Halloween party. Around 30min into the clip below we start chanting and praying. It was quite a magical moment as all the lights went off and we were left with the candles that we held in our hands.

After the days in Ahmedabad Indian Rails decided to mess a little with my tickets, and instead of going further into the countryside I went to Baroda. I spent my time there with a great couchsurfer who literally lives and works at night and sleeps in the day. He works with internet marketing, but is considering to become a tourist guide in the daytime. With his friends we went for Navratri celebration at the Fine Arts campus, Jalebis (traditional sweets eaten on the last day of Navratri), then a rooftop party. When all that was over he showed me Old Baroda and the vegetable market as the hustle and bustle of the city started just before sunrise.

The Fine Art students had taken clues from recent trends into their dresses that were more simplistic and there were no microphones. Just drums and the shrieks of their joy.

Sweet Jalebis are being cooked in pure ghee (clarified butter)

The vegetable market as it opens up to the vegetable wallahs who will sell these further in local markets.

Nomad Clothing

As part of today's blogathon I've been asked to write a little about Nomads Clothing. I feel in my heart and mind the same passion that so many other fantastic people do when they have visited India for the first time. Not uncommonly will this love express itself through an initiative to do good. This is of course what made Vicky and Duncan set up Nomads Clothing.

And what better choice than to trade rather than aid in garments? The clothing trade is one of India's largest exports and employers, and the variety of techniques and crafts in textiles is unimaginable.

Nomads Clothing use a lot of blockprinting which originates from Rajasthan (check my musings from my recent trip here). Especially the autumnal colours of this season evoke a stylish bohemian look, and although most of the collection consists of cosy daywear, if you style it right you can wear this comfortable collection throughout the day.

My 3 favourite picks from the collection

Handloom handbag, embellished hem trousers and blockprinted tulip skirt.

1. The Handloom Handbag is made from the very textile that Gandhi advocated would bring India independence. Craftsmen will use no electricity as they weave together around 1-1.2 metres of fabric per day, it takes patience and skill - two resources that only demand will help this craft survive.

2. With Nomads Clothing being experts in harem pants and printed leggings I knew there was going to be a perfect piece to feature. These Harem Trousers are sleek yet comfortably roomy and soft, perfect for those days when don't only want to look good, but also feel good. The embroidery at the hem brings this style exactly that extra pinch needed to make you able to wear this into the nights. Check out more about hoe Nomads Clothing helps keeping embroidery crafts alive on their website here.

3. The Short Skirt with a nicely autumn shaded blockprint with tree motives. With the super practical pockets you will never wander around wondering where to put your phone. More interestingly the technique of blockprinting is one of India's gems. Wooden blocks are cut out and coordinated according to the number of colours needed. Most costly are the 10-coloured fabrics that take weeks and weeks to produce. Each colour is printed individually and the printers have minute attention to detail as they press the block down with millimetre preciseness. When printing this style, I'm sure the printer enjoyed a few days of relaxed random pressing. I hope for any wearer of this skirt to think of him and smile as they look down at their gorgeous randomly printed trees.

Please follow the blogathon by clicking the image below and enter the give-away on Twitter just by retweeting any tweet with the hashtag #ethicalfashionblogathon (details here).

The Perks of being a Wallflower

While in Chandigarh last week my friend Vikram decided to use the opportunity to rummage around his cousin's closet and her massive collection of accessories. He had been dying to style me in what sounded to me as hooker heels and bum-showing skirts, but he ended up using a lot of my own clothes in the end. The pictures are finally edited, and all my awkward poses deleted. Vikram has even written a spot-on description of me. It's all on his blog Sartorial Diary.