Kolkata :
Holi is around the corner and the eastern state of Bengal is also gearing up for the beautiful festival of colours.
It’s the time of the year when a new enthusiasm takes over our mind with a peak of different colours, Gulal, Bhaang and music. With new innovation every day, people are experimenting with colours and giving it a new definition to the festival of colours.
In the same direction, a Kolkata-based designer has created her own brand and has established herself in a different manner. Young designer Namrata Manot is creating headlines in the Indian fashion horizon with her unique and environment-friendly collection.
Organic and natural dyed fabrics got her into designing for other people. Maonot’s USP is that she uses herbal colours to print her clothes.
She works with printing techniques like tie and dye, batik, and block in everything she designs with herbal colours. These colours have been extracted from different herbs which are renowned for their medical values and are a gift of nature.
Tt was a common practice in ancient India, which was historically done by hand, although on a small but useful scale.
The owner of Kolkata-based brand BIOME explained that ingredients like Haritaki, turmeric, indigo, madder, pomegranate, and onion are the famous herbs which are being used to make herbal colours.
“I believe that environment is ours and if it is degraded in the process of embracing fashion, we need to see if there are other options,” Manot said.
“Some people, in fact, told me that doing this work would be like going to the moon, Designers even refused to use these fabrics because it would increase their cost of production, but I took this challenge,” Manot added.
Namrata Manot further said, “Today, I see more aware customers than when I started. People have loved my designs, and they are in love with the comfort. Today my work is growing the good mouth of words.”
In another instance, a 70-year-old man, Asim Chatterjee who has been associated with Kolkata’s Jadavpur University for a long period of time now is making herbal colours for Holi.
All these colours are flowers based, these are not very bright in colours but definitely, these colours have no side effects. Years back flower farmers came to Jadavpur University with the problem of excess flowers which they were unable to sell in the market and then researchers started the research.
After 10 years of research, they came out with the idea of herbal colours, from then Jadavpur University students started making herbal colours from the flower extracts.
Mr Chatterjee was the key man for that task but after his retirement, University students stopped making it and now Chatterjee himself is doing at his home.
“I don’t use any chemical in it, they are all 100 natural product. I use flowers and then I mix talcum with it. Whatever Holi colours are available in the market are all chemical products and those are very dangerous for our skin and eyes,” Chatterjee said.
