Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani recently inaugurated a textiles gallery at the National Crafts Museum in New Delhi. The gallery consists of more than 230 different types of textiles collections divided into categories of over more than 30 traditions, according to an official report.

The gallery will serve as a resource centre for students of fashion technology, apparel sciences and textiles designing. Masterpieces of traditional handlooms are juxtaposed with modern audio-visual effects in the gallery.

The concept of display is based on three categories: pre loom ‘Ikat’, where the design is already visualised and transferred to the yarn before the yarn is placed on the loom; on-loom, in which the design is entered on the loom while weaving brocade, muslin, jamdani, weaved shawls, weaved sarees; and post loom, where the techniques that can be applied on cloth after it is woven, e.g., block printing and embroidery.

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