Textiles Exam Preparation for May 2017The context of Section A of your exam will be as follows.

Context: Textile product inspired by the theme of India.

Between 1 March and the examination date you will need to research the context with the guidance of your teacher.

What do you need to investigate?

Context:

Textile products inspired by the theme of India.

Indian style clothing

Fabrics used

Decorations/ Embellishments

Cotton

shapes

Types of garment

Block print

Tie dye

Silk

Mirror work

beading

Beetle wingBandhani

Batik

Embroidery

Textile products

bags

cushions

homeware

Typical motives

Traditional Indian clothing• Sari and wrapped garments- modern,

wedding, traditional

• Shalwar Kameez, traditional, modern

• Churidaar

• Lehenga Choli (skirt and blouse)

• Dhoti or Pancha

• Lungi or Sarong

• Kurta pajama

• Achkan/Sherwani

• Bandhgala

Saris

Wrapped garment, made out of a length of fabric wrapped around the waist and with one end wrapped over the shoulder.

Various style of draping, the most common the Nivistyle

Worn with a petticoat and blouse, blouse normally short sleeved and showing midriff

ShalwarKameez

Shalwar – trousers

Kameez – body shirt

Trousers can be wide or narrow legged

Churidars are tightly fitting trousers worn by both men and women. They are a variant of the common salwar pants. Churidars narrow more quickly, so that contours of the leg are revealed. They are usually cut on the bias, making them naturally stretchy. Stretch is important when pants are closefitting. They are also longer than the leg and sometimes finish with a tightly fitting buttoned cuff at the ankle. The excess length falls into folds and appears like a set of bangles resting on the ankle (hence 'churidar'; 'churi': bangle, 'dar': like).

Churidar pantsSalwar pants

Salwars are cut wide at the top and narrow at the ankle. The legs are wide at the top, and narrow at the ankle.

The Lehenga or Ghaghra choli consists of a long flowing skirt (the Lehenga or Ghaghra), a fitted top (the choli) and a scarf (the dupatta). The Lehenga varies in look. They can be simpler styles with a full, round skirt and printed fabric or could be heavily embellished garments. The choli can vary in length from very short, midriff-baring styles to longer, more demure styles. In recent years, the mermaid-style lehenga, which is slim-fitting through the hips and thighs and flares out at the bottom has become more popular than the traditional lehenga and is always an elegant choice for weddings and other formal events.

Lehenga

Can be worn by men or women

Punjabi suit –variation of ShalwarKameez

Kurta PajamaA Kurta Pajama for men is very similar to the salwar kameez for women. A Kurta Pajama consists of a top and bottom and is a clothing staple for South Asian men. The kurta is a long, loose shirt that almost reaches the knees and the pajama is a lightweight, drawstring trouser. Men's kurta pajamas can vary in style from very loose, baggy trousers (salwar style) to a tight-fitting churidar. Men's kurta pajamas are generally simpler in terms of embellishments and embroidery than those for women and can be worn with or without a scarf or vest.

Is one piece of fabric draped in different waysMade out of cottonComfortable to wearTraditionally white

Dhoti or Pancha

Lunghior sarong

Traditional garment worn around the waistMore comfortable to wear than trouserssometimes sewn into a tube shape like a skirt, then knotted to fit the waist at the front

Achkan or

Sherwani

A coat like garment worn for special occasions

also often referred to as the prince coat, is a men's wardrobe intrinsic and with good reason at that. A regular jacket with front button closing and high collar, it is reminiscent of Indian royalty and princely dressers.

Bandhgala

Modern Indian clothing

BeadingBeadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them with a sewing needle or beading needle and thread or thin wire, or sewing them to cloth. Beads come in a variety of materials, shapes and sizes.

MirrorsShisheh or abhla bharat embroidery, or mirror-work, is a type of embroidery which attaches small pieces of mirrors reflect metal to fabric. Mirror embroidery is spread throughout Asia, and today can be found in the traditional embroidery of India, Pakistan, Afganistan, China and Indonesia.

AppliquéAn appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces of fabric are sewn or stuck on to a larger piece to form a picture or pattern.

Chain StitchChain stitch is a sewing and embroidery technique in which a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern.

BeetlewingBeetlewing, or beetlewing art, is an ancient craft technique using iridescent beetle wings practiced traditionally in Thailand, Myanmar, India, China and Japan.

Traditional Indian Decorative Techniques

Traditional Indian Decorative Techniques

Block PrintingWoodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD.

Bandhaniis a type of tie-dye textile decorated by plucking the cloth with the fingernails into many tiny bindings that form a figurative design. The term bandhani is derived from the Sanskrit word banda ("to tie").

BatikThe history of Indian batik can be traced as far back as 2000 years. Initially, wax and even rice starch were used for printing on fabrics. Until recently batik was made only for dresses and tailored garments, but modern batik is applied in numerous items, such as murals, wall hangings, paintings, household linen, and scarves, with livelier and brighter patterns.

Traditional Indian patterns

Textile products

SMCE issues in the Indian Textiles Industry

An article from the Guardian. - India's clothing workers: 'They slap us and call us dogs and donkeys'Human rights tribunal hears allegations of abuse and low pay against clothing companies that supply high street stores

Sunday 25 November 2012 00.06 GMTFirst published on Sunday 25 November 2012 00.06 GMT

Workers making clothes that end up in the stores of the biggest names on the British high street have testified to a shocking regime of abuse, threats and poverty pay. Many workers in Indian factories earn so little that an entire month's wages would notbuy a single item they produce.

Physical and verbal abuse is rife, while female workers who fail to meet impossible targets say they are berated, called "dogs and donkeys", and told to "go and die". Many workers who toil long hours in an attempt to support their families on poverty wagesclaim they are cheated out of their dues by their employers.

The allegations, which will be of concern to household names including Gap, H&M, Next and Walmart, were made at a human

rights tribunal in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru. The "national people's tribunal for living wages and decent workingconditions for garment workers" was convened to investigate widespread human rights abuses in the garment industry.

Sakamma, a 42-year-old mother-of-two working for Gap supplier Texport in Bengaluru, told the tribunal she earned just 22p an hour and that when she finished at the factory she had to work as a domestic help to top up her wages.

"It hurts us to be paid so little. I have to do this and they sell one piece of clothing for more than I get paid in a month," she said. "We cannot eat nutritious food. We don't have a good life, we live in pain for the rest of our life and die in pain.

A spokesperson for Texport denied setting unachievable targets and said abuse of workers was not tolerated. Gap said: "These allegations describe conduct that violates our Code of Vendor Conduct. We are looking into this matter and will take appropriateaction with our vendors, depending on our findings.“

The Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), which organised the tribunal, wants companies to pay a minimum living wage of 12,096 rupees (£138) a month, equivalent to 58p an hour. But the tribunal heard that a factory supplying Gap and Next paid as little as 26p an hour. The supplier – Pearl Global, based in Gurgaon, in Haryana state – admits it has underpaid workers for overtime and has

required them to work illegally long hours, but said it had now repaid them. It insists it complies with the legal minimum wage,though evidence submitted to the tribunal by one worker indicated that he was paid below the legal rate.Pearl Global was first exposed by the Observer for rights abuses in 2010 when it traded as House of Pearl, but it has continued to

operate and supply the brands under its new name.

Many workers at the tribunal claimed that long hours and poor health and safety conditions made them ill. One worker said that a colleague was electrocuted by a bare wire last year in a factory supplying Gap. Ashok Kumar Singh, 29, who works for Gap supplier Modelama Exports in Gurgaon, gave evidence that he was paid just 5,097rupees a month (24.6p an hour), although the legal minimum rate for his job was 5,300 rupees.

He said workers were taught to lie to auditors sent to check up on working conditions. "Before a visit they gather all the workers around and tell them what to say. If we don't say what we are told, we are fired," he said, adding that some workers had been dismissed after complaining to auditors about conditions.

Workers who failed to meet targets were verbally and physically abused, he said. "They call us motherf*ckersand push us around and some people get slapped by supervisors and managers," he said. "I feel the companies look at the workers like enemies.“

The tribunal, in front of an international jury, took evidence in person from workers and will consider written evidence compiled at regional hearings.

Gap and Next were accused of using suppliers that paid below the minimum legal wage, paid below the legal rate for overtime, andrequired workers to work excessive and illegal overtime. They also faced allegations, along with H&M and Walmart, of using suppliers that verbally abused staff, while there were allegations of physical abuse against a supplier for Gap, H&M and Walmart.

H&M sent representatives to the tribunal and insisted it was committed to improving working conditions. "The social and environmental responsibility that we take puts H&M's sustainability work ahead of the field in the fashion industry worldwide," said a spokeswoman. "We clearly see these issues as industry problems that need to be addressed at industry level by government, suppliers, trade unions, workers, buyers, etc.“

A spokesman for Next said: "Next identified that Pearl Global was falling well short of the group's standard codes of practice in 2010. As a result, Next ceased using this supplier in 2011, after making a determined effort to bring about major change at Pearl Global. Next last reviewed the supplier in July, when the decision to remain disengaged from it was maintained. Next has no plans to recommence manufacturing at Pearl Global.“

Anannya Bhattacharjee, international co-ordinator for the AFWA, told the tribunal that despite the recession the garment industry continued to bring in profits. She said workers continued to suffer "shocking, inhuman conditions" and were being paid poverty wages. "Nothing can be more important than a decent living wage for workers working day and night to clothe the world.“

• The headline for this article was amended on Sunday 25 November. The woman quoted said workers were treated like "donkeys",

not "monkeys".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16639391

Further reading /viewing

https://labs.theguardian.com/unicef-child-labour/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16639391