After reading this you may willingly let your fashion sense go bananas, quite literally!
Well, thanks to C. Sekar, 52, a third-generation weaver, you can now wear a pair of jeans made from banana fibres. Yes, you read it right. Until now you ate it. You can now wear it as well. However, it costs Rs 5,000 per pair and as of now, is available only in and around Chennai.
“It is a handmade product and involves a lot of effort. Also, it is absolutely eco-friendly and no chemicals are involved in the making,” says a confident Sekar. He adds, “One may think these denims won’t be durable, but they are. Banana fibre has a lot of strength; you cannot snap it like a cotton thread. It has a natural sheen and wiriness. Also, these jeans are very breathable and hence comfortable even during sweaty conditions.”
Sekar hails from Anakaputhur, which is a popular suburb of Chennai dominated by the weavers’ community. But more than anything else, Anakaputhur is the birthplace of the famed Madras checks, which catapulted Madras, now Chennai, on to the global fashion map. The checks gained currency on handkerchiefs, and is an integral part of the South Indian textile industry today. Be it a lungi, a shirt, a sari, or any other imaginable piece of South Indian clothing, you can find one in this pattern.
But times change and so do the preferences of people. Sarvanand, another weaver from Anakaputhur, says, “Youngsters now want something new and different. And this fabric made by Sekar is doing just that. The jeans made from this fabric are not only eco-friendly; they look and feel good as well.”
Highlighting the uniqueness of his product, Sekar tells, “A single pair of jeans requires 180 grams of banana fibre, which is roughly equal to the amount of fibre extracted from one banana tree. An equal amount of cotton fibre is mixed with banana fibre to give it the look and feel of denim. Also, the banana fibre makes the denim breathable. There is hardly anything synthetic about my jeans. Even the buttons are made from coconut shells.”
Interestingly, Sekar himself doesn’t wear jeans. He sheepishly tells, “I prefer my traditional attire.” Talking about traditional wear, Sekar’s first experiment with banana fibre happened around 15 years ago when he weaved a sari out of it.
Ask him how he got this idea of using banana fibre and he has a Eureka moment to share. “About 20 years back, I came across a story from Ramayana in a magazine I was reading. The story talked about Sita asking Hanuman to arrange for banana fibre so that she could weave a sari for herself. This intrigued the weaver in me,” says Sekar. He adds, “I started experimenting and a few years later, I finally fine-tuned my efforts and wove a sari from banana fibre. Later, I used a combination of 25 natural fibres to weave wearable fabrics.”
Sekar, who is married and has three children, managed to study only till class 11, but he has some great entrepreneurial skills in him. The weaver, who is also the President of Anakaputhur Jute Weavers’ Association, is open to the idea of business collaborations. Talk about finding synergies with Baba Ramdev’s plan to manufacture and sell Swadesi denims, Sekar confidently says, “I am open to the idea of collaborating with him. I’m already facing challenges due to lack of space and finances. Such collaborations will help the weaving community.”
But apathy from the government is something that peeves him. He says, “The central government seems to be more weaver-friendly than the Tamil Nadu government. The state leads in banana production and any encouragement to weavers like me will go a long way in generating employment and reviving the handloom industry.” Ruing the sad state of affairs in his industry, Sekar says, “Till about 25 years ago, there were 5,000-odd handlooms, but today there are only about 350. Of these, most are involved in lungi fabric and only a handful like me is into other fibres and fabrics.”
It is estimated that of the tonnes of banana trees wasted each year in India, only 10 per cent is utilised for extraction of fibre and subsequent use in the textile industry. Heavy dependence on cotton has also paved way for banana fibre not getting the attention it deserves. However, cotton fibre production is extremely labour intensive and involves use of a lot chemicals, and water, hence making it not as eco-friendly as it seems to be. Also, irresponsible cotton farming practices have led to depletion of soil quality, leaving vast stretches of land unusable.
Maybe banana fibre is the way forward.
