We hope to introduce malkha to a larger audience in Hyderabad through the Akruthi Vastra show organized by the Crafts Council of Andhra Pradesh. CCAP has kindly offered us a free stall in their popular annual exhibition.

Among recent visitors to the malkha shop were Sagari & Madhoo of Anthra, an organization that promotes rural livestock breeds. Elana Dickson, a well-known textile designer, has been working with them to adapt some of the iconic 'gongadi', the traditional all-purpose blankets made by the shepherd community, for urban use. We plan to host the first show of these at the malkha shop in early October. The picture shows some of the gongadi spread on the floor of the shop.

Three versions of Vaishali's imli print have just come in

The Vogue article in the June issue that mentions malkha is headed Karma Clothing and is written by Mayank Mansingh Kaul. It is about fashion designers who are ecologically and ethically sensitive, or basetheir work on traditional craft. Apart from the Malkha Project Mayank writes about the work of Joyjit Talukdar, Sonali Sattar & Himanshu Dimri and Mandeep Nagi. Of course there are gorgeous visuals to go with the text.

There is also a full article on malkha by Brinda Gill in the April issue of the trade magazine Apparel.

It is gratifying when people who buy malkha tell us that they enjoyed wearing it and want more, as Richa Jayal has recently posted on Facebook, and our current problem is to make it available for such customers. A few malkha garments are now available in Fabindia, but Malkha Marketing Trust itself has only the one outlet in Hyderabad. One possibility would be to do serious net marketing, a step forward from the orders-by-mail that we do now. The catalogue that is being uploaded on the web is the full one of all our fabrics, and we will have to keep it updated on current stock. Should we have a separate site from where we can take orders? Or should we make the present site a singin' dancin' one which does everything?

Hmmm. Will have to think about it.

We're told malkha features in the June issue of Vogue India, but have yet to see the issue, presume it's part of the coverage of the Malkha Project series of joint shows by the trio of Mayank Mansingh Kaul, Peter D'Ascoli & Aneeth Arora, each of whom use malkha in very very different ways. The next one of the shows is due in Bangalore in early July, not quite sure where.

Malkha was also mentioned as part of Tarun Tahiliani's Spring/Summer 2011 collection in the April issue.

Comments welcome as usual.