Chhunchi Unveils Pochampally Ikkat Dress Material: Telangana’s Timeless 19th-Century Weaving Art

Chhunchi – The Needles Craft is gaining recognition as a rising handloom brand that is bridging the gap between ancient handloom crafts and the people. After launching several ancient handloom crafts from the land of Odisha, South India, and Varanasi, they recently launched their new collection of Pochampally Ikkat dress material, a weaving art from present-day Telangana, which has witnessed a great evolution.

Originally made in saree, the art of Pochampally slowly evolved into a dress material combining the unique weaving trait with the modern-day convenience of women. Chhunchi, by introducing these dress materials, has opened up an opportunity for women who are not into wearing sarees but still appreciate the handloom of India.

According to some sources, its origin dates back to the 1800s, but the actual bloom occurred in the 1950s in the town of Bhoodan Pochampally, Telangana. The weaving art was brought there from the weavers of Chirala and was also called “Chit-Ku,” and was made in cotton and silk fabrics. Slowly, many weavers started to learn the intricacy of the art and Pochampally started to get recognition, not just nationally, but also reached Indonesia.

When made initially, the art was limited to making sarees in the selected colours like black, white, and red, but slowly, the art evolved, and weavers started making dress materials and more colours were introduced in bold and pastel shades. The Pochampally ikkat weaving technique spread across 10,000 families by 1999, and almost 100 villages were involved in producing this art.

A huge revolution came when, in 2000, machines were introduced to speed up the process of making ikkat. In the 20th century, the Pochampally art was recognized for its dye and tie technique in the textile industry of India.  By 2010, the Indian government had divided the Pochampally weaving art into two different clusters or centres, Pochampally 1 and Pochampally 2.

The weaving art involves “ikkat,” the tie and dye weave. The yarn is first soaked in a mixture of rice paste and water to make it stiff, and then tie-dyed using natural dyes, using pomegranate, indigo, and myrobalan. After the dying process, the yarn is woven in the traditional handloom to make a saree. The skilful artisans then create patterns and motifs like birds, trees, and anything abstract.

One of the most unique designs of Pochampally sarees is “Telia Rumal,” referring to an oil hankerchief, which is achieved by the double ikkat process. Realising the significance and the beauty of this weaving art, the Government honoured it with the “GI” tag, meaning “Geographical Indicator.”

The very thing that fascinated and intrigued the founder of Chhunchi, Purtika Choudhury, is that despite having existed for decades and the motifs being replicated in almost every fabric, Pochamapally sarees are the least explored. By connecting directly with the weavers, she gave them a platform where they can not only showcase their unparalleled art, but also get more potential customers.

She shared her thoughts on the same, “While exploring the ancient handlooms of our country, I came across Pochampally sarees and was enthralled to know about its existence, and wanted to make it reach every corner of India. By launching Pochampally ikkat dress materials on our online website, I am taking my step ahead to make handloom enthusiasts know more about this lesser-known art that deserves more attention.”

At present, Chhunchi has only hand-picked handloom dress materials on their websites, but they intend to launch more pieces in the future. Apart from this handloom art of Pochampally weaving, the site also features some famous and lesser-known handloom pieces deriving from the different parts of the country.

Chhunchi, which is based in Pune, is determined to bridge the huge gap between the ancient and all types of handloom arts of India and its customers. By bringing more practical designs to suit the present-day needs, the brand is also revolutionising the vision of handloom clothing.