Chennai :

Do you want to clear your skin as well as keep it cool? Then this sari made of the lantana camara plant is your best bet.

City-based weaver C Sekar has made a sari out of the fibre taken from the stem of lantana camara, a flowering plant. He specialises in making garments out of natural fibre.

While lantana is an ornamental plant, native to the tropical regions of America, various studies show that it also has medicinal properties. It can provide relief from itchy skin, soothes skin inflammations and has a cooling effect.

The weaver from Anakaputhur, a city suburb, began the process by blending the lantana fibre with that of a cotton yarn.

Before this, the cotton yarn is dunked in hot water mixed with salt and later in cold water to soften the yarn. Then, the yarns of both the fibres are dipped in dye.

Sekar creates the dyes by combining various herbal ingredients. He said he makes yellow dye with a combination of extracts from lantana leaf, tamarind and neem leaf. “I can make about five colours; like purple with jamun fruit and tulsi, and red with hibiscus. A colour fixer is also added to it,” he said.

After dipping it in dye, Sekar dries it and finally weaves it into a sari. “Tamarind, neem leaf and lantana leaf have antibiotic properties,I decided to weave a sari out of lantana fibre only because it has medicinal value,” said Sekar. Priced at 3,500, Sekar says he takes about a week to weave one sari. , adding that he is expecting orders from fashion boutiques in Chennai and Delhi.

He has earlier created clothes out of 25 natural fibres like banana, pineapple, beetroot, aloe vera, jute and bamboo. “Manufacturers in fashion industry should change with the trend. With this sari, I not just want to create a trend but also add more value to the product with the use of natural ingredients,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India /Home> City> Chennai / TNN / December 29th, 2014