This year India will be celebrating the eighth edition of the International Day of Yoga on 21st June 2022. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has announced ‘Yoga for Humanity’ as this year’s theme, to reaffirm how yoga served humanity in alleviating sufferings during Covid-19. He strongly feels that yoga would bring people together through kindness and compassion during the post-Covid geopolitical crisis and foster a sense of unity across the world.
Center of Excellence for Khadi (CoEK) has been set up by KVIC, Ministry of MSME at NIFT, with the objective to help Khadi Institutions (KIs) to effectively design, produce and market high quality differentiated khadi products in the Indian and global market.
Centre of Excellence for Khadi (COEK) carries forward the sentiment articulated in the theme by drawing a strong parallel with the ‘khadi spirit’- that simply means “fellow-feeling with every human being on earth”. The essence of yoga is balance – not just balance within the body or that between the mind and the body, but also balance in the human relationship with the world.
Keeping in view the core ideology of Yoga, the design team at CoEK has designed a range of ‘Wellness wear’ ‘Svadha’ to showcase the versatility of khadi on International Yoga Day. In Atharva veda, ‘Svadha’ means ease, comfort or pleasure, which are truly the attributes of this collection.
The ensembles from the collection were shown to yoga practitioners and yoga enthusiast to try on and give their feedback. Inclusion of features of bias yoke on the shoulder, a box pleat in center back of top wear and low crotch, wrap around bottom wear for ease in stretching and for extra comfort, are the highpoints of the wellness collection.
Dr Kiran Bedi,social activist, Ramon Magsaysay award winner, and former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, visited the CoEK office at NIFT to endorse the collection and to interact with the designers. Plogman of India Mr Ripu Daman Bevli chose to wear the ensembles from Svadha collection and appreciated the comfort of khadi as a fabric and silhouettes which provided ease in doing yoga or workout.
The wellness clothing ‘Svadha’ range emphasizes the values of mindfulness and perseverance and is aimed to attract all age groups from Gen Z to young at heart. The wellness wear has used hand-spun khadi in natural hues. The thread of khadi binds the people globally in true sense towards ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’- the world is one family.