Ghandi on the catwalk

Here's a Bengali designer, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, trying to bring back homespun material (and I take it other designers are too.)

Apart from the beauty of the fabric, whose history in India goes back well over 5,000 years, Mukherjee's reasoning is simple.

He finds it odd that Indian designers tend to steer clear of local hand-woven fabrics.

Khadi, he says, is refined, sophisticated, eco-friendly and comfortable, and has too long been regarded as the poor man's fabric.

To wear it is a sign of being well-dressed and cultured.

Best of all, in his view, it should help India's rural craftsmen and women to share in the country's growing wealth and economy. (BBC News)