The Ministry of Textiles has been taking several steps to help the designer and weaver community work together and one such step, the Development Commissioner (Handlooms) came up with is the 'Designer Chaupal' at Crafts Museum.

The idea of Designer Chaupal was to have an interaction with the weavers and designers and discuss steps to take their collaboration to the next level.

The session was headed by Textile Minister Smriti Irani and attended by Anant Kumar Singh, textile secretary of India; Pushpa Subrahmanyam, additional secretary, Textiles Ministry, and Sunil Sethi, president of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI).

The event was attended by a group of handloom designers and weavers. The designers were chosen keeping in mind their cluster or area of work.

Among designers who were invited to participate in Chaupal were Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anavila Misra, Samant Chauhan, Sanjay Garg, Shruti Sancheti, Pratima Pandey, Jenjum Gadi and Shalini James.

Sanjay Garg was chosen for Banarasi and Chanderi, Shruti Sancheti for jamdani, brocade, cotton and tussar, Dhruv Vaish for Chanderi and Banarasi from Champa and Chhattisgarh, Jenjum Gadi for ikat, and Shalini James for handmade, vegetable-dyed organic cotton, ikat, kalamkari and bagru.