Keeping Traditions Alive in Advancing Society: Value addition of Rangwali Pichhora through adaptation of Aipan Designs of Uttarakhand, India

Uttarakhand is a land of distinct culture and traditions. There are numbers of folk arts and craft that represent the culture of Uttarakhand. But these are fading due to impact of modernization resulting in marked social transformation. Thus traditions & folk ways are losing their originality. To retrieve them it has become imperative to make them alive by adapting into different forms. Textile designing is one of such form in which these traditional arts can be adapted easily to preserve them without changing their religious significance. In this study the Aipan, the folk art of Uttarakhand state, was explored for the development of design and their application on Pichhora, item of traditional attire by using screen printing technique. This study was a small step taken by the researcher with an approach to diversify the Aipan design application and redesign Pichhora according to fashion oriented users.