Indian designer says illiteracy inspired clothes

By Prithwish Ganguly

MUMBAI, Oct 16 (Reuters Life!) - An Indian designer at Mumbai's fashion week cited an unusual muse behind his expensive couture clothes -- the illiteracy of millions of his impoverished fellow citizens.

Narendra Kumar has called his collection "Freedom from Illiteracy," and has stitched into his clothes letters from the Roman and Devanagari alphabets, the latter used in several South Asian languages.

"I took this opportunity to make people think over that though we are doing well and our country is flourishing, there's a section that is falling behind...due to illiteracy," said Kumar.

He was unsure whether the problem might be helped by his collection shown on Monday evening, which included 1970s-style summer shorts and kaftans in cotton and linens.

"I did not want to preach people to come forward and do something about the problem," he said after the show. "I just showed them the reality. If they feel like going ahead and doing something, I will think that my show was a success."

Nearly half of all women and a quarter of all men in India cannot read, according to new government data published this month.