Excellencies, distinguished guests, dear friends,

Jó estét kívánok! Good evening, and a very warm welcome to all of you.

It's lovely to see friends from Budapest's fashion world here.

I don't often get to open a fashion show, so I plan to enjoy this. I'll also keep it short, because the real stars of the evening are waiting backstage, and I suspect they are better dressed than I am.

First, my heartiest congratulations to Global Sustainable Fashion Week on its 10th Anniversary Jubilee. Ten years is a long time to keep an idea going, especially one that asks the fashion world to slow down and think about what it makes and how. Warm thanks to [name of founder/organiser] and the whole team for inviting India to be part of this celebration. We are very happy to be here.

This year's theme, "The Fabric of Heritage and Sustainability", sounds almost as if it was written with India in mind.

People in India have been spinning and weaving cotton for more than four thousand years. Fragments of cotton cloth have been found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. Much later, Indian fabrics were traded to Rome, across Asia and all over Europe, and they left their mark on the English language. Calico is named after Calicut. Chintz comes from the Hindi word Chhint. Dungarees take their name from Dongri, a neighbourhood in Mumbai. Cashmere is simply an old spelling of Kashmir.

Almost every region of India has its own weave. There are Banarasi silks from Varanasi, Kanjeevarams from Tamil Nadu, the Pashmina of Kashmir and the fine, light Chanderi of Madhya Pradesh. In Gujarat, a single double ikat Patola saree can take several months to weave.

And then there is the saree itself. It's one unstitched length of fabric, usually five to nine yards, and it can be draped in dozens of ways depending on which part of India you are in. It has been worn for centuries and it is still in fashion. Most designers would be quite happy with that kind of record.

A lot of this is still made by hand. India's handloom sector gives work to millions of weavers and artisans, most of them women, many working from home in small towns and villages. Some still work with natural dyes from plants like indigo and madder. A handloom needs no electricity. It runs at the pace of the person sitting at it.

Indian families were practising sustainability long before the word became fashionable. A good silk saree is passed from mother to daughter. When an old cotton saree finally wears thin, it often gets layered and stitched into a kantha quilt and used for years more. For Mahatma Gandhi, the spinning wheel and khadi stood for self-reliance and the dignity of work. We remember that every year on 7 August, National Handloom Day.

I'm also very glad that tonight's show includes Hungarian fashion, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the Hungarian designers have brought. Hungary has proud textile traditions of its own, as anyone who has seen Matyó embroidery from Mezőkövesd or the flowers of Kalocsa will know. There's even a small link between us in kékfestő, the Hungarian blue-dyeing craft. Its deep blue comes from indigo, and the word indigo comes from the Greek for "Indian". And of course we share Amrita Sher-Gil, born here in Budapest to a Hungarian mother and an Indian father, who painted so many Indian women in their sarees.

Between the collections, our artists will perform some Indian music and dance, so please stay and enjoy it all.

A big thank you to the designers, the models, the performers and everyone working behind the scenes, including my colleagues at the Embassy, who have put a lot of effort into tonight.

So sit back, enjoy the colours, and maybe take home an idea or two for your wardrobe.

Köszönöm szépen. Dhanyavaad. Thank you.