Tag: handcrafted

08
Apr

Handpicked alchemy: 5 best jewelry labels in India

From elephantine tusk figurines to antelope necklaces, these 5 labels have adopted animal motifs from mythology, long tropical leaves into metallurgy and curated a bespoke Indian versatility for the discerning consumer, all within the framework of unconventional meets conventional.


Among them is En Inde, an Indo-french philosophy manifested in mathematical shapes enclosed in Indian talismanic structures. Empowering women artisans and macrame weavers from Karnataka, this label also curates a nationwide art sphere into its jewelry. The Longpi black pottery of Manipur and a jute-steel blend of structures find a place in En Inde’s organic niche, as the label also actively engages in sustainable development.


Nassarius, the prehistoric seashell used as jewelry is a name that befits this exquisitely curated label. The bespoke jewelry borrowing inspiration from traditional pearl, gold, and indigenous sets meets foreign perspectives, reimagining handcrafts of India in it’s raw, undiluted essence. They have an organic approach in the making of these statement pieces, keeping the process as natural as it used to be in the yesteryears, making Nassarius a second-generational mystic blend of antiquity and modernity.


Subtly underlining urban art, Anomaly by Anam is a muse drawn onto the canvas of your skin, by the careful deliberation of each piece coming together innovatively. In the modern art reflections, there lies a dramatic sensibility, bringing the abstract into keen detailing of Indian motifs.


Another label that stands testimony to the skill of Indian metalsmiths and artisans is Dhora India, creating urban and edgy pieces that unveil from within the soul of Indian heirloom. Taking stories of the street to the tenacity of silver-brass tinged in gold, this label curates geometric narratives encompassed by the circular framework. This intrinsic storytelling makes Dhora jewelry one of it’s kind.


Manifest design has a niche in creating timeless pieces that explore a fresh outlook on mementos infused with the soul of artisans. Rekindling forgotten dreams, these pieces reshape a conventional vocabulary into an inherently raw and dynamic aesthetic.


In the auld lang syne of Indian craftsmanship, we find these explorative tendencies, from an array of techniques used to create prehistoric coral-bone jewelry to blending gold with brass-copper to form first pieces of metallic ornaments. These labels are born from an eco-conscious mindset of cherishing the ancient process while adapting signature designs to an urban tapestry, manifesting it’s intrinsic handpicked alchemy.

06
Apr

आठवण | Retrouvaille

A window to Indian sensibilities around sustainable practices, Vaishali S’s new flagship store interiors are an intracultural homecoming that brings a raw essence to the room.

Within the doors and windows of the reminiscent interiors are held narrative allegories of rebirth. Vaishali S built this store much like her eponymous label, with scrupulous detailing and a personal touch to each sculptural silhouette.

Doors from the abandoned dumping grounds of Saki Naka and Jogeshwari picked to give these pieces of wood meaning again, transform the unpurposed slabs into a layered family of benches, doors and window frames is a responsible effort that draws tenacity to the store.

To glimpse through the kaleidoscope of these stories would be akin to an autobiography of the store doors:

‘I remember everything. Every single family that has made its humble abode within my confines, and the tear as I was pulled away from my ancestral home. The bumps of the truck dislodged me, and there I was, stripped of all meaning, lying at the bottom of a dumping ground.

I didn’t feel sorry for myself, I only felt the loss of a home. This raw emotion settled into my surface for decades like water seeping into crude wood.

Then, I was picked up and brought back to life. As I survey the grandiose of the Kalaghoda precinct, I feel like a humble passenger in the train of life, sitting next to a colonial Englishman smoking a pipe, but I remember everything.

I remember with fondness the families that closed me into their hearts while building a home for themselves. I hope that when you come to visit, you will sense nostalgia in this simple villager in your midst.’

The ancient craft of handloom weaves everything together here, brings back fusion in texture, an orchestra of form. Shaded in copper-bronze, rock, mud, and wood, the color palette of these interiors is an uninterrupted flow of hue, that has come together guided by coincidental intuition.

This dedication to earthen furniture paints a village scene enhanced by mogra garlands that line crude edge surfaces, draped over the ethereal forms of homegrown fabrics. Each piece has a beautiful choreography that naturally coincides with the ensembles and the art. From the chair that has a grandmother’s lap thread loop around its wooden base to the simple handloom threads crisscrossing across space, the atmosphere created is one of nostalgia, but also of rememorizing a childhood home.

Inside the doors of Vaishali S flagship store, this artistic resonance is absorbed into hand-polished cow dung and mud walls. This perspective of keeping the interiors cool is an age-old technique taking root in the concrete city. A wall with repurposed wood turned into lamps kept integral to the unpolished façade; frames the soul of Vaishali S within its intrinsic storytelling.

The depth to each upcycled piece is a beeline to the zero-waste concept that the label has been inculcating into ensembles since it’s conception. The unspooling thread of Vaishali S store interiors is a journey to the ancestral secrets of sustainability, written with simple words, narrated aesthetically.

24
Feb

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Kalanamak: An ode to lost yields

A plowed field lit up the runway in white lines, looking as much like a neon zebra crossing as a raw plantation of rice. This 21st-century requiem to an ancient crop was a unique touch to Anurag Gupta’s ‘Kalanamak’ collection at Lakme Fashion Week Spring-Resort 2020.

Kalanamak is one of the finest rice in India, grown at the foothills of the Terai belt in Siddarth Nagar for centuries. It is fabled that when Buddha was passing through the Bajha jungle, he was stopped at the Matha village by the people to whom he gave the rice he was carrying as ‘Prasad’. This tale is so integrated into the culture that Anurag Gupta, as a child thought it was a common children’s story. It was only later that he discovered the stories he grew up listening to are losing their polish, much like the raw black husk of the rice is dying into ignorance.

It was a personal journey to then inculcate elements of this profound history of farmers and of his community into the Khadi collection. Motifs of rice sheafs adorned white floating garments, a lightweight soliloquy to the ironic endeavor laden with struggle.

Returning to our roots with an emphasis on Khadi, contemporary silhouettes lined the show, going street with crisp lines, balancing chic with a sartorial approach. Transported to European ease with the effortless, intriguing frames, the garments created a sophisticated niche with stalks of rice and local embroidery edging the flow of asymmetrical hemlines.

The revival of ‘Kalanamak’ in the unpolished threads of Khadi stands in solidarity with the depth of thought that has gone into each design, from the hues of a clear blue sky and minimal lines of a khet on a basic, breezy canvas.

Anurag Gupta as a label brings the artistic expression of today to the tales of the past, cultivating a profound appreciation for the black pearl of Uttar Pradesh.

15
Jan

A wrinkle in time: Ambi by Sujata Pai

Ambi by Sujata Pai has a distinct quality of making unique and cherished sarees from the rich heirloom of India. Her vision to showcase Indian textiles with a different eye is threaded through a needle passing through the time it has taken to inculcate this skill into a community of weaver families.

The simplicity of this concept is that it’s homegrown, tracing our roots back to ancient folklore and fables. These are etched into the motifs that are typically used in Ambi sarees- mango motifs, to follow the name, peacock feathers on a breezy pallu, elegant paisley pattern, lotus, and animal motifs. Her home base being Chennai, she herself is a voyager, setting up her printing in Delhi, and empowering weavers from all across the country with specialized local skills that make them unanimous experts in the craft of a particular weave.

The ancient weaves that have traveled from as far as the Byzantine empire are seen in Ambi’s one of a kind piece, embroidered with zari from Kutch mud plains of Gujarat. Ambi brings together fabrics and weaves of fine artistry and craftsmanship with a beautiful movement that creates a singular element to diversity. From the Banaras tradition to mulberry silkworm that has woven light as air Maheshwari silk, the sarees are a poetic eulogy to lost crafts.

The sunsets of South Indian hills fall over one fabric that takes to the Gota Patti work of Rajasthan sand dunes, and in the magic of the desert night, slip to the Bramhaputra with Muga Buta silk, the identity of Assam for a new dawn.

This journey of fabrics is seen in every piece by Ambi, cherishing crafts long borrowed from the 20th century France, antiques of Bali and even so far back as the Persian dynasties, breathing innovation in these threaded creations.

Woven seamlessly into one piece, the fabrics are intuitively in tandem, a dance of hues and patterns that carry the remnants of age-old heritage.

07
Jan

Zero Waste: How Priyanka Raajiv delved into sustainability long before it became a hashtag

Priyanka Raajiv is a designer based in Pune who brings ageless culture into the modern world. Her design aesthetic and the clear vision of the architecture of a silhouette is what sets her apart. Moreover, she contributes to promoting the Indian handloom industry since the conception of her label. Her ensembles also hold a badge of responsible fashion.

Upcycled ‘Jod’ saree

She began designing outfits with a ‘Zero Waste’ approach long before the trend began. From the beginning of her labor, she held a certain respect for the fabric she used, and her label saw immaculate precision to avoid waste.

Upcycled ‘Gulaal’ lehenga

Textile experimentation made her work stand out. Incorporating these fabric pieces seamlessly into her new ensembles and, tailor-making new looks take forward an heirloom piece through generations.

Hand-embroidered ‘Pushp’ blouse

The vivid detailing and hand embroidery in every collection showcase the profound thought and effort behind the handspun threadwork so integral to her design philosophy. Her latest collection, Praana, is based on the consciousness that breathes within us, and the understanding that life is a circle, and it grows through nurturing thought and understanding.

Patchwork upcycled ‘Roshan’ lehenga

We are surrounded by this energy everywhere. It is why spaces affect us; we inhabit our clothes every day. Praana, the Autumn-Winter 2019 collection is inspired by this collective energy that we possess and share.

Any waste fabric piece from the studio is put back in the ‘Iraada’ box to be used and integrated into a collection that embodies thoroughly studied design sensibility. This is turned into wardrobe pieces that become essential

Upcycled ‘Ek Jod’ dupatta

In ancient China, there was a belief that anything broken must be put together using gold. This belief transcends the very idea of discarding anything.

In our daily stress and hectic schedules we often dismiss our negative thoughts and stagnant mindset. Aspiring to Chi, or Pranayama, the meditative state of understanding oneself, Priyanka Raajiv endeavors to unveil the illusion of separation, putting together seemingly unconnected pieces of fabric together in a puzzle that astounds you with its creativity and diligence.

Fully upcycled ‘Sharad’ Lehenga

Praana is a collection of carefully curated pieces, handcrafted to build a flow out of a mosaic of crude textile weaving and finesse of undiluted design. Upcycled pieces, like dupattas and scarves, become heirlooms in the process of recycling what is old into the artistic element of the new. With painstakingly earned expertise, the repurposed studio textile becomes intuitively structured through intricately embellished handwork.

Patchwork Kishto dupatta

The outfits rejuvenate your mind in with its texture and exquisite drapes and folds. It turns the complexity of fabric patchwork into a singular movement.

‘Resh’ saree with upcycled blouse

Praana at its core symbolizes the metamorphosis of energy forms. From breath to texture, and cold mist to the layers of fabric, it demonstrates that what appears cast aside is, in fact, the same thing in a different form. What appears new and fresh is a deliberate transformation.

This is the transformation that occurs at the Priyanka Raajiv studio with the discarded studio fabric in upcycling every piece.

07
Jan

Reiki by Word

With a rustic wooden bowl of oil, soft aroma of the essence, a light breeze touching upon fresh flower petals and soothing oriental music…all in a bamboo built room. Like flowing water, your ki or life energy resonates with this exact aura.

In this age of imbalance, climatic disruption and disturbed mind, Reiki pave the path to rejuvenating life. Our earth needs healing, as do we. Combining the two, Reiki brings meaning to the essential intimacy of guided touch.

In the sheer innocence of draping, a hand or a garment, you find your senses blooming, an invigorating joy of belongingness. With plant-based materials- fragmented rose petals, eucalyptus plant, aloe vera, and milk-based layers of cloth, Word handcrafts your connection with nature, to fit your form.

Creating a line of outfits that soothe and evolve around you, inspired by the ancient art of energy healing and sprouting from universal life, Word presents Reiki.

Heal. Soothe. Retain.