Like a beautiful crystal, found naturally in an ore, Roop is the unpolished essence of change, a restoration of generational heirlooms. Like her grandmother before her, Roop is the complexity of youth woven in the same Banarsi saree, in the simplicity of its form.
Priyanka Raajiv endeavors to
intertwine the threads of this connection that transcends time and weave a
story within traditional handloom fabric. A parallel softness lies in the
narrative of restoration: it is done carefully with the expert skill of
artisans who have learned the craft from their grandparents.
The Indian fashion designer began imbibing upcycling from day 1 into the brand philosophy and gave it a signature touch. The modern woman yearns for a continuation of intuitively structured pieces while metamorphosis takes place with millennial sensibilities. Bringing about this balance of perspective in a saree or a lehenga is intricate work, taking minute details to give the antiquity an artistic finesse.
Taking a 100-year-old Paithani saree or a 30-year-old kurta that is worn out and adorning it to create eloquent pieces of urban shade is a skill that revolves around the fourth R of sustainability- repurpose. A grandmother or a mother-in-law cherishes the memories tied into the loom of each saree, each lehenga that they have doned as a kaleidoscopic shrine of their life.
To pass this on, Priyanka Raajiv consults her clients with a honed knowledge of silhouettes and fabrics, writing biographies into a restoration, like a family repository hidden in its essence. The soul of this process lies in the translation of retaining the exclusivity of a piece while using antique zardozi, sequins, and embroidery to reveal the deliberate rarity of the original fabric.
Roop has been an essential
part of Priyanka Raajiv label since it’s conception, curated with an
eco-conscious mindset, storytelling within a garment’s unrestricted flow: a
tale of transformation.
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.
To weave is to create a skin out of fabric. And to feel free in one’s skin is a rarity. For marginalized persons in the global industry, this means to overcome hurdles of racism and sexism, in order to feel identified with and not labeled by the norms and standards of the fashion industry.
To achieve this threshold keeping in tandem with nature brings core sustainability to the open-lens outlook held by some niche Indian labels building a hearth of eco-sensible mindsets with their innovative approach. This marks a beautiful pause in the Indian fashion industry, where we are returning to the tenacity of our heritage, engaging in a retrouvaille of handmade crafts.
The way you look says a lot about how you identify, and where you come from, and this is the poignant epiphany taking place with Indian fashion labels today.
One such label is Naushad Ali, based in Pondicherry, a minimalist hub of global perspectives, drawn from the depth of traditional craftsmanship. Measuring crisp lines in handloom thread, this label follows a 100% natural process from yarn to dye, leading a zero-waste approach since 2014. Working with the weaving clusters in West Bengal, the label inculcates ethnic threadwork in gender-fluid apparel, keeping the tone classy and clean, cutting edge with an international touch.
Rajesh Pratap Singh, a vintage when it comes to fashion labels, has an eco-conscious lead in the industry. With it’s stellar contributions to sustainable fashion, the 1997-established label is also mapping a gender-fluid paradigm, one where the essence of responsible practices are cherished and unbiased clothing is brought into a safe space.
The harbinger of Khunn to international markets, Vaishali S is a cartographer of ethical and eco-conscious complexities. Maintaining a zero-waste approach since the conception of the label, Vaishali S has delved into the intricate layers of weaving communities spread across India. From marking Guledagudda, the birthplace of Khunn on the map to underlining the unique skill of Indian traditional artisanry, the label has a signature spectrum of accessories made to create security around the concept of freedom.
‘Jod’, a collection by Priyanka Raajiv is testimony to the integrity of upcycling unpurposed fabric pieces. In the numerous weaving cultures explored by this label, hand embroidery flourishes as an aspect to look through the lens of the artisan. In this collection, remnants of emotionally cherished fabric pieces are upcycled through handcrafting a color palette of corals, blue-greens and soothing shades of peach, airbrushed with a tone of eco-fashion sensibilities. While it caters to women, this collection has the versatility in its featherlight silhouettes of wardrobe pieces like scarves, which can be donned by anyone.
The weaver of Khadi as he is often harkened, Anurag Gupta has a long-standing authenticity in handmade apparel. From the buttons sewn on his mostly khadi garments to the hand-embroidered thread, everything is a result of manual labor, that takes the age-old skill into a painstaking endeavor of giving crisp outlines to traditional silhouettes. The label weaves garments with a gender-non-conforming flow, giving its signature touch to each handwoven silhouette, drawing a generational guideline of natural sustainability.
Fishnets and metallic foils re-engineered to make the fabric is a feat that AKHL has turned into a creative venture. From upcycling unmalleable materials to the detailed technicalities of fabric making, the label works with local weavers to make free-flowing gender-neutral garments. The structure of their pieces is evocative, unburdened, and unwavering in their sustainability; their forte being the reuse and upcycling of versatile materials to create ethereal elements.
The ethos of Indian sustainability lies not in the adaptation of international practices but in what is currently a renaissance of ancient techniques, rooted in the simplicity of weaving villages across the country. To blend this handspun thread into a pattern of gender complexities is yet another step towards a worldview that sees beyond the obvious and into the abstract to glean from centuries-old knowledge and apply it to the contemporary framework.
Fashion, to a large extent, shapes societal thinking. It may require sludging through years of unresolved and hidden layers, but with labels that aspire to be pioneers of eco-gender fashion and upcycled couture, the Indian handloom industry has messiahs to restore it to it’s deserved merit.
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.
“All design practitioners can get stuck at times, but what I
value the most is the rare time that one is in the flow…oblivious to the rest
of the world, totally focused on a concept or idea.”
Hema Shroff Patel, founder of Amba experienced this soulful connection on the banks of the river Narmada. Working with the Holkars at Rehwa Society, a Maheshwari handloom charitable trust, she began her exploration into weaving at a grassroots level with a simple appreciation for the handwoven cotton fabric with small borders which she had tailored into kurta pajamas for children. She organically grew from this homegrown affair to promoting and preserving the Indian handloom industry.
When asked about the current sustainability buzz, her words reflected her empathy towards Indian artisanal crafts. As a designer, sustainability is an inquiry into oneself, and the ideology goes deeper than a superficial trend. This, for Amba, begins at home: in the profit-sharing scheme, they seek an organic business model, upskilling the artisans and giving a touch of humanistic structure to the entire hierarchy.
Weavers have the advantage of working from home and have access
to social welfare programs held in the community and organized by Patel. When
asked about how the weavers are empowered, Patel said, “Weaving is a
good source of income, especially with families where all members participate
and work. Several processes are ancillary practices that aid the weaver. Hand
spinning fiber, bobbin winding, and warping all fall under this category.”
A cultivated understanding of weaving as an indigenous art has led to Amba’s transparent foundation and function as socialistic entrepreneurship.
“It is a great debate these days over art versus craft, but
where do handwoven textiles fall in this category?” Indian
textile history marks the use of handloom weaves dating as far back as the
Harappan civilization, tracing a path through a time when royals coveted
textiles and artisans were members of a guild. The Arthashastra mentions
specific fabrics like white barkcloth, Banaras linen, cotton from South India
and blankets of soft, wispy fabric. The techniques and mathematical patterns
involved in weaving these have been passed down through generations in a
household, the industry being notably inclusive of women in times when they
weren’t allowed to hold jobs.
In medieval times, the industry flourished when a ruler was
inclined towards the arts and distinct fabrics from local regions were
cherished.
With respect for this deeply rooted legacy, Amba dedicates itself to handwoven fabrics and natural dyeing. Natural dyeing requires in-depth research on the complexity of fibers used to weave fabric and the strength at which a particular fabric absorbs dyes. It can also be affected by the count of the yarns. But after this intricate process, the design reveals itself from months of sampling on a loom.
She admires interesting craft techniques in other contemporary
designers as well, noting the innovative perspective on Bodice’s work in Kullu
on craft traditions. She also admires Padmaja’s spirit in her dedication to
working with WomanWeave during the four years of fabricating design banks for
her silhouettes.
As any ethically inclined label, Amba, alongside its craft
technique evolution, endeavors to underline responsible living. Patel’s
response to how a label can follow responsible fashion states that, “Every
label that concerns itself with these practices need only to address the issues
in the industry related to child labor laws, the factory environment in which
their clothes are woven, stitched or made, or how they deal with their waste,
and by-products of their design.” This vision is crucial to our commitment
to the earth, and it must be passed on to the newcomers in the field.
Patel looks to the newcomers as well, like Wasim their master
weaver, trained at The Handloom School, founded by Sally Holkar, to carry out
Amba’s work. “Our goal is to share our knowledge in fiber development and
keep pushing contemporary boundaries with our traditional two peddle, double
shuttle loom.”
Her message to handloom weavers starting their sustainable
brands is to craft their textiles with instinctive attention to their regional
crafts, as weaving is becoming homogenous.
“It is important for weavers to learn how to reinterpret
traditional design elements with contemporary design skills which will retain
their textile DNA, so one always knows the origin of the textile.”
This is the key to continuing the Indian textile heritage, the
tenacity of handloom weaving, not borrowed, but grown from within. Amba stands
for these values striving to pass down these skills from one generation to the
next.
