What innovation is to be expected in bridal wear? “Personalised,” pat comes the reply.
Architectural saris, saris with 36 colours, neo-brocades, and more.
Standing not far away from this interior monologue of the artist-designer is Aneeth
Arora, founder, péro by Aneeth Arora. Handcrafted textiles with a global appeal, and
certainly not changing traditional into the modern, is how she would like to describe
her design principles. “It is the freedom of artistic expression that I seek,” Arora mentions.
“We are the post-moderns,” and that’s how she would like to keep it. There’s the hand-
spun khadi that’s creating ripples, but with an update in technology; there’s an upgrade
in the mechanism as well. The iconic spinning wheel of India—charkha—goes hi-tech
with solar powered and mechanical ones boosting production, although the craft retains
its character. Similarly, printed phulkari and ikat patterns lend a diferent look and dilute
the nature of the craft, coinciding with the era of the comfortable-in-her-skin bride.
Seconds Nachiket Barve, as he talks about “breaking the cookie-cutter approach”,
in design. Today, textile art is contemporary with a mix of beauty and innovation thrown
in. Tulipmania, Barve’s autumn-winter 2016 collection, recently showcased at The
Woolmark Company fashion show in Mumbai, is inspired by 17th century Dutch
masters Rembrandt and Ambrosius Bosschaert, reinterpreted in the current context,
thereby inding new value in it. The tulips characterising the still life paintings are
recreated by leather kaarigars working with
appliqué, along with hand-cut Merino wool
felt, zardozi, and thread embroidery, crafting
three-four diferent variations of the tulip lower,
featured alongside bugs and butterlies. It signals
storytelling of a diferent kind with no inherent
value per se but one that explores new meaning.
The idea was to make wool it for evening and
ceremony wear, and to make it look “painterly”.
Anchored on this plane of inding new meaning
or value in existing things is the world of Amit
Aggarwal, founder, AM.IT. “I see the new
proposition as a fusion of modern industrial
materials with hand-woven fabrics, relecting
structural inluences along with luidity and
lightness,” Aggarwal says. Ikat, batik, chanderi,
chifon, and mesh are a few base fabrics that
the brand works with, while the techniques
lean towards creating a metallic shine “which
relects our luminous culture and the glamorous
Indian bride”, he says. Weaving, an intricate art
which is only mastered by women artisans,
weaves a story for the woman who is about to
start a new chapter of her life. Craft and fantasy marry in a manner most eclectic.
Using a body of urban junk for a diferent purpose—that of couture—was unthinkable
until a long time ago. It is radical—to superimpose industrial materials and discarded
items like polymer and polythene (by melting and decomposing) upon known textile
bases. “Breaking it down to the elements,” as Garg puts it in perspective, brings a sort
of fundamental simplicity to creations that we are willing to take back home today and
also wear at ceremonial evenings. Think jamdani weaves from Kolkata to temple motifs
of the South, from chikankari of the North to the gota patti of Rajasthan; all recreated
upon a mix of industrial and hand-woven textures, in a minimalistic bag of maximalist
template. To extend the metaphor of the artist seeking freedom of expression, the bride
can also seek her own experiences in this tactile world of meta-crafts. If there is any
back-to-the-roots nostalgia present, it is not in revisiting the lost grandeur of eras, but
to the pre-glamourised organic basics to be mixed with fantastical forms. About the
fantasy of a dream man, another day, another story. ■The infusion of
metallic shimmer
upon ikat, mesh
and chanderi
reflect our
luminous culture
and the glamorous
Indian bride.
—Amit Aggarwal
Showcasing a conceptual moodboard—of
structure and fluidity, artistic representation,
and artisans at work. Clockwise from left
(opposite page): Amit Aggarwal (5);
Nachiket Barve x The Woolmark Company
‘Shawl Style’ Show (4).On top left and
right, and this
picture: Rahul
Mishra, LFW SR ’16On left and right:
Nachiket Barve, The
Woolmark Company
show and AW ’16