FASHION DESIGN COUNCIL OF INDIA SS19 DAY 1
ANUPAMAA BY ANUPAMA DAYAL
Broken SS19
Scars and wounds are invaluable. That’s how the light comes in . Every new stage in our lives will insist on a new version of us and mostly it takes being broken to rise to that challenge .
In Japan , when a bowl is broken , the cracks are filled in gold . The Japanese believe that when an object has suffered damage and has history , it becomes even more beautiful and the gold in the cracks are homage to this. The same applies to humans . You are more beautiful now .
In this collection we celebrate being Broken and the art of golden repair .
We use the star fish motif in different sizes . The starfish, with its ability to regenerate new limbs when the old ones get damaged is the ultimate symbol of self renewal . Patchwork in eclectic Anupamaa prints with ‘boundaries ‘defined in gold. The mood is spontaneous, resplendent and fearless . We have also used a lot of ‘ rainbows’ . At Anupamaa we believe that the rainbow is every woman’s birthright .
We have also embellished this optimistic collection with our intrinsic brand values such as our sustainable and engaged approach to fashion . That a hand crafted garment is true luxury .
We have always endorsed the female form with every inclusivity ... shapes, age, race, religion and gender . More power now and forever to every woman. broken , joined , intact , invincible .
-Anupamaa Dayal
SAMANT CHAUHAN
BOMBAY - “ tomorrow you will lose everything forever “
“At some point in your life, this statement will be true: tomorrow you will lose everything forever.”
- Charles Wu
Where do forgotten things belong? A frayed image from a time when the city didn’t have the glass buildings that would reflect the sea back to wherever it came from is a leftover from then.
From the plane window, I am looking out on a ridge all in shades of black and grey and I shudder at the emptiness in the vast universe-the earth with its on top of the food chain men riding in aircrafts.
Steelwork sunsets. Orange skies that dissolve into black and then become sky blue. All these colours and the old black and white forgotten photographs.
Even Bombay just looks a speck from this height and to think of the millions of hearts in it, and trying to wrestle with their concoctions of loneliness but then, they have they say here. I came to this city thinking of the desolation of this extreme kind of loneliness in a city by the sea.
Bombay, the megalopolis, is a city I hoped I would visit one day to learn about resilience.
Do you know the smell of hope? It comes from the windows of the Chawls that look out on the city’s high rises in the nights. The people in those windows look at the ‘other world’ and think perhaps that they would one day have a place to love, a space to sit and a bathroom to themselves. I go near the sea and I see couples embracing. Bombay is about people living and loving in small spaces.
The chawls are the places of bonding, of women sitting together after lunch, of love expressed in whispers in a room full of people.
You can never be lonely in a place like this.
“Bombay is a city that eats up the sea. It is always hungry, forever looking to expand but sometimes, the sea surges forward in its fury.
The waves crashing against the rocks, frustrating themselves trying to take over the city.
Maybe the sea takes from the city's throbbing energy. So full that it engulfs all that come into that ever-sprawling city, adding suburbs after suburbs to its expanse, claiming the sea, too.
And the city...its buildings stand tall overlooking, assessing the waves.
The sea does not end. Nor does the ambition of land.
Inwards, it gobbles up what remains of the past. It is forever redeveloping, overwriting stories and histories. Kamathipura is almost bilocated.
And even as it is getting extinct with high rises replacing the old chawls here, remains a place of cheap sex and strange truths. It was the space you would go to find something unavailable in the other world.
I climbed the dark stairs to the brothel in Kamathipura ’s Gulli No. 1 along with my friend a few months ago.
That afternoon we stepped out of the hotel and went to see the city’s underbelly...”
In the various gullies of Kamathipura I see women looking out of windows with eyes that look sad but not defeated.
On this meridian, the woman doesn’t see the sea in the background. But to drown, you don’t need a sea. The sea is within us.
On yet another Meridian, Zeenath Pasha, a eunuch prostitute in Bombay’s red light district of Kamathipura, looks out of the rusted iron grills on to the street. On the ledge, there is a handful of garden. Creepers and flowers.
This is an ancient place.
An Eve in her garden of memories. A man who became a woman. And now the “she” looks out of the brothel windows on nothing in particular. The sea is nearby.
The red bus in flight and the city
The silver wings of the bus pierced the darkness. And then I saw the red bus, a relic of the past brought from the dead by the glint of the silver. The Flying Bus by Sudarshan Shetty can induce cultural despair. It reminds you of a strange kind of crossing over where things have lost their functional context and have been transformed into beautiful objects in memory. It wasn’t part of my nostalgia but the Bombay landscape as I have always remembered had these red buses...
There is an object on its way to extinction. As a nostalgia object in one’s imagination and memory, it becomes so tragically beautiful. That’s how we live, and that’s how we die.
And in these memories, there is the city and the experience. Static, frozen and layered.
And it is the art of obituary that we must pay homage to because cities are always changing. And the future too will recede into the past. That’s how we go forward. With nostalgia and dread. We lose constantly. The artist is filling up the gaps between then and now.
And as I, a traveler, stood before the bus that night, I knew it was an ode to death. With wings that can subvert the darkness of life. And that’s how I started my encounters with the city of Bombay... by remembering how it used to be...
All these three and a half decades I wrote notes on paper, on phone and on scraps of paper everywhere. Sometimes these were written with dates. Sometimes, the entries were more obscure, more timeless.
Other times with datelines. There are scattered images and me. Sometimes, we write half sentences because that’s the closest we can get to translating our experiences. Bombay is overwhelming.
That's the journey of everything. It all culminated in nothings. I am a chronicler of everyday objects from range of focal points.
I play with time. I try to condense it. I expand it. I capture its variety in a panoramic picture of my invisible self standing near the sea stretching time in this city, which makes me understand contrasts. It is all about collisions- personal and universal and this city is any city and yet if you have lived in Bombay you would instantly remember scenes in the local train. You would conjure your cities. And in the end, it is this ode to a city in time lapses that is poetic and encompasses the tragic, the mundane and the metaphysical in it.
Because tomorrow we will lose everything forever. This is a collection for the sake of those frozen frames that tell us of a time we have lost and the time we are going to lose.
RIMZIM DADU PRESS NOTE - SPRING SUMMER’19
My fascination for textures, material and re-engineering fabrics continue this season - as I try to explore the relationship between positive and negative space. The collection draws inspiration from age old techniques of lace-making and stencilling in our signature materials like - hand made chiffon cords, metallic cords and metal wires. The collection explores sculptural forms for ready to wear clothing using couture-like techniques.
The presentation aims to explore intersections between fashion, art and technology through a collaboration with a multi-disciplinary artist - HarshvardhanKadam of Inkbrushnme and an interactive experience technology studio - Digital Jalebi.
An inter-disciplinary art collaboration with technology as the main driving force - We use virtual reality to create an immersive art experience. While the artist uses the virtual world as his canvas to interpret RimzimDadu’s collection with Google Tilt Brush, the audience have the opportunity to see every brush stroke he makes in thin air on huge walls. This is the first time virtual reality is being used live for a fashion show in India.
About Digital Jalebi -
Digital Jalebi is an interactive design studio for experiential designs and developments. Digital Jalebi strives to deliver experiences through a range of realities - augmented, virtual or mixed.
Aimed at transforming spaces into more communicable and enjoyable opportunities, Digital Jalebi is a fusion of new media design and technology drawing heavily from digital art, visual communication, architecture and programming. Digital Jalebi works with retail spaces, events, exhibitions, learning experiences, real-estate and almost any domain open to future technologies for communication, marketing and branding.
HUEMN
The HUEMN SS19 collection is influenced by the cultural and socio-economic ambience of conflict ridden Kashmir set against its raw beauty; and the hope and pride in it’s growing youth. It’s stark contrasts of what has passed and what is to come form the backbone of our narrative.
The line comprises of multidimensional clothing in classic Huemn style with pattern play and a strong interjection of handmade surfaces and athletic detail to translate a fearless and modern, urban aesthetic. Photographs by renowned photographers Mark Hanauer and Azaan Shah have been played with and converted into print and mixed media textures. An assortment of intricate handwork techniques have been used to add unexpected detail to individual garments. The mood is powerful yet playful with edgy, contemporary styling.
Day dresses, statement t-shirts and luxe athleisure make up the collection in cottons, knits, summer leather, denim and digital prints.
The Indo-Australian Project
The Indo-Australian Project is a presentation of 5 Australian designer’s collections that have been created with stunning hand loomed textiles and artisan embellishments through Artisans of Fashion’s artisan partners. The project was conceived as part of an Indo-Australian agreement between the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India and the Australian Government in India to support the ongoing cultural and trade relationships in the fashion and textile industries. Caroline Poiner, the founder of Artisans of Fashion was engaged by the Australian High Commission to curate the collections and the event.
Artisans of Fashion wasfoundedin 2012with the intent to preserve the traditionalcraft techniques by linking the artisans to the International market through theinfluential fashion & textile industry.
We work with 100’s of weavers and artisans creating access to anextensive range of hand loomed textiles as well as traditional embroidery, dyeing and printing techniques; bringing the traditional craft of the artisans to the world ofinternational design.
Artisans of Fashion’s aim is to promote cultural sustainability, authenticity and
social change for village artisans in India; with a specific focus on empowering
women&marginalised communities who have little access to alternative
sources of income.
Our focus is to work with these communities to help create highquality, hand-crafted product with appeal for the international market and facilitate ongoing relationships and access between the designers and artisans.
We source our textiles from regions all over India - which has one of the richest
traditions and variety of this craft compared to any other country in the world. Each region has it’s unique style of weavingusing traditional designs and motifs each with its own distinctive character.
Since it's inception AOF has facilitated collaborations with a number of Australian designers with rural artisan communities. The collections are being sold worldwide and have been showcased at international runway shows; most recently with Australian designer Helen Kaminski in the US & Japan and Kit Willow (KIT X) at Paris Fashion Week with our latest presentation in Delhi presenting We Are Kindred, ROOPA, Romance Was Born, BBrothers Earth & Cassandra Harper a culmination of our work across the 5 designer collections at Lotus Makeup Delhi Fashion Week.
ASHISH N SONI
COLLECTION NOTE
Even 25 years on I do try to work outside of myself as much as possible. I challenge what I’m thinking, but whether you like it or not you’re always reflecting your mind-set in your collection.
Minimalism demands quality to carry it off, a collective yearning for the traditional virtues of longevity and craftsmanship, plus a degree of confidence,disciplined approach and an inbuilt ability to edit. What makes minimalism work is great workmanship. This all Black collection Is all about understanding construction, design, technique and technology. We’re witnessing an extra-defining departure from challenging statement dressing to a redefinition of what’s graceful, functional, and relevant. There’s an unprecedented focus on items that will last you a lifetime.
Overall the look is simultaneously timeless and of the moment, strong, powerful, reduced, sophisticated but yet commanding.
RAJESH PRATAP SINGH
ABOVE THE TREE LINE
NEXA 2018-9
LMIFW OCT 9, 2018
Combining the values of NEXA which are style and travel with their colour palette of black and white, to create a collection that is reminiscent of the pioneers and initial explorers.
The Indian mountains with their mystique and challenges hold many secrets and to discover oneself it is imperative to discover them. As John Muir once said “the mountains are calling and I must go”
Rugged, rocky asymmetric silhouettes. Deconstructed shapes with inside out seams. A collection honouring Indian Pahadi roots. Fabrics used comprise wool-linen blends, weaves that are made on hand looms and ikats.
Handcrafted shoesand gloves accessorise the look.
A collection that’s a tribute to adventure, travel, the roaming spirit, the exploration of the physical and that which is beyond.
Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna
COLLECTION NOTE
Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna presents a specially curated collection 'Twilight' keeping monochromatic theme in mind which looks bold and masculine like a NEXA car. The collection is inspired from the beautiful lines and curves of NEXA.
It pursues the accentuated glistening silver elements adding a touch of elegance to every garment and amalgamate metallic hues along with modern edgy elements.
Handcrafted techniques that amplify and highlight each detail of the garment have been used in the form of appliqué work and hand beading. Black crystals have been utilized in order to give this collection a sense of luxury.
Luxurious satin and twisted crepe are used for this Red-Carpet Collection. The intricate metal work on the silhouettes with matte and gloss textures defined an unusual patterns, giving an impression of pure indulgence.
