design dialogues
border&fall is a unique digital platform for design talent in india, revealing and connecting the most innovative minds in fashion and craft. our creative agency specializes in brand communication, distribution & luxury sourcing. learn more at www.borderandfall.com ‘design dialogues’ is a selection of border&fall’s most compelling interviews, opinion pieces and documentation created for ‘the sari project’ with rta kapur chishti, sponsored by nyu steinhardt department of art and art professions, costume studies m.a. program and border&fall.
Breakthrough Fashion and humility are words that seldom seem to go together. The world of high fashion is oftentimes fraught with lush surface pageantry, sumptuous galas, exacting rites of passage and unparalleled elitism perhaps heralding back to the fashionable courts of Louis XIV. However in India, if I look closely at the fabric of ‘fashion’, the simplicity, of say, the vaishti, dhoti, lungi or sari, I am always struck by this almost Gandhian frugality that lends itself to these humble yards of ‘uncut’ cloth. In my opinion, the ingenuity and adaptability of this fabric can be traced to the ingenuity and simplicity of its weavers. Ironically, as I write this, the mighty Kumbh Mela is underway outside Allahabad, where blogs and twitter are going amuck with the visual narrative of men and women who have renounced the materiality of life, save for that little piece of cloth that clings to the loins, as a symbol of repudiation of earthly desire.
Writing for Border&Fall, Fashion Features Director Vogue India - Bandana Tewari, tells us why she thinks India’s breakthrough designers will be those who bridge the disparate creative worlds of both rural and urban India. text & image: bandana tewari
When I went traipsing across our country whilst working for Vogue’s Project Renaissance, an assignment that required me to source beautiful hand-woven textiles and send them to international designers like Gucci, Burberry, Christian Louboutin, etc, so that they could craft one-off designs for Vogue, I was humbled by this sartorial journey. I noticed that whether it was the maheswari weavers in Maheshwar
(Madhya Pradesh) or the paithani weavers in Yeola (Maharashtra), the ‘act’ of weaving is as intrinsic to their lives, as is cooking or praying. In fact, in most houses I visited, the weavers handloom (a design marvel of intricate mesh in wood wound with hundreds of colourful threads in meticulous precision) sat side-by-side beds, kitchens or in adjoining rooms, as permanent fixtures. In our urbanized houses, where home-life is meticulously crafted around a plasma screen, in these homes the everyday flurry of daily activities was around their loom. I am acutely aware of this self-defeatist ‘us’ and ‘them’ strain that my article may insinuate. But my intention is to really make myself understand the sociological context within which weaving thrives in our myriad towns and villages; and by doing that, perhaps I can better understand that lifestyle precedes livelihood. Then, and only then, I may indeed have the skills to intervene in this extraordinary world of Indian handicrafts. So for me, the breakthrough designers of this millennium will be the ones who pose and explore this question: How do I engage two seemingly disparate worlds of creativity—one rural, one urban—into a fruitful relationship? In fact, the breakthrough for our nation’s creative communities in both spanking metros and frugal villages alike, must
come from narrowing this us-and-them divide that has unwittingly made psychological barriers for a productive dialogue, a respectful engagement, and a business that benefits both weaver and designer. How do we participate in each other’s creative world that facilitates an industry of collaboration that is far-reaching, continual and sustainable? Rajesh Pratap Singh’s work with Orissa ikats and khadi, amongst others, are exemplary in the way he married post-modern silhouettes with traditional hand woven fabrics. Design heavyweights like Tarun Tahiliani, Ritu Kumar and Rohit Bal have always championed the use of Indian textiles. Sonam Dubal treats his collections with the spirit of an academic using indigenous fabrics. Sabyasachi’s ferocious attachment to native skills and crafts has seen him being one of the strongest exponents of ‘be local to be truly global’. Once, he unhesitatingly said: “Khadi is either associated with politicians, or with the poor. Our country also suffers from the gloss syndrome. Anything that is dull or matte, is not appreciated easily. I wanted to demystify the status of khadi and started creating bridal wear — the ultimate realm of luxury clothing — from the fabric. It creates shock reactions.” Rahul Mishra’s 50’s silhouettes dresses in chanderi silks are beautiful, wearable and cool. But we need more, much more involvement
from the Indian fashion industry. I am sure in my Indian design fraternity, there are more who need to be mentioned. But in my opinion its not quite enough to impact a nation of weavers and wearers. I remember a poignant quote by the erudite designer Hussein Chalayan that got me thinking. “When people talk about clothes, they do not talk… in the social and cultural context. They just take them at face value. That’s not something that interests me.” It shouldn’t interest us either. What content is to television, context is to fashion including the ‘fashion’ of handicrafts. The moment we contextualize the living, breathing traditions of our country, the more we will realize the absolute necessity to keep it alive and kicking. As I debate with Indian and international designers on how Indian crafts can be used in mainstream fashion, this is what I say – my vote, for whatever it’s worth, goes to those designers who use India’s sartorial traditions and make them super cool. I truly believe fashion can empower a nation, our nation. All we have to do is believe in a simple truism from the mouth of the inimitable Vivienne Westwood, who challenged and changed the fortunes of her nation’s fashion: “In order to do anything original you have to build it on tradition.”
Conscious & Cautious: D e s i g n e r S a b y a s a c h i Ta l k s S h o p
craft as india’s backbone
india’s most recognized designer, sabyasachi mukherjee, discusses the power of cultivating a collective national identity and why he believes the onus of modernizing craft should only be on those who understand it. excerpt from border&fall » text: border&fall images: sabyasachi, santu misra
Let’s admit it: we’ve all made our millions because we are craft dependent, and the world seeks it out. Unfortunately, what fashion has done to this country is that it has made it socially dysfunctional. India has always been in many ways a maximalist country. We truly like embellishment and handicraft, and so when you bring ideas like minimalism from the West – which do not belong here – you confuse buyers. They start to feel that being Indian is not such a good thing, which is unforgivable. It disrupts DNA. You lose the very strength that could make you a superpower. The idea of luxury comes from a point of authority, not subjugation. The French are celebrated for being French. When you are who you are, people are attracted to you. The global audience wants to speak to you. That is why when women wear saris or Indian textiles abroad the reaction is, “This is fascinating! Where did you get it from?” What
clothing can do is engender conversation and when you deny yourself cultural clothing, you’re denying yourself the opportunity to open up to the world. does craft need to be modernized in order to sustain it? That’s a debatable question. Some people modernize craft, some people work to keep it where it is. Fusion, in my opinion, is a bad word because a lot of people do fusion for the sake of it. The onus of modernizing craft should go to people who understand it. Sometimes when you modernize for the sake of modernization, the ultimate result is bastardization. When you do something to elevate your ego and put your stamp on it, it’s akin to being a rebel without a cause. What’s the point of doing something new if there’s no context? How many craft belts in this country have been damaged by design ego, leaving karigars completely lost? In Phulia (a weaving
village in West Bengal) my major question to karigars is, “Why do your weaves suddenly have influence from the South?” There’s so much cross pollination happening because every designer is coming in, and taking away from the purity of the craft by doing things for their own purpose. Many craftsmen are not educated; they are people who are instinctive about product and have been doing things a certain way for a generation. Because they have little mind of their own as far as external stimulus is concerned, it’s very easy to bring a notion to them that they do not understand. It can prove dangerous unless the designers themselves have done their homework. It’s about understanding craft, understanding design, understanding the ecology of various aspects that go into preserving craft. Many crafts have existed with ecological support from the hinterland; that’s why a craft survives. You can create a serious imbalance in craft ecology by interfering without understanding why you’re doing it.
Craft, Design & Excellence working at the intersection of craft, design and excellence, maximiliano modesti has spent the last twenty years in india building a business employing over 650 people in three factories across delhi and bombay, serving a select few luxury clients. he speaks to us about the real challenges within the craft industry, where his company is responsible, and the additional responsibilities they are taking on to ensure the future of the “made in india” label. modesti is the founder and managing director of indian leather artisans pvt ltd, ardy 2m design studio pvt ltd, and les ateliers 2m in paris. he is the founder of retail store ‘jaipur modern’ in jaipur, india. text: border&fall images: ardy2m design studio
you’ve been in india twenty years. what brought you here? I came as a young graduate of IFM (Institut Francais de la Mode), finishing an MBA in Paris. I proposed a study to the faculty on the opening of the Indian market to luxury brands. They all looked at me as if I were mad but I had a strong intuition and the study ended up helping Lacoste to enter the market. While researching, I was amazed at the exceptional
and unique craft in India. I didn’t come with a plan in ‘93 – I wanted to see what could be done. I trained as a fashion designer and had just finished working with Azzedine Alaïa for five years before coming here. I had nothing to do with embroidery and craft in India; it was a happy mistake. The first few years were about R&D; experimenting, developing samples and understanding how the communities worked. That’s about the
time Stella McCartney arrived at Chloé and asked me to start doing their embroidery. Working with Azzedine was important because that is how I came to meet many people who are clients and friends, including our relationship with Hermès. Today, we work with a few clients, including Hermès, Isabel Marant and Bibhu Mohapatra. For instance, all of the Hermès embroidery is done by us here. We do embroidery and silk garments in Bombay
and leather accessories and garments in Delhi. The idea is to become completely vertically integrated, manufacturing finished products out of our factories and only focusing on the excellency of craft – there is no compromise on quality.
it may surprise readers to know your clients produce in india, including hermès. what is the value of the ‘made in india’ label to your brands? We are extremely proud of it. I make it a point only to work with people who are proud to be creating in the country. All our products must carry the ‘Made in India’ label. In fact, Hermès has created beautiful ‘Made in India’ labels for their products. Every designer I work with has come to India, I came with Azzedine in ’96, Stella came in ’99 and Phoebe in ’00. I make it a point for the Hermès team to come twice a year, minimum. They must sit on the floor with the karigars to understand how it works. I don’t believe in creation that is purely transactional. If you work with me, you must come here, sit on the floor, look at the technique and we then create together. This has given the best results. Firstly, it’s respect for the karigars, because only then you realize how exceptional they are. Secondly, what we can achieve at the level of creation is nothing compared to sending samples back and forth. are the perceptions of the ‘made in india’ label a problem? It is not a problem at the luxury level anymore. However, the working conditions are still a problem. I went to see units in Nagpada in Bombay,
where many luxury labels do their work. When you see the working conditions, you cannot accept it. One of the problems is that the industry here is of traders, but this is changing. We are at the turning point between an old industry and a new one. Previously, a label used to place an order with a buying office, they in turn placed an order with the trader and on and on. In the end, there was never any accountability. Today the buyer wants to know where their piece is being made – they come right to the point of origin. The other issue is that the common client in India is not proud of the Indian craft. They don’t realize the number of hours and amount of work that go into an exceptional sari – handloom or power loom – they don’t understand the difference. It has to change. India has a huge economic reservoir in craft that is not being harnessed. But I am starting to see a certain consciousness. Indian designers are extremely conscious about it. Behind all the glitzy fashion, there are those that are truly concerned about the craft. I wish they would do more, because when you go to the facilities where it’s produced, it doesn’t match up. By they are conscious in that they need to pay if they want quality. I wish they would pass the message to the customer – to educate the customer about the cotton, embroidery… why it’s exceptional. And mostly, why it’s so important to sustain Indian craft.
does pride in indian craft mean we need to preserve it as it is? No. We need to change it. It is all about design and craft. I disagree with the craft purists in India who say we cannot change things. Not true. The only thing that will keep craft alive is design. Design will save craft; I am a living example of this success. This is the main problem of the craftsmen, they don’t have the design. You cannot keep repeating the same things, one needs to address the liaison between design and craft. I believe only in that. How do you bring design to them? This is something we are working on. Another issue with regards to providing design inputs is education. There are so many fashion schools in India, but the level of quality in their graduates is unbelievably poor. I receive fifty CV’s each month from students of fashion schools and I’m only able to hire one. But I need fifteen. What is shocking is the amount they pay to go to these schools – it’s a serious problem. Four years ago we initiated an exchange program supported by UNESCO and FIMALAC Foundation, between NID (National Institute of Design) and Ecole Duperre in Paris for a four month exchange, giving the opportunity to students to experience design working conditions in a complete different environment. This year will be our 4th edition and I am
proud to see the students evolution. However, at this point, I still have to bring people from France. I feel bad because I should be nurturing young grads from here. It’s not the training, it’s just that they all want to be famous. They feel extremely proud for six months working with luxury labels and after that they think they can do it on their own. You know what happens? Nothing happens. That’s the reality. speaking about design and craft, one of the major criticisms from purists with regards to the hermès sari collection was that they were not even hand loomed, and exorbitantly price, at ~5lac (usd 8000) One you’ve seen how the print of Hermès is done then you can truly understand it. The purists will judge based on their history of sari – but if you don’t know how a product is made, how can you comment? In India, you can’t do more than ten colors in a silk screen – it’s a disaster post that. The saris are silk twill printed in thirty two colors. Show me how you can print that – it’s a craft in its own right. To be honest, I don’t think think they were expensive enough. When you look at the craft and quality, I would price them closer to ~8Lac (USD 12,500). They sold out a little bit too fast.
have you seen a change in the next generation of craftsmen with regards to their willingness to work in the trade? It will take up to ten years to see that. This is the reason there is an emergency for action to be taken. Craftsmen used to come from the villages and move to the big cities. I don’t believe anymore in bringing the people to the city – it cannot be sustained because of the quality of life and family life of the craftsmen. You are taking people away from their family nucleus. I believe we need to be the ones moving, that’s why we are opening a factory in Agra, it’s being constructed as we speak and will have current employees from Delhi and Bombay moving back to Agra. It will be a trial with fifty people and we will see how sustainable it is. what is your responsibility to sustaining
a craft that is not necessarily valued? for instance, a popular shawl company in delhi, who also does private label work with international luxury brands, recently said many clients don’t opt for indigo dyes because there is too much variation in the color and that color fastness is an issue. This is the international standard – uniformity in production. However for me, one must accept the irregularity of the craft. Denim was popularized in the 1800s with indigo, which then faded and transferred color. Once you’ve seen the process from the leaf to the powder, you realize what the beauty of it is. The deepness of the color is unbelievable. When you have a brand that is sensitive to this, sees the beauty and says, “Ok,
we are going to do a small collection of 400 pieces knowing the problems. But we are going to educate the client”, it becomes valued for its uniqueness. given that the future of craft is a complex and large issue, how does one begin to create change? Today, we don’t have precise numbers to know how many people are employed in the craft industry – we only have rough figures. Everything currently falls under ‘handicraft’. You can be making a cushion for Ikea or the most beautiful embroidery – but it’s all ‘handicraft’. It’s not the same thing. Everything we’ve spoken of comes down to the same thing: ensuring a vibrant future for the craft industry. These are the problems some of us are trying to address through our work. For instance, with people and organizations like Ritu Sethi (The Craft Revival Trust) and UNESCO, we
want to focus on centers for craft excellence. The idea is to take master craftsmen and train them, giving them social recognition as well. Currently, there is no diploma for their work – they learn on the loom, don’t attend school and don’t feel educated. But if you try and do the math on setting up a loom – an ikat for instance – it’s brilliant, most people would not know how to calculate the complex weaving pattern. How do we value that? We need to recognize and value that. At my level I’m trying to create small earthquakes so people can wake up and spend the money. Resources are there. If people realized how much economic power craft has, I am sure they would see it completely differently. It’s a matter of time. India is always a matter of time. I remain optimistic and am clear with my responsibility: to give back to the country what it’s given me.
3 D Te c h n o l o g y x Block Printing
technology and craft meet with implications to consider, both potentially positive and negative. becca rosen is a new york based designer and textile developer with a penchant for texture and process who writes about her explorations with 3d printing and traditional block printing, addressing how technology can potentially help artisans evolve within a rapidly globalized marketplace. excerpt from border&fall » text & images: becca rosen “I have spent a great deal of time travelling overseas and working with textile manufacturers during my career, but it is the first time I am encountering the question: how is the local artisan to evolve with a rapidly globalized market? What if traditional carvers had access to a 3D printer? What would they make? Could 3D printing help in productivity? Could it create new products? Could it eliminate waste? Could all this be done in a socially and economically beneficial context? “ Whether it is a smartphone that allows better communication between local craftsmen and international buyer, or mechanized tools that facilitate faster production, the application of technology is already bringing new business to an old craft.
Khadi x Denim over the last few years, khadi and denim two fabrics of distinct origins, histories and constitutions have been woven together in an inconspicuous but potentially significant marriage. one of the most exciting recent textile developments, this pairing is making inroads into the billion-dollar denim market. excerpt from border&fall » images:rajesh pratap singh, arvind ltd., zacharie Rabehi
Sturdy denim, once representing the tenacity of America’s working class is meeting India’s poetic khadi, developed as a fabric for the common man and signifying hope to a newly independent India. Denim however, has managed to progress from its utilitarian origins into a uniform for the chic and modern, appropriated equally by niche luxury brands while firmly belonging to the streets. On the contrary, khadi’s popularity has wavered, with a younger generation yet to forge a strong connection, often still considered the conventional cloth of the principled or intelligentsia. Both are woven cotton, yet denim is highly technical and mechanized, whereas khadi relies on the dexterity of a hand that
spins on an antiquated loom. India’s denim production is expected to grow to 1.0 billion meters per annum by 2015, yet there is nothing Indian about it: the technology is imported and designs are from Italian and American makers. Khadi, on the other hand, is India’s legacy and luxury – naturally washed, chemically unprocessed, hand-spun in much lower quantities – only 91 million square meters per annum in 2012-13. The bottom line? Many revere khadi, but everybody wears jeans. From the khadi standpoint, joining forces with the apparel industry’s fail-safe cool kid is a strategic move. But equally forward thinking is the denim manufacturer who anticipates demand for an
authentically homegrown, differentiated denim product. It appears that the genius behind combining khadi with denim lies in its appeal not just to khadi revivalists, but also innovators in the purest sense of the word.
R t a K a p u r C h i s t i : A u t h o r, R e s e a r c h e r, D e s i g n D e v e l o p e r
We’re talking long-term, huge employment advantages, and sustainability. Let’s not forget that, although everybody has a pair of jeans in their wardrobe, it is the most polluting garment in the industry. Here, we have a solution that is completely Indian and organic, environmentally friendly and natural. It’s solid, and the way I see it, it is growing. It’s not fashion – it’s more than that - Designer Rajesh Pratap Singh
The Beginning I was born in New Delhi after independence. I was fascinated with craft from my school days and later learned to spin and weave because of a program I initiated at the Bal Bhawan & National Children’s Museum; teaching children through the arts. My undergraduate degree was in Political Science from Lady Sri Ram College and then I studied at the School of Drama. I went back to Delhi University in 1971 for a second degree in Education. After graduating, I began writing on the lives and work of
exceptional crafts people who were far ahead of the market demands of magazines and newspapers. In 1981, based on these articles, I was commissioned by Martand Singh, then Director of the Calico Museum of Textiles, to write for the ‘Master Weavers’ publication for the first Visvakarma exhibition, which opened at the Royal College of Art, London1982. I interviewed one master from every technique – a block maker, tie-dyer, a brocade weaver from Benares, and presented their point of view.
I then started research on a sari project titled ‘1001 saris of India’ as well as production with a Japanese designer in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The research was paid for very minimally – 3000 INR (USD 48) per month for about 15 years – and working with the Japanese designers enabled my research and travel. I couldn’t have survived without it. The articles were being written and published alongside; the Economic Times in Delhi had a big culture page at the time, The India Magazine, and then Times of India and Asian Age. Taanbaan is a label we initiated in 2011 and has a Delhi-based design team that travels to the production areas once or twice a year to create a range of handspun-handwoven textiles in organic desi cotton or in combination with low twist silks: tussar; eri or muga. It tries to support the cultivation of raw materials by advance payment to farmers with a buy back guarantee for a specific quality.
Though an initial grant may have supported the setting up of looms in some areas, they have all become self-supporting in 12 to 16 months. Every area has an appointed son/daughter of a weaver who coordinates the collection and quality of raw material, the understanding, supervision and implementation of design and weave required, ensures a finished quality that has been agreed upon and sees that it is delivered within a given time frame, and maintains a reimbursable monthly account out of which spinners and weavers are paid on a daily/ weekly basis. We provide free-of-interest loans for essentials for a healthy working environment such as power backup inverters, loom accessories, medical emergencies, etc which are invariably paid back by the beneficiaries on a small monthly repayment basis. Though the handspinning/ handweaving program was initiated in 2006, it took five years for us to bring it to a point of stability with a Delhi-based design team, so that the participants could understand the quality and skill level that was expected of them. Also there was by then a regular flow of handspun handwovens of a certain quality that could be ensured and thus we could consistently create a market for it. Therefore, the need for a label. Moment It was a particularly hot day in Maharashtra. My colleagues and I had been through three villages, on the road since six in the morning for over
150 km, with three hour long discussions in each. We were foraging for information about what was woven previously, i.e. previous to the plain flimsy janta saris and fabrics we found them weaving at the time of our visit. The team was tired and ready for a stop at a village called Achalpur for some food and much looked forward to night’s rest. As we arrived, there was a slow start to the discussion, as we all sat on dhurries out in the open under the gracefully setting sun.
Suddenly, one elderly gentleman walked into the small group of fifteen weavers or so with a gudri (patch work) bed cloth to show a yarn resist Ikat border sari in one patch. Our fatigued group suddenly came to life: “What is this! We have not seen anything like this in all of Maharashtra till now. Are there more examples to see?” There was a flurry of activity among the women, children and elders! Everyone made a dash homewards, or to their neighbours’. Within minutes there were eight or ten more fragments before us. This was astounding and we began digging for more of what was once woven.
The crowd had now grown to more than 50 weavers and their families and many of them took my notebook to draw by hand what they wanted us to see from memory. While I was looking through my eyeglass at the density of the fragment and yarn counts, they were able to tell me the bundles of yarn that went into a warp of four saris. While I was counting threads, this mathematical genius was converting weight to length and width including extra threads used in warp and weft for patterning! What a wonder of a day! A day that made all the fallow hours and days
worthwhile. Samples were commissioned late into the night, and arrived many months later without us leaving any advance payments. They were better than expected, woven more than forty years after they were last woven – and based on living memory!
books include Roop Samhita’s Indian Design: Figurative and Geometric, 5000 Indian Designs and Motives, as well as literature associated with Sant Kabir.
Wa r d r o b e s
We also run a program called ‘The Sari School’, teaching individuals the history and various methods of tying the sari. References I usually browse through books but some websites about nature and birds like National Geographic and Discovery interest me. Indispensable
Contact rtakapurchishti@gmail.com http://www.anandakhadi.com/
‘Wardrobes’ is an ongoing documentation of individuals in India with a distinct sense of style, with an intention to capture unique voices that transcend clothing. Following are wardrobes across three generations of women in India.
Anupama Sukh Lalvani anu’s approach to style and design is greatly influenced by african culture. Born and raised in lagos, nigeria, she continues to derive inspiration from elements of nature; most notably the shape of the ‘circle’, shells, straw and metal. currently living in Delhi, her home studio allows balance in her life as priority is given to raising her 2 young boys. anu favors a non-fussed, comfortable and minimal wardrobe wearing white khadi in the day and black tones at night. preferring one specific pair of ‘jesus’ sandals and always with a transitional straw bag for day/evening, she uses pieces from her jewelry brand, en inde, to accent her wardrobe. outspoken, opinionated and with a razor sharp vision, anu and her jewelry brand ‘en inde’ are very much at the forefront of modern india.
Nidhi Jacob
generally refusing to iron any clothes or pay more than Rs 500 (USD 8) for a garment, nidhi relies on her innate styling skills to look anything but sloppy and budget conscious. her general philosophy when it comes to clothes is that they should be comfortable enough for to sleep in. fond of oversize clothing and roadside vendors, she is self-assured and confident. her wardrobe is edited and she doesn’t hesitate to rid of pieces after every six months. since this shoot, there has been a purge of many pieces reflecting the transient nature of clothing and her ability to be free from them.
Latha Bhandary resplendent kanjeevarams, dhakai’s and mysore silk – latha’s wardrobe is a trip to every state (favouring the southern ones) with temple jewelry and french chandelier earrings to match (or mismatch, as she does her sari blouses). a mother, grandmother and active patron of the arts, latha is always elegantly turned out in a sari and trademark long silken black hair. her enthusiasm for collecting and wearing saris is infectious, as she is able to explain the weaving technique or origins with ease. her sense of south indian heritage is strong, kanjeevarams and temple jewels are the go-to staples. her love of color is as evident as her joy in living; meeting her was a lesson in generosity, hospitality and moreover – the uncut cloth.
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