The Sustainable Fashion Day at Lakme Fashion Week continued with an addition of Mumbai’s Parsi textile heritage and a fusion of Bengal and Tamil Nadu with their staple fabrics.
Ashdeen Z. Lilaowala, a textile designer specializing in Parsi gara embroidery, presented a craft he has researched extensively and has done much to revive with local artisans. With a team of 150 craftsmen the label showcased inimitable pieces from their studio based in New Delhi.
Ashdeen elaborated on his collection is called ‘Memories on Cloth’. He said “It is inspired by my childhood memories growing up in Mumbai. I’m an 80s kid and growing up in a Parsi household, we had lots of bold textiles and this is my interpretation of the gara embroidery. I have made it slightly more modern. We have worked with a summer palette. The challenge was to do this embroidery on the finest fabrics like silk, organza and net. We’ve created embroidery which looks like lace fabric.”
Memories on Cloth |
On the other hand, House of Three, a Bangalore based high fashion label offered a mix of Couture, Pret, Diffusion, collaborated with Tantajo, a brand by master weaver Rajib Debnath from Bengal, who supports livelihood of 450 families of master weavers, dyers and spinners. They presented a collection blending the Cotton Muslin Jamdani of Bengal with Silk Kanjivarams from master weavers in Kanchipur & Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.
Rajib said, “To me fashion is just not about clothes. We’re here to spread the message of love through textiles.”
The showstoppers were actress-singer Saba Azad and ‘Rang De Basanti’ actor Siddharth.
Saba Azad |
Siddharth said, “I’m really happy to be here. I am wearing some really stunning clothes. This is a marriage, an amalgamation between Kanjivaram from Tamil Nadu and Muslin from Bengal. But more importantly, we’re here for a very important message, and that if these two fabrics can get along then why can’t we get along."
Siddharth | Photos by Viral Bhayani
"Disagreement is a way of life and I think we can still communicate and still get along despite the fact that we can disagree on issues. But keeping issues aside, it’s important to come together, fashion needs to be both sudden and enduring and that’s how relationships and the country has to be", he added.
