Out with their latest edit, Chaos, House of Khaddar ups their play with colour,  introducing brand new silhouettes

With their previous collection Warp & Weft all the rage within fashion circles across the country, House of Khaddar designer Amritha Ram just announced the latest edit from the label, Chaos, and we caught up with her to find out more. “The idea of chaos just came along. It started off as a small idea when I visited the Vincent Van Gogh immersive exhibit in Paris. It was a very different and elated feeling to be standing amid the art. I was very inspired by it and wanted to make it a part of our next collection, as that way, the art gets incorporated into our daily lives too. My colours were already set and I knew the collection would unfold the moment I sat down to envision it, like an artist before a canvas. Art and fashion go hand-in-hand according to me and so, this was a collection just waiting to happen,” begins Amritha Ram, designer, House of Khaddar. 

“The process was really simple for me. I knew what I wanted. I have always been inspired by art, even during my days of studying fashion in New York. So, for Chaos, I reached out to someone I knew very well. Someone, who had worked with both Kamal Haasan and I — an artist from the Madras Art School — Jackson Immanuel. He has worked with me on multiple projects and has a background in art. I tried painting my ideas on fabric, but the paint was absorbed by the cloth, so we had to create a canvas and that is where Jackson’s expertise came in. We researched on pressing the fabric, removing the starch and tried loads of other things. Finally, we got Jackson to paint these ideas onto canvas, of course, giving him the freedom to do as he pleases and then I designed the silhouettes based on what came out of that,” adds the enthusiastic designer. 

While the previous edit, Warp & Weft, was shot on the streets of Chicago featuring Kamal Haasan himself; for this collection, Team House of Khaddar chose Cape Town, South Africa. “We shot everything naturally. In Cape Town we had both rocks and sand dunes and it worked really well for us. The palette is dominated by blues and yellows along with several bright colours that really worked in this scenery. They are all, of course, in primary colours and no secondary colours are used. We have also used brush strokes and graffiti too on some of the silhouettes and that really stood out during the shoot,” explains Amritha. 

Known for their love for khadi or khaddar, the collection comprises 15 pieces for men and 16 for women. These can be paired up as ensembles or co-ords or can be worn on their own. “We’ve done everything from gowns to pants and have attempted gender fluid trousers too! The canvas selected the silhouettes, in this case, quite literally as I had to build my pieces around the art painted on the fabric by Jackson. He wasn’t willing to restrict his artistic freedom based on the silhouettes I had in mind (laughs). Chaos will also see T-shirts for men, which is a first-time attempt for us,” concludes the designer. 

INR 25,000 onwards. Showcasing in June 2023 in Las Vegas, the collection goes online soon. 

romal@newindianexpress.com  
@elromal