Anaka Narayanan redefines stripes in her new collection. With 30 pieces, Brass Tacks’s summer line, The Textures of East Godavari features everything from wrap dresses, airy tops to bias tunics — all of them in muted as well as bold stripes in handwoven cotton. The breezy collection is an answer to the city’s soaring temperature, shares Anaka, the founder and creative director at Brass Tacks.
Having worked with handwoven cotton and khadi cotton for over ten years, Anaka says that this time she has focussed on introducing additional texture through ribs and woven stripes on the fabrics. “I wanted to work with textiles with unique texture. Since prints and motifs on the textiles would take away the focus from its texture, we have worked with stripes on yarns such as khadi, where the stripes are of different yarn thickness,” says the 28-year-old designer, who had our attention when she launched her Clamp Shibori Collection, last year.
Created entirely from handwoven fabrics such as handspun khadi, Anaka has worked with weavers from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh for this line. “The weavers cooperative I worked with is called Chitrika, and they have clusters of craftsmen with whom they work to produce textiles. I only started working with these craftsmen last year. Right after I saw the initial samples that they presented, I was immediately drawn to the texture enhancement techniques they used such as woven ribs in the warp and weft to create undulations in the fabric.”
This collection includes silhouettes that are are shapely around the bust and waist and flared from waist down, boxy tops like the sleeved poncho alongside bias cut tunics and wrap dresses. “Apart from this, we have wide leg pants, slip-on culottes, and a flared jumpsuit. The woven stripes in the clothes are in shades of eggplant, rust, murky teal, beige, ochre, dry herb, ash blue, and kora, the colour of unbleached cotton,” Anaka informs.
`2,500 onwards.
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