‘Stole’ the show! Conscious luxury label Kaamna launched its first collection, 'Ezlyn', a range of Madhubani art-inspired stoles

With the festive season chiming in and the new trend of repeating the same outfits by celebrities finally in, we bet you are looking for ways to spruce up your existing wardrobe in newer ways, everyday. Well, to relieve you of those last-minute fashion brain freezes, here is a new label with a collection of stoles to help you make your most dull ensembles into vibrant ones.

Fashion label Kaamna was launched as an online-first conscious luxury brand at the end of May this year. Ringing in the festive season, it has now come up with its first collection Ezlyn. Inspired by the ancient Indian art form madhubani, this collection seeks to combine the precision of the modern times with the grandeur of heritage art forms. It features stoles in four designs, namely African Motif, Lotus Maze, Mandala Fusion and P-Kingdom.

A fusion between a figurative rooted in African culture and madhubani art, the design African Motif features borders on both ends and portrays how two different cultures can inspire to create a beautiful art form.

Lotus Maze, on the other hand, explores the challenges in a woman’s life. And to convey this, the motif of a woman with butterfly wings has been used. She is shown to be put inside a mirror, which is placed between a maze of varying boxes. “The underlying meaning is that in some places, women are forced to marry without their will. She accepts to get married reluctantly but she feels like she is trapped within a maze all the time. Every time she looks at herself in the mirror, she wishes for her freedom, so that she can fly out of this maze,” Mangalam Lalpuria, founder, Kaamna tells us.

Mandala Fusion is a fusion of yet another famous art form — mandala — with madhubani. The concept behind this design was to showcase the timeless beauty and constant growth of India. The circular patterns in mandalas denote unity and totality, peacocks denote India’s dignity and the trees represent the growth ladder.

Peacocks also find their ways as motifs into another design, P-Kingdom. This is a very motif-heavy design, showcasing the history of Indian empires. The whole analogy is drawn by the kingdom of a peacock, which is flanked by its attendants and wealth, nature and prosperity.

Each design is present in three different colours and the palette is characterised by pastel pinks, softer greens and subdued yellows. “This colour palette is chosen to signify the versatility of hand-painted stoles and the underlying message of promoting women empowerment,” Mangalam elaborates.

Sustainability is the cornerstone of the label. That is what has decided the choice of fabrics for the collection. Mangalam explains, “since sustainability is the core driver of Ezlyn, we look at modern, sustainable alternatives for the usual cotton or silk used in madhubani collections. We are working with 100 percent hemp or 100 percent linen fabrics to craft our stoles that are breathable and lightweight.” Being a carbon-negative material from the fibres of the stalk of the Cannabis Sativa plant family, Kaamna boasts of sourcing GOTS-certified raw material from Portugal.

Moreover, all the designs are hand-painted by skilled practitioners of the madhubani art form in the workshop. It takes about 12-15 days to hand-paint them. But the process — right from the conceptualisation to the completion of a design on a stole — takes about two months.

Giving us a sneak peek into their next collection, Mangalam reveals, “Alongside stoles, the label would be showcasing its complete non-clothing accessories — such as laptop bags, wallets, women’s handbags and clutches — in the coming month or so. We are already working with newer sustainable fabric alternatives like cork fabric as well as fabric made from pineapple leaves for our next range of products.”

INR 9,500. Available online. 

Email: prattusa@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @MallikPrattusa

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