“When you wear Zola, you wear a piece of history, culture and the innumerable stories of the artisans who create our jewellery. You wear a piece of earth” says Gina Joseph an entrepreneur exhibiting her creative Jewellery / Wearable art for the first time in Vastra Utsav.
Vastra Utsav, after taking its baby steps is marching ahead with more confident steps on its journey as it enters its 10th year. Envisioned and initiated by a group of art and heritage enthusiasts, Friends of Dakshinchitra was formed to support, create awareness and raise funds for one of Chennai’s landmark vision – Dakshinchitra Vastra Utsav one of their fundraising initiatives was started with the idea of bringing together under a common umbrella designers artists, artisans from across the country, working with textile and craft traditions by infusing contemporary ideas to reach a wider market
Aarika, a Jewellery / Footwear brand ideated by Sarika Rajeev Kapoor, playing with materials and techniques with a team of trained craftsman has come up with organic hand woven Jute neck pieces interlaced with temple padhakam as one of their highlights. On the other hand, Desi Soul’s focus is on attitude and wearable art. From retro to metro, geek to chic, the range is all there.
Bass Tracks, Namma Chennai store which has built a strong customer base working with hand woven traditional textiles creating simple, smart, comfortable outfits for the jet setting professional women. Their collection for this exhibition features beautiful handloom Khadi cotton. Sujatha Pai with her brand Ambi believes that the beauty of our hand woven textiles should leave viewers spellbound. Combining weaving, block printing and embroidery she creates classy ethnic garments and saris and also one of a kind signature style outfits by layering different textiles and embellishing them.
Core design philosophy of creating unique products using traditional hand skill and weaves to make them accessible to a larger market is Maati Crafts ideology. Finding resonance in these ideas is the collection of Marm that creates unique products using hand woven textiles and natural dyes.
“Every pashmina shawl with hand embroidery or without has the potential of being a family heirloom” is the motto behind the collection of pashmina shawls and scarves of Elysian Firdose. Kantha from Bengal and batik saris, stoles in tussar and silks by Bidisha Bhaduri, Kantha saris by Sabita Dey, mix and match outfits by Riti’s from Bangalore, Samprada from Delhi with handcrafted apparels, Nuppur’s Bangalore Needlework Foundation, Bangalore, Kantha Creations, Pune are some of the other collections on show.
Adding colour, artist V.V. Ramani walks into a different Canvas with his hand painted collection. The colourful baskets and traditional Chettinad sari from M. Rm.Rm. Cultural Foundation Collections will appeal to one and all.
All these beautiful ranges of textiles, crafts, jewellery will be on view between 10 am and 7 pm on 10th and 11th August 2017 at Mayor Ramanathan Chettiar Centre, Santhome, Chennai – 600028.
Malavika Sarukkai, the renowned Bharatnatyam Exponent who has successfully adapted a traditional art form to suit contemporary tastes and a staunch upholder of traditional beliefs and art inaugurates the show on 10th August at 10 am.