When Hyderabad-based textile designer Gaurang Shah presents his new collection ‘Chitravali — a magnificent jewel of art’ at Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2017 on August 18, it will be an ode to artists of Ajanta Ellora era as well as kalamkari artisans of today. The collection has 40 pieces, saris and ensembles included, which draw inspiration from 30 frescos from the Ajanta caves.
“We tried Rajasthani miniature paintings on our saris, but it requires more work to get the finesse I wanted. In the meantime, I felt it would be interesting to do Ajanta-inspired paintings on our fabric since these figures and colours are relatively easier to adapt in kalamkari,” says Gaurang.
A master Kalamkari artist in Tirupati, who is adept in drawing facial expressions, drew the outlines of paintings in all the ensembles. Then, a group of artisans coloured each of the painting-inspired motifs. But all this happened later.
The first stage was to arrive at the desired texture of each fabric. Kanchi-kalamkari, organza-Kanchi, khadi-Kanchi and tussar-Kanchi are some of the fusions the team worked on. A regular organza is stiff and not conducive to take in deep colours of the paintings, hence, Gaurang’s team worked on custom-made silk organza with satin finish. “Then it becomes amenable for dyeing and paintings. Once the fabric is woven, it is treated to natural dyes using a brush painting technique to get the required background. Then the artists in Tirupati do the outline and colouring of the paintings,” he explains.
Some of the saris and ensembles required 17 stages of processing across cities. The natural dyeing happened in Kolkata.
“The depth of colours on each fabric depends on the water in each region. For example you won’t get the deep natural dyes of Bandhini anywhere else but in Bhuj. Similarly, for this collection we sent the fabrics to Kolkata for natural dyeing since that water allows certain colours to be absorbed better,” he says.
Where there is a khadi sari, it’s again woven from custom-made khadi yarn. Gaurang has used 300 count khadi so that it can take the weight of a special Kanchi zari border with ‘korvai’ (joining) technique. Anarkalis have flare of six to 14 metres and depending on the fabric, the treatment has varied. One of them has chikankari on tussar, not an easy task considering chikankari is normally done on sheer, lighter fabrics. There's also a delicate hint of badla in the apparels.
Turmeric yellows, rust or burnt orange, moss green that’s a result of mixing indigo and myrobylan, kasaya red by mixing madder and pomogranate pinks — a host of natural colours are at play. The burst of colours is a contrast from Gaurang’s last season’s all-white collection.
Chitravali will be unveiled to a special Hindustani classical music composition by Shubha Mudgal. Gaurang has copyrighted his collection in a move to curb pirated versions.