It was a meeting of minds. Couturier Tarun Tahiliani first met London born twin sisters Amrit and Rabindra through their work. Interestingly, the Singh siblings’ miniature paintings were on display at the designer’s favourite The National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.
“It was there my love affair with the twins began,” says Tarun, whose visit to the NGMA ended up producing his 2015 Spring/Summer line by collaborating with the painters.
Tarun was the one to suggest the collaboration. “I invited them to my last couture show and sent them images. They in return shared the book they had done in Liverpool and few other catalogues. I just think their whole sense of print and juxtaposition and perspective is so fantastic that without trying to alter them I thought I liked to work with them on prints because we love to work with prints in ready-to-wear,” says Tarun, in an email interview.
Tarun says, “In a way I suppose I responded fully to their ‘Past Modern’ as our own philosophy is ‘All that we were and more!’ It was a wonderful, novel, intellectual take on patterns, layering and with such wit and finesse, I could not wait to put a collection of ready-to-wear easy pieces together.”
Talking about what he saw at NGMA, the designer says, “Instead of just being pretty pictures, these paintings had a whole story behind them. Each miniature was accompanied by, what I like to tease them, a potha , a kind of giant description lasting about 15-20 lines describing what was going through their head when they painted. I did not know who they were; I did not know that they were a pair of twins, who had a very strong identity and ideology; identity in defying what we think contemporary India is.”
Elaborating more on the duo’s work, Tarun says, “These were identical twins who had lived abroad, who painted together, who had come to India when they were 14 and had travelled in Indian and western culture and had thought about it from the point of view of identity and values from consumerism, from consumer imperialism, corporate consumerism.”
Tarun says the new collection “is inspired by their colours, motifs and forms” adding, “the miniature style of painting translates beautifully to digitally printed clothing.”
The illustrative style of the padhsahnama “makes them look like they belong in the gilded age of the past but you will find the modern, social commentary if you look for it. Selectively chosen elements from different paintings ensure that the wit is not lost in translation.”
Tarun’s contemporary Anju Modi has also created a Spring Summer collection. Her entire collection is inspired by the heavenly beauty of Kashmir’s topography.
“I took up the challenge because launching a new line excites me. Designers often capture the natural splendour of the Valley in their winter collection. So I decided not to tread the beaten path as then the collection would have become monotonous and inevitable comparisons would have drawn,” says Modi.
Recounting her recent visit to Kashmir, Modi says, “Accompanied by a friend, I went for a 15-day trip to Kashmir. The whole exercise was planned to enjoy the flora and fauna, mountains and gardens which are imprinted in postcards. But I got so hooked on to this place that I ended up creating this collection.”
Anju says the shapes and silhouettes came out “automatically like an artist makes fast brilliant strokes on canvas.”
