Traditional craft techniques look striking when somebody plays with them in an imaginative and innovative way. And this is Ruchi Tripathi and Jaya Bhatt’s way of making a point as designers. The duo, who share similar design sensibilities and offer a shift from the old school, seek to take designs outside the format of set patterns and create a new vocabulary.
This is clearly evidentin their new collection “Transience” which will be unveiled at Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort in Mumbai on March 31. The Delhi-based designers have done extensive research and meticulous planning for their debut collection as they did not want to be circumscribed by limitations imposed by age-old techniques, which strict practitioners of designs follow.
Mastery over hand-printed ajraks – a multi-purpose printing technique which requires 10 to 12 steps before the complete printed fabric emerges – is their specialisation. At the upcoming fashion week they are giving it an interesting twist on shirts, long pants, jackets and tops. Silhouettes are simple, modest and unpretentious with fine detailing. The look is stylish and classic.
Explaining the technique, Ruchi says, “Ever since we became designers 12 years ago we have been using ajrak technique. We have a special fondness for this technique. Traditionally this technique uses natural dyes such as indigo, madder, haldi and siyahi for obtaining a subtle and muted colour palette. Mostly thicker count cotton, the fabric is printed with mordant mixes which resist the printed and non printed areas. This depends on the motifs. Then it is dyed in the dye bath or boiled as the colour process might require. Usually a print is a set of 3-4 blocks but we have given ajrak the distinctive multi-colour intricate look.”
Changing the motifs to make their presence felt on the ramp was a challenge. “We found a way out. We retained the complicated ajrak technique but changed the motifs. Since motifs inspired by the Islamic architecture have become repetitive as they are being explored by multiple designers, we decided not to go the usual path. We used motifs influenced by the elaborated decorated walls of Burkina Faso in Africa. African people decorate their mud houses in such an appealing way with earth, wood and straw that we were drawn to them.”
Geometric and linear
“Our motifs are triangles, stripes that are geometric and linear which are used aesthetically on mud houses. We have used them on our prints. It is this geometry, this intricacy that adds texture to the textiles. Symmetric yet organic, fluid yet structured, this is where form meets fabric in subtle, unfamiliar ways.”
Objective
In all this process, the central idea was to amalgamate the two diverse traditional forms of art. One being textiles and the other wall painting. “Techniques and motifs of these art forms are different. Nonetheless similarities exist like in textiles and wall paintings natural material, geometry and dye/painting material are used. The mud huts are painted with cow dung mixture, limestone for white, red earth for the red and stone powder for the black. The two are different yet rooted in an organic way. These paintings are typically geometric with prominent triangular and square forms used in positive and negative. The motifs are detailed and elaborate bringing forth the characteristics of both mud wall paintings and ajrak.”
Fine cotton mulmuls were selected as basic fabric for printing to make their collection less complicated and balance out solid dyed khadi, hand embroidery or Sujni technique, where the motifs and elements have been picked up from the print inspiration. “This has enabled us to create a coordinated look,” says Ruchi.
Deviation
As ajrak symbolises fine prints a lot of precision was required. “We had to ensure that overlapping of blocks was avoided, natural dyes were perfect and the fabric was evenly exposed to Sun rays so that there was no colour variation. Unlike the traditional way of using ajrak prints on heavier fabric like 30s cotton, we printed them on fine cotton mulmul. So we had to ensure that the fabric does not get torn.”
Apart from ajrak, the duo also demonstrated their expertise on sujni, the hand embroidery craft practised in selected areas in Bihar, Bengal and Chhattisgarh. “Practised as a way to recycle old saris to make into quilts, sujni is a straight line stitch that binds layers of fabrics together and give a surface texture. In this summer resort collection, we have used this fine embroidery technique to create motifs and textured surfaces on the garments. The motifs and elements have been picked up from the print inspiration, thus creating a coordinated look throughout the collection,” says Jaya Bhatt.
