Over the past decade, Aneeth Arora has created a unique vocabulary. With her label Pero, she has been consistently using very ethnic influences to create something international.
Unlike many of her contemporaries, she prefers staying in the background, working with her trusted team of artisans, who understand her design sensibilities, at her museum-like studio in Patparganj Industrial Area in East Delhi. In this studio , Aneeth is busy giving finishing touches to her Spring- Summer collection which will be beamed live from there at the ongoing Amazon India Fashion Week at Okhla this Saturday. “I am an introvert by nature. I work in my own world. For me it is important that people know the brand. That is enough for me. I don’t think being a part of fashion fraternity or not has a bearing on my personality,” says Aneeth as we settle down for a conversation.
This season, she says, she thought opening doors of her newly built studio is appropriate. “Fashion conscious public is curious to know how our artisans do intricate work. They need to know from where the work is coming from. This is the reason why I decided not to showcase my collection on the ramp at the Fashion Week where we have been regularly participating.”
Last year, it was Banarasi. This time the FDCI chose Chanderi and selected 16 designers to collectively celebrate the magical weave. For Aneeth this has been advantageous as Chanderi was the first fabric on which she first showcased her craft. “My first collection as Gen Next designer for the Lakme Fashion Week was in Chanderi. We got almost all my pieces natural dyed and hand stitched. Its unique quality is that it can blend with light fabric; if I pleat it becomes flamboyant. It falls very well, drapes very well.”
Chanderi plays a crucial part in all her collections. “It is a light and versatile fabric. We look at the base of the fabric and then print or embroider on it. But we also use Chanderi in pure form. For most people, Chanderi signifies saris with boota, coloured sari with golden boota. But for me it is the most basic kora fabric. We use it so much in our clothing that people overseas have started referring it as the Indian cotton. They might not know Chanderi but understand how this fabric from India feels like and the way it falls in a certain way. My international clientele like the beauty of Chanderi,” says the designer, as she shows pictures of a foreign couple wearing western outfits in Chanderi.
“We have also experimented with mashru. The fabric evolved out of a desire to wear silk. Muslim men were not allowed to wear silk against their skin. Therefore, this fabric was developed so that they could wear silk but it would not touch them. Cotton base was kept and silk was on surface. So it did not touch the skin. Now, people are not doing original mashru; they are doing viscose and rayon. We are trying to revive this fabric. An indigenous weaving technique was employed, which allowed the lower surface to be of cotton while the exterior being silk.”
The European look is palpable in all her outfits which have floral embroideries that look classical and pleasing to eye.
“The most essential thing is silhouettes. There are all new silhouettes. We have done pleating with lace as reflection of vintage clothing from Europe. In the hem of the garment also there is pleating. Even if material has been used in the past season the way we present it is new to the eyes. We have kept Chanderi in purest form.”
To emphasise her point, Aneeth reminds that bad working conditions like in Bangladesh have resulted in factories collapsing. “So it becomes imperative that Pero showcases how it does things right from the inception stage till when the outfit is ready to be worn.”
Rather than the ramp, where fashion weeks are usually celebrated with designers and models walking on it, Aneeth has chosen her garden to unveil her collection “Forbidden Garden.”
Gardening plays a crucial role in making the ambience of her studio look picture perfect. The well manicured garden with multiple plants has been curated by Manglu, her gardener. This was another reason why Aneeth thought that this space was ideal for celebration.
Aneeth says: “Since I am interested in gardening I was looking at botanical drawings of Pierre Redoute, a painter and botanist known for his watercolours of lilies, roses. He was an official court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette. And I felt there was so much depth in the way he illustrated botanical flowers that it needed to be showcased on fabric. So here we tried to stimulate his flowers into embroidery. The challenge was how to make flowers look realistic on fabric. Rather than liberty of colours and brushes of the painter, we only had needles. So we identified right stitches that could give us realistic touch. We used a technique called long and short stitches which involves shading. Each petal has been meticulously hand crocheted and assembled to create daises, tulips, roses and daffodils.”
Handmade crochet flowers have used as hangings and tassels on garments and scarves. “Not only this, we have also used flora and fauna and prints on garments. To complement them we have got checks and stripes weaved from West Bengal.”
Aneeth’s studio is inundated with clothes of her earlier collections. Upcycling is a subject which is extremely close to her.
“We have set a style; we do classics season after season. Not worried about being different each season. As a designer I am evolving with time. If I discover a new technique I am not going to abandon it for a new trends. Even if people say that I am repeating it.
I can use the same technique in a new way, season after season. On one hand we are speaking about sustainable fashion and on the other hand we are insisting that it should be different every season. It is contradictory. We are working with same set of weavers. The challenge is to work with the same set of people and inspire them to create something fresh.”
