Shalini James’ studio at Cheranellore is a hotchpotch of colours, textures and fabric. Hangers laden with luxurious skirts, anarkalis, angarkhas, blouses, palazzos await their moment on the ramp at the Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) Spring Summer 2016. It is the proverbial riot of colours, albeit Indian – Rani, Gulabi, Rama, Gajari, Phirozi, Kohl, Krishna, Neel, Jamuni and others. In her concept note on her ‘Indian By Choice’ collection for the Fashion Week she terms her choice of colours a ‘revolt against the western imperialism in colour names.’
“These are the oldest possible colours; the dyers in Jaipur are familiar with these. I ask a dyer for ‘Rama’, he knows it and I don’t need a Pantone card to explain,” Shalini explains. She has used close to 30 of these colours for the collection, which will be showcased at the AIFW, organised by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI).
She is excited about her first Fashion Week. “It feels good to be part of the Fashion Week. I always wanted to do something like this. It is also a chance to assess myself, see where I stand as a designer,” Shalini says. The event starts October 7 at New Delhi; her show is scheduled for October 9.
The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) graduate introduced the ‘Indian By Choice’ collection in 2013, an idea inspired by the civil disobedience movement. Last year she presented another line of garments, part of the collection, different from the original’s severe, androgynous silhouette. The muse was India’s rich fabric heritage; the collection - feminine, opulent and voluminous. Earlier this year when she took this collection to friend Ambika Pillai’s Style Loft in New Delhi, her garments caught the eye of actor Sonam Kapoor known for her sense of style. Retailing from Style Loft gave Shalini an insight into the clientele there and she learnt that her garments worked well.
This collection – inspired by Indian colours – is an organic extension of the previous ones.
For the fashion week, Shalini decided against doing anything drastically different in terms of design. “I want to showcase my strengths – working with Indian crafts, embroideries, sensibilities – and putting together as a collage while keeping my individual style. This collection is the sum total of what I learnt in the last 10 to 13 years.”
Apart from the couture Shalini James label, her other label, Mantra encompasses the prêt line that includes a maternity-wear line and a kids-wear line. She retails from two standalone stores in the city, Style Loft (New Delhi) and an online store.
She has given cotton fabric the importance usually reserved for silk – “cotton has always been seen as a resource for casual outfits but never treated with grandeur. Despite the amount of work on them, they cannot be called bridal as they are not silk. The garments are prêt but they have moved above – these are prêt with elements of couture – cotton couture.”
Each garment, for instance, has at least 20 different elements working in sync - be it the number of prints to colours used for the embroidery.
Cotton block print fabric from Jaipur and Kalamkari prints come together to stunning effect. She developed the prints and colours in Jaipur, working with printers and dyers, opting for intricate prints, jaal designs and traditional buttis (motifs). She has used ari embroidery; tweaking it using thicker, coarser thread to accentuate the cotton effect.
Working the silhouette was a challenge, she says, since the Kochi market demands a fitted one as opposed to the North fits are looser. That overcome everything else fell into place, “I blended elements, even dyed different prints in a single colour.” The collage of India that Shalini has created in her garments, we hope, wins hearts at the AIFW.