Look within for answers — this is not just a new-age self-help mantra but, it appears, a great principle to apply to your wardrobe. Slow fashion is a buzzword today, and that does not simply mean adding vintage stores to your shopping list — the answer probably lies under your nose, in your grandmother’s jewellery box or your mother’s closet. It is as much about finding meaning in what you wear as it is about buying less.
“The concept has been lost somewhere in the age of disposable convenience. Traditional fashion turned to seasonal fashion which quickened to fast fashion; we are only trying to reverse the monstrous effects it has had on the planet by introducing slow fashion. In that essence, ‘fashion heirlooms’ really is the grandmother of fashion trends,” says Suruchi Banerjee, a fashion designer based in Vientiane, whose research on heirlooms was presented at a recent NIFT conference.
So how does borrowing from your grandmother help create sustainable fashion? “Creation and preservation of heirlooms can be an effective way to promote exquisite indigenous handicrafts that fit perfectly into luxury lifestyles,” says Banerjee. Sometimes, the simple things make a lasting impact. If you are wrapped in a shawl you have seen handed down through generations, you are less likely to feel the urge to buy a new one, and the more you value it, the more likely you are to skip fast fashion brands and invest in pieces that will last a lifetime or two. Like Cecilia Morelli Parikh, co-founder of Le Mill, one of the first concept stores in India, who happily re-wears her mother’s wedding dress. “My mother defied custom and refused to wear white at her wedding, choosing instead a floral Valentino ankle-length, off-shoulder dress with pink ruffles, and I’ve always loved it,” she says. “Since we’re the same size, and the ’70s are so big right now, I wear it often.” When shopping today, Parikh admits, she thinks about someday handing things down to her daughter. “I’ve been buying things from (French brand) Céline since designer Phoebe Philo was at the helm, which is around 2008, and even my impulsive purchases like the Marni dresses, I wouldn’t give away,” she says.
Styling it differently to suit the age and milieu is another tactic to making heirlooms relevant today. Like Radhika Poddar, owner of Bengaluru-based Cinnamon boutique, who used her grandmother’s chiffon sari as an odhni to go with a lehenga , or Nikhil Mehra, one half of design duo Shantanu & Nikhil, who found that his great grandmother’s kani shawl worked as well with his fitted bandhgalas as it did with her pearls and chiffons. In both cases, an heirloom was reinvented.
Aanchal Malhotra, who documented heirlooms that people carried with them during Partition, recalls a family telling her how they reused their zari, because the pure gold threads outlasted the fabric on which they were originally woven. “They kept reworking it on to new fabric, which meant they made it last through generations,” says the author of 2017’s Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition Through Material Memory , adding, “If you own an heirloom today, you are in a position of privilege.” We are inclined to agree, as do these seven curators of cool we checked with. Fashion designers and art collectors, industrialists and architects, they all have an eye for aesthetics and a soft spot for pieces with a story.
Rajshree Pathy - Mother’s Favre Leuba watch
This industrialist and art collector’s life has her travelling almost constantly. Though life is split between her hometown of Coimbatore and Delhi, where she resides, heirlooms from her mother are treasures Pathy carries with her. While she does not remember where her mother bought this Favre Leuba watch from, she does recall seeing her wearing it when she was in her teens.
“My mother was an extraordinary woman, with very avant garde sensibilities in her style and in her living spaces. She had an extensive library of European modernism and this watch is a curious piece in her collection as it is very decorative and simply not her style,” she says. The Art Deco-inspired timepiece from the ’70s comes with three interchangeable, coloured stone-and-glass dials with slim straps, and Pathy says she last wore it with the red satin strap, teamed with an all-black outfit and no other accessories. “I wore it to the opening of an art event in Delhi, and people came up to me and commented on its looks and enquired about the brand,” she recalls.
Pathy is the MD of Rajshree Group and founder of India Design Forum.
Ashiesh Shah - Grandfather’s pocket square
The architect is known for his enviable art collection, and his connection to fashion extends beyond designing iconic retail spaces like the Raw Mango flagship in Mumbai. A natty dresser, there is an old-fashioned charm to his style — like the thoughtful addition of a bright pocket square to a subtle suit. When asked, Shah says he simply took it from his grandfather’s wardrobe and now wears it with almost everything. “I distinctly remember the last time I saw my grandfather wearing it,” he says, of the red silk square he considers his most treasured heirloom.
“He was inaugurating a new school in our ancestral village near Baroda, and he had worn it with a bandhgala . It is simple with no ornamentation, but the reddish orange colour is my favourite; it suits my skin perfectly — another thing I inherited from him.”
Shah is an architect with his own design firm in Mumbai.
Nikhil Mehra - Great grandmother’s Kani Shawl
“My earliest memory of my grandmother is at a family lunch in the garden, replete with silverware and flowers, the whole event an epitome of design just like herself. I remember she was wearing a simple sari with a pearl necklace, her hair in a bun. As a young boy of 10, seeing her at the head of the table, wrapped in her kani shawl is my most vivid memory,” says the fashion designer. The shawl, gifted to his great grandmother at her wedding by their family weaver in Dehradun, was passed down to him through his mother. And for Mehra, it is reminiscent of a bygone era.
“It is done in the colours of the time — midnight blue, peacock green and light pink — against black, a great evening textile. The darker colour palette was inspired by the peacock, colours meant for a new bride,” he says, adding that although the shawl is considered feminine, it is perfectly androgynous.
Mehra is the co-founder of the fashion brand Shantanu & Nikhil.
Muzaffar Ali - Father’s pocket watch
NEW DELHI: 20/02/2018: FOR METRO PLUS----- Noted Film Director Muzaffar Ali seen during a interview , in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma
“My father, Raja S Sajid Husain of Kotwara, left many big and small things behind, most of which now form a sort of museum in Lucknow and Kotwara,” says the filmmaker, artist and designer. Ali’s love for beautiful things is reflected in his art: in his movies like Umrao Jaan, the frames are decadent, while his garments for the House of Kotwara label feature crafts like zardozi and chikankari extensively. But it is an enamel pocket watch that holds great sentimental value for him. “It’s a simple watch with a plaited cord strap to tuck into a waistcoat button hole. I love the brown enamel colour and beige dial. My father bought it between the 1920s and ’30s, when he was a student in Edinburgh.”
He fondly recalls his father driving to Kotwara in his 1929 Isotta Fraschini, wearing his Scottish tweed jacket, and keeping time with this quaint piece. Ali, whose eye for detail reflects his father’s immaculate image, admits it is difficult to keep the watch ticking these days. “It spent most of its time in a State Bank of India safe deposit vault. When I opened the vault after nearly a decade of my father’s passing away, I was thrilled to find it. It spent a couple of years with a watchmaker at Khan Market, who disappeared for a brief while in between, but I have finally got it back in working order,” he says.
Ali is a filmmaker and founder of the fashion label House of Kotwara.
Aanchal Malhotra - Grandmother’s bracelet
While researching heirlooms for her book, it was only natural that Malhotra would look inwards. One of her family heirlooms was a peacock bracelet that belonged to her grandmother. “My grandfather bought it from an Englishman in Lahore in 1933, and it is one of the few jewels she carried with her during Partition that she didn’t sell. The piece is obviously hand-made and there are visible imperfections, but the history behind it makes it special. And also the fact that a piece like this cannot be recreated,” she says.
Made in gold and studded with pearls and rubies, she admits it is too delicate to be worn often, except for special occasions.
Malhotra is an oral historian and author of Remnants of a Separation.
Wendell Rodricks- Uncle’s tie pin
“An uncle who had no heirs gave me his enamel tie pin from the 1930s,” says the Goan fashion designer, better known as the ‘guru of minimalism’. “Though it is a tiny memento, I cherish it not just for the emotion but for the exquisite detailed ornamentation. One needs a magnifying glass to realise its beauty and excellence,” Rodricks adds. The head of the tie pin is red enamel with fine gold detailing, and its origins are unknown. Although he has never worn it, since he fears losing it, this tiny accessory is all he has of his uncle.
Rodricks plans to donate the tie pin to the Moda Goa Museum, which opens in December this year, in his ancestral village of Colvale.
Rodricks is an author and fashion designer based in Goa.
Radhika Poddar -Grandmother’s chiffon and velvet sari
BENGALURU - KARNATAKA - 13/03/2018 : Radhika Poddar, owner of Cinnamon store, on Gangadhar Chetty Road, Ulsoor, in Bengaluru on March 13, 2018. Photo: K. Murali Kumar
For this art collector, whose curating also extends to fashion — at her boutique store Cinnamon — it is the simplicity and elegance of a sari from her maternal grandmother that really resonates. “A chiffon and velvet in a beautiful bottle green, it stands out because of how unique it is,” she says. As much as she loves it, she doesn’t wear it too often though.
Poddar is the founder of the Bangalore-based multi-designer store Cinnamon.
