Go past the famous Siddapura nurseries near Lal Bagh, bursting with colourful petunias, marigolds, and pansies, and follow the signboards, gawking at gaudy buildings in winding gullies wondering where you'll land up.
You’ll chance upon a solid old stone block house with arched windows. It’s a perfect foil to everything around it — a world so full of contrasts it is an almost fairytale place — Latha Puttanna’s flagship store, Shrishti.
Her father-in-law’s father was the patel of Siddapura, and Latha has transformed the almost 140-year-old mansion, with an airy central courtyard and an ancient well — into a workshop and store housing her famed designer saris, blouses, salwar kameez sets, kurtis and now lehengas. It is a constant work in progress and you’ll see beautiful fabrics fluttering in the wind, hung out to dry. A glass partition allows you to take a peek at the artisans busy over their sewing machines and embroidery chatais on the ground.
She has been designing salwars and saris for the last 23 years now, and post this Deepavali, she will be stepping over into the coveted space of custom-made wedding trousseaus. Latha is known never to retail in stores; she only does two exhibitions annually in Bangalore, and in other cities in India and America — one a dressy Deepavali collection and a casual summer cottony collection.
The green pillars, carved heavy wooden doors, wooden rafters, ornate pillar brackets, the courtyard, the low-arched entrances, the wooden furniture, all resonate with Latha’s sense of design. She has an uncanny ability to put together seemingly incongruent fabric combinations that always work. Typical of her saris are the seamless mix of georgettes and silks in the same yardage (no joints, no stitches), or for that matter batiks with tussar, embroidered attached borders, appliqué on georgettes, organzas, and Benarasi brocades, traditional heavy silk checks combined with flowing crepe. She is now doing lehengas in Kanjivaram silks, offset with heavily brocaded and embroidered motifs and borders.
“We have the best silks here in Karnataka and I am working on a whole lot of handloom silks. I’ve worked on a collection with motifs drawn from Hampi and the Ganda-Berunda symbol (the two-headed mythological and magical bird, which is also the official state emblem of Karnataka). I’m trying to revive the kuthu weave of Karnataka too,” says Latha. “I can blend it with what is in and what Kareena Kapoor wears, but I believe the essence of our sensibilities should not be lost. My work is for those who appreciate the sensibilities of good handloom weaves.”
It is difficult today to get weavers to do what you want, says Latha. “I’m getting them to do mul cotton weaves; breathing fabrics. Most of the weaves you get today are two-tone fabrics that cut costs; the market is flooded with China silk. I’m not doing something anew. I’m only trying to revive old traditional weaves and add a dash of glamour to 2,000 year-old weaves so that the younger lot buys and keeps these saris. Most of them otherwise buy saris online and chuck them after one or two wears.” She points out that there’s so much handcrafted ready made clothing already, she is moving into creating customised bridal wear — “people are willing to spend on it, and skilled artists are there to embroider — the commerce is worth it,” points out the astute businesswoman.
The trial room frames her collections over the years in a series of over 30 photographs. Another wall shows off Latha’s own stylish mother in a series of portraits. Over her table hangs a photograph of her grandmother bedecked in traditional jewellery and sari. On one of the walls of the house are a series of framed black-and-white photos of young girls in langa-davni and moggina jade — the photos are of her husband’s sisters. “This is real fashion for me,” beams Latha.
The Shrishti Deepavali collection will be on sale on October 17 and 18 at Raintree, No. 4, Sankey Road, opposite Windsor Sheraton, between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
