Itajime on silk

Katherine Neumann of House of Wandering Silk talks about her new collection, made using Japanese clamp dyeing techniques mastered by Bhuj artisans

For someone who founded a design label, Katherine Neumann, 37, confesses that she doesn’t follow fashion closely. She doesn’t start each collection with sketches, and doesn’t track what’s trending. At Wandering Silk, Neumann starts backwards — the texture and fabric come first, the designs are inspired by how the materials falls and feels, and the cuts are all free sized and focus more on comfort than what’s trending. The drawing board comes last, almost as if it’s incidental; the artisans, their lives and work, and the amazing crafts they create, to her, take centrestage.

In wanderlust

Neumann, who left Australia in 1999, spent years living and working as a humanitarian aid worker till she moved to India and started House of Wandering Silk in 2013. Earlier this year, she launched Reef, her collection of hand painted robes, kimonos and maxis in textured silk crepe, in bright tropical yellows and corals. But Neumann is already excited about her next, the Itajime collection, to be launched soon across Good Earth stores.

Featuring pieces made in silk satin, clamp dyed by one of India’s foremost master Bandhani artisans, Abdullah Khatri, in Bhuj, the collection is all sombre greys and blacks, colours that stand out among the brightly coloured crafts usually associated with Gujarat. “My aesthetics are very Japanese,” she admits, referring to her use of colour and her penchant for free-flowing, unfussy clothes.

Itajime is one technique of Japanese shibori, which uses pieces of wood clamped together around sections of folded fabric to resist the dye in particular shapes. It is characterised by its repeat patterns. “ Ita means board and ‘ jime’ is from the verb ‘ shimeru’ that means squeeze. Each piece of fabric is hand-dyed this way, then stitched in our workshop in New Delhi,” explains Neumann.

The Reef collection, on the other hand, was made in collaboration with a textile designer in Kolkata. It features a weighty silk with a velveteen texture, that lent itself to free-flowing patterns of robes, kimonos and maxis. This relaxed fit is visible in the Itajime collection as well, which features kaftans and overlays.

Fabric first

The textile-focussed approach comes from Neumann’s most important learning from her years of travels - that textiles are stories. “Having worked in the humanitarian sector for over 10 years, living in conflict zones, I was fed up of the funding mechanisms and I realised that fair trade was the best way to help artisans and their communities,” she explains.

So, is the super-relaxed vibe a take on resort-wear that’s getting increasingly popular in India? “I definitely don’t think so. There’s no niche that I see these clothes fitting into, they are just extremely wearable and travel friendly — a lot like my own wardrobe,” admits Neumann. Free size, so that they fit and flatter all kinds of shapes and bodies, and free flowing for both comfort and wearability, her clothes, she says, can be worn anywhere, without having to think too much. “These clothes work in Berlin, they work on the flight when you’re travelling and you can land in Delhi and get out without having to change, or worry about covering up,” she explains, very matter-of-factly.

The Reef Collection is available at Ogaan stores, and the Itajime Collection will launch around October in Good Earth.