Bhoomi Dani’s romance with ajrakh isn’t a passing cloud. Unlike fashion labels that work with craft clusters for sporadic collections, she sought a long-term engagement ever since she worked with the ajrakh artisans as part of her graduation project for the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Gandhinagar, while specialising in textile design. “We are among the few labels that sustain on a single craft,” says her partner Priyam Shah, about Vraj:bhoomi.
Shah was a pilot and an admirer of arts before he put his weight behind Bhoomi’s dream of a textile-driven label that would focus on reviving an age-old craft with a contemporary design expression. His friendly demeanour as he oversees customer queries and sales at the ongoing Aakruthi Vastra along with Dani speak about his happiness in the shift of professional line. She is the design brain for the label while he oversees the business. “My academic learning exposed me to western culture; working with this label I’ve understand how classy an Indian craft is and that we are oblivious to it,” he says.
From Ajrakhpur
Five years after the label was launched, Dani is still searching for an answer when asked why she loves ajrakh: “I don’t know; I love the colours, the blocks and the process of ajrakh,” she says. In Gujarat’s Ajrakhpur, the Khatri tribe of craftsmen are renowned for their mastery over ajrakh. The traditional block printing and the several steps of subjecting the textile to natural dyes is nothing short of an art. Several Khatri artisans are recognised internationally and liaise with leading designers in the country.
Shah and Dani, however, realise that there’s a need to reinvent the blocks to appeal to a wider audience. They work closely with the Khatri artisans but choose to design their own blocks and get textiles dyed to suit their colour palette. Showing us some of the apparels, Dani says, “There’s a limitation while working with natural dyes. However, we introduce newer colours in each collection.” A deep wine hue and grey are juxtaposed with deeper indigos.
- Sustainable, zero-waste clothing, upcycling are relatively new terms coined to define the journey of ecologically conscious textile brands. Shah emphasises that they’ve been ticking the right boxes even before they woke up to these terms. “We used to make cloth bags, pens and other accessories from leftover cloth and give them away to our customers,” Shah recalls. Gauging the demand, they started working on a line of bags, ajrakh cover diaries and shoes.
Vraj:bhoomi’s collections use cotton fabric and can be worn through the year. The colour palette tilts towards maroon and black for winter and indigos and whites for the warmer months.
Inspired by cultures
Their first collection had motifs inspired by Turkish tiles, and now they are wrapping up a new collection that has motifs inspired by Uzbekistan, picking up cues from the history and culture of the country that figured prominently on the Silk Route.
Dani and Shah are eager to cater to customers who like contemporary chic. “We look at working women in the 30 to 50 age group,” says Dani. Saris, dresses, kurtas, overlays, bottoms, dupattas and stoles form the crux of their collection.
A new set of blocks are designed each year and the silhouettes are tweaked twice a year. There’s also an effort to integrate textile and craft processes of Gujarat in a small way. The tassels at the end of some of the garments, for instance, are made by weavers of Bhujodi.
Ask them if the craftspeople of Ajrakhpur, many of whom take pride in traditional block printing, were receptive to their contemporary designs and Shah says, “Craftsmen are always open to ideas and it’s we who sometimes come up with unworkable ideas and still, they try to work it out.” He points at a bag with indigo resist dyeing that gives the distressed look to explain how the craftsmen managed it. “We always gauge if our ideas will translate into something saleable. It has to appeal to customers,” he signs off.
(Vraj:bhoomi is at Aakruthi Vastra, Kamma Sangham Hall, Ameerpet, till July 12. For more, check vrajbhoomi.in)
