If you are one of those who likes to hold a broadsheet newspaper and read it then you may want to check out the new design that seems to be rocking social media at least -- newspaper print on silk saris.
For the ongoing festival season Sreemathy K, who runs Sthree Creatives, has introduced a set of new, unusual motifs – newspaper prints, leopard spots, Kalamkari borders and Raja Ravi Varma paintings.
Sthree Creatives’ Instagram page that has the newspaper print is flooded with comments.
Of course most fashion is cyclical, designs just keep coming back in different avatars. “One more vintage motif of fashion’s favourite print – newspaper,” the post announces. She goes on to explain that the newspaper print entered the fashion stratosphere in 1935 “when couturier Elsa Schiaparelli took press clippings written about her and transformed them into printed blouses and accessories.”
The designer had then attributed her inspiration to the “fishwives in Copenhagen” who wore hats made of newspaper.
Newspaper print on a silk sari
Newspaper print on clothes was in vogue several decades ago too, when youngsters wore skirts and blouses with the design. But it had not moved to traditional garments.
“This is contemporary and a fusion. There are people who may like it. The technology has advanced so much that I wanted to use it to create concept theme-based saris and see if they are received well. Thanks to digital evolution such designs are being used frequently in Mulmul and crepe saris and are easy to replicate. There are designers to weave the motifs. All you have to do is to understand what their capabilities are, what kind of looms they have,” she explained.
She has tied up with weavers in the Arni cluster in Tamil Nadu to develop the design. The saris contain newspaper articles from various sources, newspapers, and are not aligned to any particular newspaper, Ms. Sreemathy added.
The idea of a theme-based sari is not new, she said pointing out that in the late fifties soon after the film Paalum Pazhamum was released a set of silk saris under the name was also released, “although none of the protagonists ever wore such a sari,” she pointed out.
