pspan style="font-style: italic;"She recognised the beauty of Indiaandrsquo;s handicrafts when ethnic was not yet a buzzword. As the crafts collective Dastkar celebrates its 35th anniversary, we talk to co-founder and chairperson, Laila Tyabji./span/p pandnbsp;/p pThe centrepiece of Sabyasachi Mukherjeeandrsquo;s 2016 bridal couture collection was the Firdaus coat. Worked with vegetable-dyed silk thread and silver gilt on dip-dyed brocade, it took 69 artisans some 2,800 hours to create. However, the words andlsquo;handmadeandrsquo;, andlsquo;artisnalandrsquo;, and andlsquo;one-of-a-kindandrsquo; werenandrsquo;t always prized by the Indian fashion consumer. Laila Tybaji, co-founder and chairperson of the 35-year-old Dastkar craftsmen collective, traces this initial indifference to the bureaucratic cottage emporia culture that emerged after Independence. For one, there were no lifestyle stores or magazines to showcase well-designed, handcrafted products. andldquo;The people who were running these corporations and stores didnandrsquo;t really have a sensitivity to either the craft or to the craftspeople, and it had all become rather bureaucratic and static,andrdquo; she recalls. andnbsp;/p pandnbsp;/p pThis would change in 1981 when six women andndash; Laila Tyabji, Jaya Jaitley, Poonam Muttreja, Bunny Page, Gouri Choudhury and Prabeen Singh andndash; came together to form Dastkar. andldquo;It had two objectives: To reach out to small artisans all over India, and to revive and redesign their hand skills to make things which would work in the contemporary space,andrdquo; says Tyabji. It was Bunny Page who brought the women together. At the time, Tyabji was working as an independent designer while Jaya Jaitly, Poonam Muttreja, Gouri Choudhury, and Prabeen Singh were involved with social justice, development, and women-centric projects. Page would later be instrumental in supporting Uzramma to establish Dastkar Andhra and its core project of reviving the Malkha textile. andldquo;We felt that there was this amazing living skill of the millions of craftspeople living all over India, and yet, you didnandrsquo;t see their product at all in the mainstream market. You had to go to that village to find a product. And even when you went to that village, the craftsmen might not have stock for you to buy. What they made was either for themselves or rather tacky things that had been made for the local melas,andrdquo; says Tyabji./p pandnbsp;/p pandnbsp;/p p style="text-align: center;"/p pandnbsp;/p pspan style="font-weight: bold;"How Desi Got Its Groove Back/span/p pandnbsp;/p pTill now, the Dastkar founders had worked with craftspeople around the country in some capacity or other, and the initial idea was just to do some product development and provide them with market information. Can the embroidery that was done on garments be replicated on a cushion? Why not design kurtas in standard sizes, and contemporary cuts and colours? Can we ensure that the colours donandrsquo;t bleed? Yet the biggest challenge was the distance of the craftsmen from the urban consumer. The first of the now-fabled Dastkar Melas was held at the Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi with 15 craftspeople. Its success brought the realisation that this andlsquo;bridging the gapandrsquo; couldnandrsquo;t be a one-off event and Dastkar found its first office./p pandnbsp;/p pAs they say, timing is everything, and Dastkar was certainly in the right place at the right time. NIFT Delhi was set up in 1986 and NID in Ahmedabad was sending out students who were keenly interested in native aesthetic and design traditions. Suddenly, there was a movement towards what would come to be known as andlsquo;ethnicandrsquo; (andldquo;a horrible nameandrdquo; according to Tyabji). Jootis, bags, jewellery, and garments made the andlsquo;Indianandrsquo; way werenandrsquo;t old-fashioned any more, but fun and innovative. Fashionable young men in the capital were spotted wearing bandhgalas and angavastras./p pandnbsp;/p pThen came the economic liberalisation of the early 90s and with it cable TV, Leviandrsquo;s jeans, Reebok shoes, and Benetton shirts. But it also created the language of andlsquo;lifestyleandrsquo;. Wearing fashionable or on-trend clothes wasnandrsquo;t enough, our homes and accessories, indeed our entire lifestyle needed an upgrade too. andlsquo;Westernisationandrsquo; was initially considered a deathblow to the nascent Indian industry. Instead, it galvanised designers to create the distinct identity of Indian fashion. Now, the earlier design-indifferent Indian consumer was eager to embrace mirror-work cushions, chik blinds, block-printed bed sheets, and terracotta planters. andlsquo;Desiandrsquo; was the new black./p pandnbsp;/p pandnbsp;/p p style="text-align: center;"/p pandnbsp;/p pspan style="font-weight: bold;"The Handmakerandrsquo;s Tale/span/p pandnbsp;/p pShefalee Vasudev, fashion editor at Mint, has followed their story for 15 years. As she puts it, andldquo;Dastkar and Laila Tyabji have relentlessly worked towards andlsquo;letandrsquo;s do the next thingandrsquo;. It has created a fashion movement which has had both a trickle down and trickle up effect.andrdquo; She cites the success of Sanjay Gargandrsquo;s sari label Raw Mango. It was access to craftspeople which revived the interest in Chanderi and Benarasi weaves. Now derivations of Gargandrsquo;s signature birds, parrots, and lotuses, and Rahul Mishraandrsquo;s bandhini prints are making their way to the handicraft melas./p pandnbsp;/p pDastkar has nurtured long, fruitful relationships with fashion establishment designers like Rohit Bal and Ritu Kumar. Bal is a frequent visitor to Dastkarandrsquo;s Nature Bazaar in Delhiandrsquo;s Mehrauli area, often on a sourcing mission. Ritu Kumar was integral to the revival of chikan embroidery, zardozi and Mughal silhouettes in bridal couture and, along with Laila Tyabji, Fabindia, Madhukar Khera and Pritam Singh of Anokhi, is one of the co-founders of the All India Artisans and Craft Workers Welfare Association. Fashionandrsquo;s vanguard isnandrsquo;t far behind. Aneeth Arora of the contemporary-wear prandecirc;t label Pero echoes Vasudev when she speaks of her love for Dastkar: andldquo;Iandrsquo;ve visited Dastkar ever since my student days in Delhi. Itandrsquo;s the one platform for all the crafts of India. I go there to see whatandrsquo;s available in what part of the country, whatandrsquo;s new and to talk to craftsmen. These conversations, and the resulting sourcing trips, have made their way into my collections, especially the textile technologies.andrdquo;/p pandnbsp;/p pVasudev credits Dastkar with andldquo;changing the lives of craftspeople and communities. It has brought about a social movement of education and optimism for them, and has revived the conversation around original and authentic in fashion.andrdquo; Itandrsquo;s challenging to work with artisans andndash; to gain their trust, to train them to create products for the urban consumer, arranging finance for their projects, and to set up self-sufficient and self-sustaining systems that ensure that even with Dastkar out of the picture these collectives continue to find their markets. But thatandrsquo;s not the end goal. Along with making andlsquo;handmadeandrsquo; a byword for quality craftsmanship, the ambition now, according to Tyabji, is to position the artisan as a creator rather than a mere skilled hand. The now distinctive Ranthambore tiger block print is an example. It was inspired by a drawing by one of the local children and is now the mascot for the Dastkar Ranthambore project. The tapestry commissions from the Taj Group of Hotels at Ranthambore and Sohna, and panels for the Mughal andlsquo;Shamianaandrsquo; exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum give artisans the opportunity to create a piece of art, taking forward the conversation of craft, technique, and creativity./p pandnbsp;/p pandnbsp;/p p style="text-align: center;"/p pandnbsp;/p pLaila Tyabji has been the public face of Dastkar for the past three decades but this year found her talking to a new audience, the Millenials. Tyabji is one of the few Indian professional women who wear a saree every day and when the south India-based Kai Thari Handloom Group asked her to document her love for the garment, she started taking daily selfies wearing the weave of the day. She posted them on Facebook with short notes on the fabrics and weaves from across the country, the complexity of the prints, colours and design innovations, and her history with each. Now deep into her Internet fame, she recently helped two young women buy their very first sarees at the Dastkar mela. She amusedly tells me that a side-effect of this has been that a lot of women have written to her about their new-found confidence in letting their hair go grey! The Sari Diaries are typical of the vision behind Dastkar: treating works of crafts not as museum pieces, but a living and evolving sensibility fitting seamlessly into our modern, urban, professional while maintaining the link with our rich Indian heritage./p pandnbsp;/p pspan style="font-style: italic;"Images via Getty and Dastkar/span/p pandnbsp;/p pspan style="font-weight: bold;"More On andgt;andgt; a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.luxpresso.com/lifestyle"Lifestyle/a/span/pfrom Luxpresso http://www.luxpresso.com/news-lifestyle/interview-with-laila-tyabji-of-dastkar/17010619
via Your #1 Source to Finding Luxury & Designer Goods, Handbags & Clothes at or Below Wholesale: Click Here.
No comments:
Post a Comment