ESSENCE OF A CRAFT

May of 2017 I got a chance to visit Barmer, a city in Rajasthan. It was part of our cluster study. We worked with artisans and learned few embroideries in roots of Barmer. We went to these villages Chautan and Derasar placed far away from the city area.

The embroideries we learnt there were Applique, Patchwork, Moti Bharat and Kharak.

📸 Akansha Sharma

I loved Moti Bharat and I decided to make my product using the embroidery. I wanted my product which was a garment to stand out and yet give the feel of the place. Therefore, I ended up deciding to mix male and female traditional garments of the locals there and create my product with a twist of recent trends like ruffles and one shoulder.

The blouse of the garment opens up when you swirl just like the male traditional Rajasthani kurti. I created that effect with ruffles. And a pinch of twist using one shoulder in the blouse. The blouse has mirror work on the edges of ruffle.

Whereas the skirt weighs 3kgs is just like a ghagra I.e. the cloth is drapped on a string at the waist and belt with Moti work comes on the area one ties the skirt to give it more of an aesthetic look and cover the tie area. The skirt spreads around when a person swirls and the work on the edge is visible more clearly. On the edges square shaped sequence relating to the bandhej that it usually all over odhini and sarees, etc. is used.

Style Tip: One can use gold, silver as well as coordinated color jewellery. Though I feel a neckpiece will take off the attention the neckline of the blouse takes.

📷 Mayank Khanna
Editing: Akhilesh Singh