Designing recycled material
Fashion
By Saloni Kaul

WORKING with old clothes is not a very happy thing to do. Ask anybody who has tried stitching a salwar-kameez out of an old saree — the pieces are difficult to match, the edges are usually frayed and, worse, they give way when you least expect them to!

Yet, there are designers who enjoy doing just this. They are making fashion statements literally out of rags — salvaging and recycling old shawls, sarees and drapes and turning them into gorgeous ghagra-cholis, ghararas, skirts, and of course, salwar-kameezes.

Sushma Desai is one such designer for whom old is always gold. "I had been painting since childhood," she narrates. "I started making stained glass items, mainly decorative pieces after learning the craft from my sister-in-law who was doing stained glasswork in Mumbai.

Then one day, three years ago, a friend asked her to design clothes, mainly to keep her tailoring unit going. Sushma did a few sketches, got the stuff tailored and before she could really get going, she had people like Pamela Bordes, Ila Arun, Raveena Tandon and others queuing up.

Designing from antique fabrics happened by accident. "Venkatraman Reddy, the owner of a farmhouse restaurant in Bangalore, liked my designs and asked if I could do anything with his collection of antique material."

Sushma took this as a challenge. But before long, she was to discover that the fabric collection formed part of the family heirloom and had been in a state of neglect for ages. Some pieces just fell apart merely on touch.

"Putting them together into wearable outfits that would last was, however, a great motivation," she recalls. "And since most of the fabrics are not being woven now, I thought it was also a great way preserving them."

She designed 40 outfits: "We picked up sarees, shawls, half sarees... anything which was traditional, got them lined and dyed. I loved trying to make the old sarees look interesting. And when I was featured in the press, I got going."

According to Sushma, it is far more difficult to design simple and casual wear than elaborate, ethnic outfits. "The market is flooded with casual clothes and with designer boutiques coming up everywhere, you have to produce something different.

"I also found that people do not want to pay too much. Apart from giving them designer stuff at an affordable price, I ensure everything is hand-crafted and every outfit is one of a piece. I do not repeat the colours, sizes or cuts."

Sushma held two exhibitions. The first, in 1996, was a formal collection in black and the second, in 1997, was on cutwork and kasuti, in khadi and silk with voile. Both were complete sellouts and she has not looked back since.

Last year, Sushma went to the USA to check the waters there: "I took 65 outfits, only formals in crepe and chiffon and all hand-embroidered. I put up an exhibition at Art Space, a gallery in Santa Monica, LA, that promotes only new talent in any form of art." Sushma’s friend recommended her to the owner and she agreed to have an exhibition again. "This time I took along only heavily embroidered, formal, zardozi outfits in crepes, satins and organza — all hand crafted.

"I realised that anything traditional and authentic sells well in the USA. For the Indians and Americans living out there, my designs were an eye-opener to an ancient heritage. It was like buying Indian art off the racks."

Her latest collection is basically on cutwork and a form of embroidery popular among the farming women of Hubli and Dharwad in Karnataka. "They use a net to do the embroidery and the design is done by counting knots and not by tracing," she explains.

"It used to be done on tableclothes and bedsheets, but never used effectively on salwar-kurtas. Every form of embroidery by now has been done to death. But the embroiders I depend on have not been exploited. They have traditional motifs like parrots and chariots..."

Sushma believes in "honest designing" in simple, elegant and classical styles. She does not change her designs and cuts with every season. At best, she could change the lengths. "I don’t follow, but create my own lengths," she informs.

Last year, her styles were very elaborate and traditional, with heavy silks and zardozi. "This year, I’ve concentrated more on cuts and less on embroidery. I don’t follow colour trends as I believe certain colours are always in fashion. Anything classic, does not go out of fashion." — MF