The Real GenNext Show: Somaiya Kala Vidya stars want a place in the sun

When Javed Anwar Khatri unfurled a bubblegum pink and sky blue Ajrakh saree in fine linen, in my head, Sebastian - the musical crab of The Little Mermaid - was singing in calypso style, ‘Under the sea, under the sea, darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, take it from me’.

Khatri, a fresh graduate of Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV) -? an institute for design and business education for artisans - had decided that for his debut collection currently on exhibit-sale at Kala Sangam (October 26, 27 at JB Hall, Films Division, Peddar Road), he would dive 20,000 leagues under the sea.?

The field of the saree was covered in fish scale pattern; seahorses brushed shoulders with the “maachhli”, and sea jellies had their umbrellas crafted from the half eight-pointed star; an iconic motif of Kutch’s?Ajrakh block prints. ?

On the other hand, the five-pointed stars sitting in a cluster at the centre of a mulberry silk stole flanked by an approaching shoal of fish represented Khatri himself and his fellow graduates. “We are the star talent; the fish crowding us are Bombay’s customers,” he said with a straight face, confident of the interest his collection could generate.?

And crowd they did.?

Khatri hails from Ajrakhpur in Bhuj, a village famed for the laborious block printing technique that some say dates back to the Indus valley civilisation; the bust of the Mohenjo Daro priest king features a fabric that is believed to carry the trefoil or kakkar motif intrinsic to Ajrakh. At the centre of Ajrakh’s survival is water, critical for growing indigo, and the multiple processes in its making including viccharnu or washing the fabric to rid excess dyes. Khatri chose water as design inspiration for a reason.

While Design Craft, the social enterprise launched by SKV to showcase the handmade creations of its artisan graduates, has in the past brought Kutch’s veteran vankars and embroiderers to Mumbai, this year’s pick of fresh grads, with an unmissable thrust on ready-to-wear and ready-to-use, was the game changer.

Amrita Somaiya , Trustee of KJ Somaiya Trust and SKV governing council member, sees the potential clearly when she shares that the next goal is to plan a production facility linking students trained in design and tailoring with the weavers, block printers, embroiderers and tie-dyers.? ?

Laxmi Vinod Jepar from Mota Varnora fronts a label called Hastakargha (@hasta_kargha). Her theme was Aina Mahal, Kutch’s 18th century tourist attraction with ornate jharokas. She translated the architectural motif using Bhujodi onto kimono jackets crafted from Gujarat’s indigenous rain-fed kala cotton.

The Bhujodi crop tops in shades of the sky and sand can be anything you want them to be - saree blouse, belly shirt or singlet under a shrug.

Mayur Vishrambhai Gordiya’s (the_woven_heritage) laptop bag in indigo and white was quite the find, as was Rajesh Amrutlal Vankar’s (@thread_wing) royal blue co-ord set inspired by butterflies.

Pooja Jivrajbhai Vankar’s kurtas (@livethreads_by_pooja), Sunil Dinesh Mangariya’s stoles (@KAARIGAR.KALA) and Rahul Keshavji Vankar’s ponchos saw enthusiastic visitors (@wovenweb_).

Fazal Ayaz Khatri, Kausar Firoz Khatri, Nawab Sajan Khatri, Samiya Sarfraz Khatri, Hafshabanu Ismail Khatri, Nauman Farid Ahmed Khatri, Ashiya Abdulhamid Khatri and Naoman Naushadali Khatri were the ambassadors of Bandhani.

nishit sangomla , Director-SKV, was hopeful that the class gender ratio was only set to get better with women now making up almost 50 per cent of the numbers. Kanchan Karan Makwana from Baladia is the region’s only woman carpet weaver. Under her brand @panjadhari, she had created a table runner, and mats with charming bird and camel motifs. For Kanchan to make a big sale would be akin to a woman in a management role crashing the corporate glass ceiling.

But SKV’s hero story this year sat at the first stall to the right where a group of men from Bagalkote in Karnataka, led by project coordinator Prashanth Hiremath, stood behind a collection of Ilkal weaves fashioned into sarees and stoles in fine cotton, cotton-silk and khadi. By the end of day one, their smiles had broadened, their confidence on a high - 30 sarees of the total stash of 47 had been picked up.

The accomplishment wasn’t lost on textile connoisseur-researcher-author Savitha Suri , who helms SKV’s market orientation module. Karnataka is Suri’s home state; the Ilkal, her pride. To stand among two of her six students - Mallikarjun Medar and Thirthappa Keludi - as they gingerly opened the folds of their creations to unravel a burst of sophisticated pastels so unlike the par for the course red and green, was understandably what she had been awaiting a whole year.

Where they come from, weaving has long lost its distinction. Thousands of Kamatagi’s once rap-trap-rapping pit looms are silent. Power looms churn out cheaper, quicker imposters, devoid of the beauteous edge that connects the cotton body with silk padar/pallu using the kondi technique. The men weave; it’s the women who use their deft fingers to connect every thread of the cotton to the silk in a marriage made in heaven.

SKV Bagalkote’s artisan-to-artisan outreach programme has turned Kamatagi and Shirur’s weavers from job workers who did commission work for large co-operatives into artisan designers who own their creations.

The kondi Ilkal is ‘dead’. Long live the kondi Ilkal!

#KutchAjrakh

#Bandhani

#Ilkal

#DesignCraft

#SomaiyaKalaVidya