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PERSON OF INTEREST | RASA JAIPUR

Fashion

Rasa Jaipur’s collection is a modern interpretation of the Mughal architecture with a beautiful play of print-on-print

Rasa Jaipur’s presentation for spring-summer 2016 was an assortment of prints in a color palette of lemons and aquas, combined with whites, blacks, carrot oranges and silver greys. The silhouettes focussed on wearable separates in silks, georgettes, mushroo and even Chanderi. We sat down with designer Akshita Singhal from the brand to talk about their world of contemporary hand-block prints. Working with Manish and Madhulika Tibrewal for over eight years, the designer gave us an insight into their first ramp showcase at the Amazon India Fashion Week.

So, why did it take them such a long time to come out on the runway? The designer explains, “It was a long pending decision but we always got caught up with our export business. This time we thought we had to reach out to a larger audience.”

The brand takes its major inspiration from Mughal architecture as well as paintings and motifs from Rajasthan. “This is like Mughal gone mod,” according to the designers.

Ultimately, they try to combine everything with hand-block printing, “The block printing process is a tedious one. The people who came to our stall thought that everything was screen or digitally printed. The USP of our brand is that everything is hand-dyed and hand-block printed.”

Since hand-block printing is a manual process, how did they manage create such consistency in their prints? “Consistency is the most important aspect, but again, each individual piece is different and has a character of its own. This is what we explain to our international buyers as well.”

On reviewing the garments, one could see that they put a lot of emphasis on embroideries and native crafts. Says Akshita, “We try to promote textiles a lot. We send the fabric out to villages in Rajasthan to get our embroideries done. We even did a technique which was a twisted version of Bandhej. Also, we have a fantastic team that helps put it all together.”

The show also featured a lot of interesting print-on-print looks. Talking about the whole experience the designer says, “Earlier, we only did single garments for buyers. The biggest challenge that we faced during the fashion week was putting up a whole look together. We had a lot of fun putting in the extra time and effort doing that.”

The highlight of the show was the use of extensive prints (like octagrid, paisleys and wood cut patterns), on clothes, accessories and even shoes! Talking about the geometry, Akshita shares, “We have been doing graphic blocks for a really long time now. We try to maintain block printing aesthetic as well, thus geometry becomes an integral part of the whole process.”

We also spotted a velvet jacket named ‘Istanbul’ in the collection. So what is the story behind christening their garments? “We like to name the prints as well as the tunics. It’s a fun activity that we have every second day in our office. Whenever any new print or style comes up, we take the names of places we have been to or name it after the women force who work with us, like this ‘Pushpa’ skirt,” the designer laughs.

Since they had a parallel line of business, they had only 25 days in between meetings to put up the whole collection. It got chaotic at times, but they also learnt a few things during their journey. “We realized during the design process that we are not a bottom-friendly company. While putting the look together, Madhulika and I realized that we end up doing only the tops, dresses and tunics. This was a big step for us when we decided to put emphasis on pants and skirts as well,” concludes the designer.



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