Graduation Collection: RIYAAZ

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'Riyaaz' is my final year Graduation Collection of Fashion Design Discipline at National Institute of Fashion Technology. The collection is conceptualised, designed and constructed by myself.

The collection is a Fusionwear AW17 collection. The whole concept is based on ‘Raag’. A Raag literally means "coloring, tingeing, dyeing.Raag have been used in almost all of the Indian classical music, be it Hindustani (North Indian music), Carnatic (South Indian music) and even in Sikhism (Guru Granth Sahib) Raag has to be elaborated in bringing out its aesthetic potentialities which procedure is often called the improvisation. The raga is considered a means in Indian musical tradition to evoke certain feelings in an audience. These feelings, thoughts, emotions, symbolic associations, emotional significances, mood, time, season connected to Ragas forms the base of my concept. Every Raag invokes a particular rasa. Each Raag is associated, according to its mood, with a particular time of the day, night or a season. There are many stories, experiences, legends associated with each Raag. The season, time, atmosphere, emotions will be the inspiration. Each melodic structure of Raag has something akin to a distinct personality subject to a prevailing mood. Time, sunrise, sunsets also play a very important role. They will create that aura and mood only when it’s sung at that particular time and season. The song if sung at that time, gets intensified and gives the audience a better experience altogether.

I have chosen 5 Raagas:

Raag kedar, Raag Sarang, Raag Raageshwari, Raag Darbari, Raag Asa.

And I have designed five garments based on five raagas each.

The following artwork explains the five Raagas; their story, emotions, history, seasons, mood and how that has inspired me into those five garments.

Inspiration Board

MoodBoard

Client Board

MotifBoard

Final Illutrations

Raag kedar is named after the lord Shiva. This raaga is on high pedestal in the realms of Indian classical music. The prahar of this raag is from 6.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. It has a lot of complex turns and if sung correctly can even heal the sick. The mood of this raaga is of contemplation, associated with a sort of ascetic idealism.

Orange colour dominates the garment as raag kedar is related a lot to asceticism. And also the prahar i.e, evening time has a lot of orange and yellows. The raaga is suppose to be very complex and that’s why a complex structure of line is used of embroidery on the jacket.

Raag Raageshwari is known as queen of raagas. The raag is very charismatic and is of light romantic mood. It stats with a very fun, playful romantic mood, which quickly turns into moods of frustration gloom and jealousy. The prahar is from 9.00 p.m.to midnight.

Dark pink and blues are the overruling colors in the garment. Pink is to show the charismatic, romantic side of the raaga. And the blue to show how the romance can turn into gloom and frustration.

Raag Darbari is used a lot in Carnatic music. It was brought to North Indian music by Tansen. It used to be sung by Tansen in Akbar’s court a lot. Its quite a grave raga and that is why played deep into the night. The prahar is from midnight to 3.00 p.m.. It is one of the most difficult raagas to master with the most potential for profound emotional impact. It also cures insomnia and induces sleep.

The colors of the garment are quite on the darker side, blacks and blues overrule here because of the late night prahar. the whole garment has a lot of Mughal feel to it and is inspired a little from the Mughal silhouettes. On the back of the jacket, there is an applique work of a woman sleeping.

Raag Sarang is based on Sarangadeva who was famous in 14th century as a theorist. It’s a sikh raag from Guru Granth Sahib. And is from kaafi thata. The raaga is quiet and peaceful and related to greeneryl. The effect is very cool and so it is normally sung at noon times to give the listeners a cool time. The snake charmer uses the raaga to intoxicate poisonous snakes with its melody. The prahar is from noon to 3.00 p.m.the dress has subtle colors so as to keep the relaxing effect intact. The jacket has a lot of gathers and is olive green. The dress has an embroidery of a pungi which the snake charmer uses to intoxicate the snakes.

Raag Asa is a Sikh raaga from Guru Granth Sahib. Asa means hope, effort, provides feeling of inspiration, courage, determination, ambition, passion. It’s a raaga of cold season. The prahar (time) is from 3.00 a.m. to 6 a.m. i.e Twilight, early in the morning just before sunrise. It has a twilight melody with calm mystical mood.

The colors of the dress are inspired from the prahar. the colors at that time are blacks and blue and slowly it turns orange. So these three are the main colors of the garment. I have done a sunrise embroidery in the front and done applique work on the jacket, the motif used are birds as birds here are used as a metaphor to inspiration, courage and calmness.