For the development and materialisation of this project, me and my project peers had the opportunity and privilege to go onsite (Kullu-Manali, Himachal Pradesh) and learn from the artisans first-hand and develop an Autumn-Winter collection working alongside them. The collection is completely handcrafted and mainly focuses on the traditional Indian, handwoven textile of Kullu-Manali, Himachal Pradesh. This area is known for its woollen shawls that have a quint essential extra-weft geometric border. The project focuses on ethical and sustainable materials as well as practices in order to promote textile artisans and local occupations like sheep rearing and hand spinning. The unique feature of this collection is the wool used - which is 100% pure, hand-spun, handwoven - Indian Sheep (white) and Indian Yak (black) wool that is native to this region.
Mood Board
Style Board
Accessories and Trims Board
Surface Ornamentation and Embellishment Board
Colour Board
Digital Illustrations of possible silhouettes and styles with possible placements of trims and accessories.
In Above Frames - Onsite step-by-step videos and images of cleaning, carding of wool to make yarn.
In Above Frame - Onsite in-process images of different extra weft designs being made on the loom.
In Above Frame - Border Weaving (extra weft) of a stylised peace symbol on a 4 shaft handloom.
In Above Frame - (Left) Initial development of the Peace symbol in a pentagon on a graph paper.
(Right) Border developed in extra weft with the help of the design developed on the graph.
In Above Frame - Swatches of fabric that were developed and used in the making of the collection. The fabric is handwoven using hand-spun wool. All 4 shades are achieved using different proportions of natural white and black wool (for example- dark gray yarn is made using more black wool and less white wool and vice-versa for light gray yarn) thus completely avoiding the use of synthetic dyes and chemicals. Weaves used are - variations of a twill weave and different colour combinations (visible in the black, dark gray and light gray swatches), along with a diamond weave (visible in the white swatch)
In Above Frame - Clutches and Pouches made using fabric that was wasted in pattern-cutting of the apparel.
In Above Frame - Hand-embroidered bead work (using bugles) to accentuate the design.
In Above Frame - Studio shots of the complete outfits.
Images of the final and completed looks on the runway for the Graduation Show (School Of Fashion Technology, Pune - 2019)
