Shoot notes...
A little bit of sky
In these months of lockdown we have all learnt what it means to live in a staged reality. With the outside inaccessible, our worlds suddenly shrank down to the bare essentials. All the things we have always taken for granted were suddenly not so important or entirely inaccessible. Faced with the prospect of being ‘caged-in’, many of us constructed our own realities within our own homes, to help retain some sort of order and normalcy.
Collection type: Resort, pret
Inspiration: This campaign draws inspiration from such staged flights of fancy during lockdown. Fluid drapes and structured silhouettes combined with the graphic prints speaks of an attempt to escape from immediate realities. But escape is not possible and hence we remain rooted to the confines of our interiors. The images shot were digitally incorporated within larger-than-life graphic backgrounds from our everyday surroundings. As if it’s all been shot around our homes or the garden or on rooftops of buildings using 3D realism and form.
Premise and design
It took the collaborative efforts of our team of craftsmen, staff and designers to come up with a line that is rooted in two sensibilities. A tribal past rooted in an ethical approach to the environment in conversation with the future we are all inevitably marching towards. Inspirations came directly from the Warli art form of the Adivasi tribes of North Sahyadri Range in Maharashtra, which have been incorporated in our more contemporary textures, drapes and silhouettes. The clamp-dye print, often left incomplete with a structured silhouette, is design stripped down to its bare and minimum in keeping with the mood of the hour.
The players
It was also a collaborative effort from our models and performers. Dancer Mekhola (Bose) was instrumental in giving these garments the free-spirited look that we had intended. A sense of freedom, fluid and unrestrained, that speaks of innate power at its heart. (Mohammed) Iqbal is always ready to experiment with whatever potentially awkward scenario we throw at him and always comes out tops. Our in-house assistant designer Aavya (Nath) perfectly brought out the ‘drag’ vibe we wanted for her pieces — carefully controlled chaos ready to detonate, but always with humour.
We worked with artist and architect Aniket Rathore to create backdrops of 3D realism that were both commonplace and yet larger than life. All the images are designed keeping in mind that we wanted to have a certain amount of playfulness in each of them, while capturing the essence of each of these outfits which were designed during the lockdown period. It’s graphic and architectural in its appearance while the popping foliage at times is softening down the imagery.
Make-up artist Abhijit Chanda was given a free hand to highlight a look of whimsy in the trio to complement the interplay of structured and fluid forms and the prints.
On Iqbal: Jade green Warli-print cotton bomber jacket and pants. On Mekhola: Jade green Warli-print cotton trench coat with lace detail sleeves. The Warli wall art print with its beige, red and mud colour combination is a busy print-on-print look which is in conflict with each other. A very strong pattern juxtapositioned in front of each other, creating an array of illusion, these printed outfits demanded a strong graphic movement which again created a feeling of almost weightlessness… Iqbal tilting and falling while Mekhola very carelessly balancing to prevent her own self from tilting over. Pabitra Das
On Mekhola: Sap green satin organza knotted dress with beaded panther embroidered neckline and satin organza box-pleated shorts. The sap green outfit gave a sense of freedom to the dancer with her movement and we wanted to capture a feeling of escaping in the midst of architectural mass of concrete. As if she is standing on top of a water tank dancing to her own tune and with one leap she is almost ready to take off. Pabitra Das
On Aavya: Grey clamp-dye-print yellow satin knotted jumpsuit with a deep V back and grey clamp-dye-print red trench coat with lace detail sleeves (in picture). The two images of Aavya have been created with strong lines and colours while her own body language is almost mocking or making fun of fashion itself! Almost as if caught in a goofy moment in the seriousness of the fashion... her look was inspired by that of Dame Edna and her humour, antics and her loud sense of fashion. Pabitra Das;
On Mekhola: Grey Warli-print cotton suit with beaded highlights. White cotton shirt with silver faux leather applique butterfly and panther embroidery. On Iqbal: Grey Warli-print shirt with beaded highlights and lace detail and baggy cotton pants. The grey striped outfit and it’s image was inspired from Michelangelo’s Pieta but with a twist in the story. Here the limp body of the male form is lying on the lap of the woman who is almost looking at the fresh kill. You wonder what’s in her mind. Deitifying this image is the concrete wall acting as a halo behind her. Pabitra Das
On Mekhola: Mauve clamp-dye-print white oversized shirt with lace detailed princess panel and sleeves and white shorts. The white boxy shirt image is again graphic and architectural in its movement while showcasing the freedom and ease of the shirt dress in which you can almost live in and do acrobatics in. The walls reflect the subtle print of the shirt which is inspired from the clamp dyeing technique as a texture engraved on it. Pabitra Das