Starting out with designing blouses and then moving on to saris and now jackets, Calcutta-based fashion brand Sayanti Ghosh Designer Studio is all about creating handcrafted heirloom pieces featuring intricate threadwork. A fashion den for traditional heritage handloom pieces, Indian textile and art forms, the brand’s forte lies in telling stories through its designs. “In 2015, I started with two karigars and the home garage space, and today I am running separate units for each art form across India. We work with 12 techniques including machine embroidery, hand embroidery, jamdani, kalamkari, eco-printing, madhubani, hand-painting, batik, kantha and pichwai. I find my inspiration from everyday life, nature and architecture,” says Sayanti.

Their recent collection narrates the story of life in the jungles. The Telegraph features a few looks from their jungle collection lookbook shot in the scenic Rolep village in Sikkim:

The ‘Jungle’ Collection — Into the Wild is a set of 24 pieces portraying and celebrating life in the jungle and natural scenery. We have mostly used fabrics like raw silk, muslin, organza, tussore, muga silk, Bangalore silk. Jungles are rightly called the lungs of the earth. As a kid, I remember being an avid follower of the life and journey of Mowgli (from The Jungle Book). It was the first window that opened in front of me the beautiful and creative world of animation. Jungle Book felt so close to home! Over the years, I developed my fondness for the characters which were different animals from the jungle and even grew compassionate towards them. Keeping this essence intact, the new collection is here to resonate with the childhood memories and the love for nature.

Our Jungle collection is an ode to all the love and warmth that we have nested in our hearts for the jungle and the dwellers of it, over the years. In the rising climate change situation, it is important to still love our friends from the jungles as much as we did as kids. We need to do the needful to prevent certain members of the jungle family from getting extinct. We need to save the green homes which are so essential for the healthy thriving of our blue planet — Sayanti Ghosh, designer

Based on the dark hues and earthy colour palette of the jungle, this brown handwoven tussore is designed with circles portraying the different animals that inhabit the jungle.

This occasionwear hand-embroidered sari features the edgy dragonfly motif. The blouse is made of velvet and the sari in tussore is coloured with blue dye.

One of the first pieces of the collection and a tribute to the ‘collarwali’, the hand-embroidered sari is designed with the regal Royal Bengal Tiger motif. Made of Chinese dupion silk, the trees are embroidered with a 3D effect to add the jungle feel. The blouse has been specially designed with a net patch as a style element.

The 3D embroidered raw silk jacket captures the jungle scene and is a versatile piece that can be paired with  shorts, sari or a bralette.

The jungle is not just about the animals but it’s scenic beauty too. This handwoven tussore, without any dye, features the scenic natural scenes in the jungle — the waterfalls, trees, hills....

Pictures courtesy: Sayanti Ghosh Designer Studio

Models: Priti Jana and Vani Verma

Make-up: Abhijit Paul

Hair: Ginni

Stylist: Sandip Jaiswal