Started amidst the pandemic in 2020, Dutta Ratul Calcutta is a sustainable fashion brand based out of the City of Joy, working with the traditional jamdani weave. The brand began its journey with a two-fold purpose — to replace the powerloom jamdanis and bring back its handwoven original essence; and to make the weave known to be ‘delicate’ as an occasion-cum-regular wear through a selection of colours, designs, fabrics and executions. Focussing on sustainability and the upliftment of the weaving community, the brand currently runs out of a home-based workshop with weaving clusters of Bengal and Bangladesh, thereby bridging the gap between the two regions with a connection of traditional weaving techniques. And to bridge the gap between the traditional and modern and fulfil its purpose of making jamdani acceptable to people across generations and making it a regular wear, it works with a variety of motifs as per contemporary style sensibilities.
“We wanted to develop a brand where the focus is only on jamdani. We maintain the basic philosophy of jamdani weaving but at the same time we develop motifs that are a bit contemporary, a bit out of the box, to make it relatable to the present generations as well. There are different types of yarns, too. We choose the yarn by ourselves to make it easy to drape and maintain high quality as regular wear,” said Ratul Dutta, owner.
Ratul
Their newly launched Puja collection consists of a variety of fabrics like handwoven linen, cotton, and silk and are all created naturally and sustainably with bare minimum wastage and damage. It is comfortable enough for use as regular-wear later, maintaining brand aesthetics. The collection includes basic silhouettes like saris, kurtas and dhotis as well as crop tops and unisex shirts for all gender and generations. “Our Puja campaign, Utsav ka Muhurat is not only aimed at exhibiting the intricacies of jamdani as an art but also passing down a message, a part of our #drapeyourstories, where we try to encourage individuals in draping and embracing jamdani irrespective of their gender, identity, body types, skin colour, and other differences. We have created a range of saris and garments in jamdani to suit various body types. Our hashtag #drapeyourstories is where we try to inspire our clients to drape their jamdani with their own story intertwined into it. In this collection, we pay our homage to the legendary film-maker Rituparno Ghosh; the name of the collection also draws its inspiration from two of their iconic films, Utsav and Shubho Mahurat. Their work has been a great source of inspiration in terms of saris and women embodying them,” added Ratul.
Megha Roy makes a style statement in a contemporary drape in a mustard handwoven cotton jamdani sari with purple motifs and checks running across, paired with a white khadi-cotton side-panelled crop top with shirt collar.
Traditional in essence with a hint of the modern. (L-R) Tanisha De in a khadi-cotton jamdani in a dark green shade, paired with a collared white crop top. Megha in the festive quintessential red-and-white taant jamdani woven by weavers of Bengal with classic jamdani motifs, paired with a crop top. Palash Singh in a traditional jamdani weave cotton kurta with red and green motifs, paired with the brand’s signature jamdani dhoti designed with stripes and jamdani-motif border.
Contemporary in style, (l-r) Megha in an indigo silk jamdani woven in Mulberry silk with antique golden zari and jamdani weave along the border; Palash in an indigo handwoven jamdani cotton kurta with white buta design in meenakari all over; Tanisha in indigo, beige and grey check sari with golden zari detailing in the jamdani weave.
Traditional with a hint of modern, Palash’s green muslin cotton kurta is designed with white traditional jamdani motifs along the neckline, paired with khadi jamdani striped dhoti. Tanisha complements the frame in a jamdani cotton crop top gathered around the waist and frilled around the edge of the sleeves, paired with a white muslin cotton jamdani sari with different motifs in multiple colours.
Pictures: Sourced from the label