A rt-based label Agnik Kolkata has trained its lens on 16th and 17thcentury Calcutta for its current collection Rongo Bilash. The Telegraph chats with Agnik Ghosh to find out more.
What is the story of ‘Rongo Bilash’?
‘Rongo Bilash’, as the name suggests is a narrative based upon the idea of luxurious soirées held by the nautch girls and courtesans of late 16th and 17th centuries at the heart of Calcutta. The drunken nights of the dandy ‘babus’ rejoicing on the exuberant beauty of the ‘bibis’, became the main inspiration of the collection.
Tell us about how you have styled the collection...
Styling this presentation was difficult but also fun at the same time. The idea of creating an identical-looking pair of babus, was very much fulfilled by Arka and Prince, who got dressed in vintage dress coats, Dhanyakhali dhotis and ‘Amama’ pugrees to reflect the idea of a sleek, dandy and fashionable man from the 17th century. For the bibis the look was elaborate, while ‘Shailasundari’ played by Dishani was draped in a Dacca sari and adorned in raw vintage silver jewellery mimicking a Kalighat pat, ‘Golapsundari’ played by Sulagna was adorned in Edwardian frill blouses paired with quintessential taant saris.
This collection was the year’s first, but the preparation had started well ahead, says Agnik
What are the various art forms you have explored in the collection?
A lot of inspiration was drawn from vintage oleographs, Battala prints and Kalighat patachitra paintings, which later got translated into clothes in the form of weaving and embroidery patterns and styling and draping techniques. In the case of make-up and hairstyles, Anirban and Sandipta did a wonderful job of mimicking watercolour-painted hairstyles and make-up ideas on paintings into real forms.
With every collection, you try to push the envelope. How do you prepare before every collection?
This collection was the year’s first, but the preparation had started well ahead. One of the main efforts went into set designing which was well-ideated by artist Kaushik Biswas. Whereas our cinematographer Aniket and photographer Anik did a wonderful job in creating the ambience of lust, love and colours which was a result of a thorough study of literature, oilportraits and pen illustrations from the colonial era.
Agnik Ghosh
You are quite academic for a designer. What have you read recently that might translate intoa collection later?
Well, I’m an avid reader and researcher of anything that deals with lost Bengal art forms and cultural activities. Recently we are focusing on our grand festive collection for which a thorough reading is going on. One of the recent gems found is a book named Bangalir Beshbash by Moloy Roy, which is surely going to turn into a beautiful project in near future.