Byloom, the Hindusthan Park lifestyle store that houses a variety of handloom and handicrafts, often celebrates heritage in unique ways. Their Ambi Festival, a three-day showcase held from June 9 to 11, was one such initiative to celebrate the mango-inspired paisley motif. Tracing back to the history of the paisley motif and connecting it back with the mango season in Bengal, Byloom presented its collection of saris and fabrics in silk and cotton weave. The paisley motif featured in block prints and on Jamdani. Snapshots.
(l-r) Bappaditya Biswas, Purabi Roy
“Paisley has been inspired by the shape of mango. Artists and textile designers have represented it in their own ways. Since it is the festival of mango in Bengal right now and Bengal is famous for its varieties of mangoes, we thought of exploring designs with this motif. Since we work at Phulia, many of our taantis have mango orchards and Himsagar is famous there. We have worked with paisley a lot but this is the first time we focussed on it. It is our way of diversifying the shape into many other forms. We have a Jamdani and block print collection on this. We have reinterpreted the paisley motif through zari and sequin work, too. The cotton ones feature the block prints,” said Bappaditya Biswas, partner, Byloom.
“Aam (mangoes) has been with us for centuries. It is a fruit from our land. It is of different types like Neelam in Andhra Pradesh, Himsagar, Phojli and we end the season with Chousha. Whatever we cherish has always found a place in our art. But when the English came, they started stopping our looms. Then they opened a loom in the Paisley town of Scotland. Mango motif became identified with paisley. Our very own kalka became paisley. Everything that started with a bang is going down in Bengal but Bappaditya and his wife Rumi are opening a lot of vistas for people. I don’t think anyone has thought of how mangoes are already a part of our art and craft, but they did. I hope they keep moving ahead in this manner to keep the crafts alive,” said Purabi Roy of Crafts Council of India, who dropped by to check out the exhibition.