“One day I would like to do something with Kanjeevarams and temple borders,” says Payal Pratap.
By Asmita Aggarwal
Payal Pratap is a mood, a flavour as she was sure when she graduated from the fourth batch of NIFT, wearability is going to be the focus. Though she agrees over the last three decades, there has been an increased curiosity about what buyers are wearing, spotlight on mindful consumption, “globe has shrunk and fair-trade practices are practised widely, polyester is unacceptable”.
The flip side is market is saturated and question is “do we really need to make more clothes?” “Women are a lot fitter, they want to reuse their clothing, reinvent their existing wardrobe, rejig it. We make a lot of separates, easy to mix and match, travel friendly, you can take from lunch to dinner,” says Payal.
Even though she calls herself “tech challenged” social media is most important for any business, as a small town in Wales to a village in Europe can see your offerings. “For LFW I’ve worked with denims, given it my own spin,” she says. Laser cuts, to being inspired by her mom’s green garden, she inherited the love for nature.
She has used Cyanotype photography, a camera-less technique, that creates white and Prussian blue images, it is fossil like, the results, similar to what you get on an X ray, then she built on it.
The denim used is sustainable that R Relan produces, recycling Pet bottles, making a fibre out of it often called “green gold”. “It is not like other denim, it has elasticity,” she adds. Ashish Soni has made suiting materials out of it and Namrata Joshipura activewear, it is supple, softer, not the usual stiff denim we all grew up with, she affirms.
Payal has had a lasting love affair with denim, it fades and ages, it has a sense of nostalgia, offers versatility, many virtues. “We have added texture, prints and embroidery, oversized silhouettes,” she explains.
Her experiments with pret also led her to launch Umbar, a brand that she hopes to revive soon, though she has never dabbled in couture. “The idea is always to be simple and pure, travel, see exhibitions that inspire you, imbibe all that in your subconscious and someday bring alive the collection, when you are starting a new line-thought process,” she adds.
Her oldest piece of denim is now 12, it has aged with her, though denims become precious pieces when you add lots of embroidery on them, you can then wear on occasions. “For the last 30 years I’ve always done hand embroidered pieces, never machines,” she adds. Her love for cross stitch, beads, woven fabrics, layering is constant, Jamdani from Phulia, Bengal, khadi to khadi wool she has been using for the last 7-8 years is evident in each line.
“What I would like to explore is Kanjeevarams and temple borders, maybe I stayed in Bangalore for 5-6 years as a school girl, my dad was in the Army, maybe the fascination comes from there,” she smiles. Never did she think that “designer” of the family at ten, who would tell her mom which bag to carry with her silk sari, would one day be a successful guru of style!