The art of manipulating…twinkles

If there was dazzle it was here…it was here…it was here… (a new twist to…if there is a paradise on earth…it is this, it is this, it is this.. by Khusrao) and Shyamal and Bhumika made sure that behind all the bling there was an ode to textiles too…after all Shyamal’s great grandfather was the first man to open a textile mill in India, an honour that they have remembered through their hand woven offerings.

Shyamal is the great grandson of Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, Rai Bahadur a pioneer of the textile industry  in Ahmedabad, who started the first mill with an investment of Rs 1 lakh in 1859, and the second one in 1877. Shyamal comes from a family of great men and in this list is also his grandfather Deepak Shodhan, a revered cricketer, who passed away last year, but was remembered for his century in a Test match debut, a feat he shares with Lala Amarnath.

And it is this legacy that you can see in his brand that was started in 2003 with Bhumika, as he admits there is entrepreneurial spirit in his blood; their label also revived the Ashavali technique or brocade weaving (it was the name of Ahmedabad almost 700 years ago). “Bhumika is from NIFT and I was trained in Milan, and also in Hyderabad where I learnt Pochampally weaving, but we as a label wanted to take Indian crafts overseas (you can see that from their two million plus followers on social media) whether it was Canada or the US, discerning buyers desire a modern interpretation,” he says.

So from Vasli, aari, resham to zardosi and also Chikankari, the duo has cavorted with almost everything. But for ICW 2017, it was Matka silks woven in Bihar as well as handwoven raw silks. “The idea was to have young people connect with what we make, therefore you saw a global line, that you can wear to a show at the museum, a cocktail and even Paris. And we really worked on the blouses, which reverberated with a transitional appeal,” says Shyamal.

The designers played with fit and flare, as net gowns complete with tassels, and ruffles on shoulders took you back to the 20s, maybe Flapper, but a whole lot more decadent. A woman’s back now is the new erogenous zone, with deeper cuts and slimmer straps or none at all. The gold rush only saw minimal hints of colour in the salmon pink flowers that played peek-a-boo in the avalanche of sequins.

The revolutionary new sari now comes with a belt and peplum too hasn’t lost its charm, as floor-kissing black tunics came with stacked diamond bangles as further embellishments.

Velvet embroidered shoes for men, is now de rigueur as well as black, which Shyamal says, is a hue that has remained a taboo in a trousseau, but is slowly finding favour. The bridal market is also embracing green, which was omnipresent in ICW 2017 along with rusty oranges.

Though it was the pedigreed Athiya Shetty (daughter of Manna and Sunil Shetty) sparkling in a full sheathed sequinned tunic and charcoal blacklehenga, who with her perfect chiselled cheekbones and statuesque poise managed to leapfrog into your heart. “Our grandfathers were friends, Athiya’s was a famous architect, so all we had to do is make a call and she flew in to walk for us,” concludes Shyamal.