From the desk of
Ritu Kumar:
My initial research for prints began in the 60’s. I took several trips to Rajasthan, U.P, and Delhi. In Delhi I met people who were working in an atmosphere charged with national pride. Most of us were searching for our roots, with an earnestness of purpose…to ensure that the hereditary thread of continuity was not broken. I was particularly looking for example of the classical fabrics, which had a traditional aesthetic.
The word designer was not in the national vocabulary. It was to do with the textile design and locating hidden lexicons. It was an exciting heady time; the work was frustrating, as little material for study was available then. Textile museums in India at that time were few and far between. Compared to their counterparts in the rest of the world, which I discovered during my many visits abroad, were largely slumbering. Most old clothing with the royal homes dates to a confused sartorial 20th century baroque textiles period while what I was looking for was a Renaissance. It was hard work but extremely satisfying and exciting.
It sometimes took years, to find out but when one happened to discover the existence of high skills and worked at it, miraculous jeweled textiles emerged from long forgotten textile districts. I am so glad today that there was a commercial aspect to the work I was doing. It ensured that the craft had to be nurtured through years to meet the needs of the generation who were going to be its patrons, and was not just an effort to prove that could in the 20th century be brought back to its pristine classicism. My first exhibition of saris using designs from India’s renowned print schools was held in Calcutta. Of 30 researched pieces I managed to sell only a dozen, over 4 days. I had got it wrong. No one wanted to buy a print, which looked like a Farukhabad bedcover on thick handloom cotton.
They may have been what it was all about in the 18th century. But the woman who went to lunch though appreciating the colors and design did definitely not want to look like a tea cozy! It taught me my first lesson. Never try and design without a vision, which is not based on contemporary needs. Use the idiom, motif, the design and all that made that school of design so important, but works it for the Present day.
My real desire to document was kindled in the early 70’s. I was asked to participate in an exhibition mounted at the Lalit Kala Academy by Ms. Swantantra Prakash, of researched contemporary versions of patterned fabrics of India. I was in awe of the invitation and left Calcutta with the few scarves and saris that I had designed reinterpreting an older genre.
I remember discovering a huge lexicon of designs with a family of block makers who had trunk full of designs on crumbling paper, preserved perhaps from the 18th century. The family’s traditional livelihood had vanished but the old grandfather had the genius. It was a leveling experience, as I watched him draw a diagonal pattern on a block 4’ x 4’ which made me feel like going back to art school. He had learned the skill of patterning from his forefathers, who he claimed carved, and had designed patterns, which imprinted fabrics, which were exported in dhows to the Arab world and further abroad, in the 17th Century.
I was in my 20’s at the time and remember rushing back to Delhi to meet Pupul Jayakar who headed “The Handloom and Handicraft boards” then and was one of the pioneers of what I call ‘the revival movement’. After listening to my breathless story of discovery, she said, “Do you know that in every district of this country there is need to sustain this legacy. Until your generation is not willing to understand that this is your heritage that is slipping through your hands a supportive government body cannot do anything but be a catalyst.
Don’t come running to me, do something about it”. Long time later I had researched the art of embroidery with gold, which eventually was to have a huge marketing the export of sequined garments out this country. This one technique and craft today has become the mainstay of the ramp collections of the country, though to a textile perspective this is the last and most easily achieved of effects in textile parlance.
“The Handloom and Handicraft Boards Embroidered dyed and printed fabrics which threw up design lexicons which had survived many generations. The country’s imagination was set afire with this seemingly endless repertoire of high textile skills. The patronage once extended by the royal Indian families suddenly took on a national dimension, as handloom and textile related crafts and the use of natural fabrics and processes, definitely set the fashion trend in the country, especially with the urban elite women, who returned to their use with an enthusiasm which ensured their survival till the present time.
The Indian woman’s preference for traditional clothing has ensured that global fashions remained on the periphery of Indian wear and though seen in small urban pockets did not make a national statement. It may have been a short lived miracle though. Most handloom weaves I work with, are in dire straits today. In my experience the industry seems to have slowed down. Its concerns are no longer in the national consciousness, lie forgotten, languishing and fallen in health. It needs intensive cultural design care.
With few exceptions, weavers today are producing functionally ill designed, aesthetically confused and by and large mediocre textiles which do not do justice to the standards set by their traditions. There is no eye for drape and fabric and increasingly over designed and ornamented products come to a market which is resistant to them and is moving fast into the global world of fashion. The renaissance has gone and the baroque has taken over.
Source: Ritukumar.com
Some of the more classic choices out there are these two from Rachel Pally (left) and Sunner (right). The v-neck blazer-like neckline keeps it classic and the cropped style gives it an extra oomph. 
Something a little more edgy, we have this very stylishly tailored cropped jacket by Helmut Lang (who else?, left) and this printed jacket by Milly (right). I LOVE this jacket. This is my favourite cropped jacket of all because the bold print is still versatile being black and white and the feminine cut of the neckline brings edgy and girly together. It makes a statement and is still very wearable. I can totally see myself living and breathing this cropped jacket this season!
