Australian designers Pamela Easton and lydia Pearson have worked closely with Indian craftsmen for over 20 years. They now will be launching their brand in India. The duo chatted with Divya Kaushik about mixing embroidery from Kutch with aboriginal prints from their land
They were all pepped up to talk a lot during the evening which was a little different than a regular fashion event in the Capital. Nobody paid much attention to who wore what, guests at the Australian High Commissioner’s residence hovered around displayed designs, commending designers Pamela Easton and lydia Pearson’s ability to combine Indian embroidery techniques with their design aesthetics. The designers who have visited India almost 50 times in last 20 years are all set to launch their label Easton Pearson here. During the evening, the two ladies not only presented some garments from their collection but also spoke at length about how they got to know about Kutchi embroidery (from Gujarat), that forms an integral part of their collection and experience of working with weavers here.
“Much of the fabric in each collection is commissioned by us, and all the embroidery is developed with us in India at the embroidery workshops. We spend a significant amount of time in Mumbai and Delhi, and have become quite knowledgeable about many aspects of surface decoration,” said Pamela.
Their first introduction to the thread embroidery of Kutch was through Sudha Patel who runs Shrujan, a Kutch-based NGO. Pamela informed, “Sudha has a sister who lived in Brisbane and we met her 25 years ago through her. She told us that since we love the colour and embroidery, we should come to India and she told us about Kutch, she was one of the founding directors of Shrujan. We went to Bhuj and visited villages and we are doing a project with the craftsmen there ever since then. People across the world adored our collection which displays beautiful Indian embroidery. People across the globe are drawn to anything which is done by hand. Hand work adds soul to the garment. It is like work of art,” said Pamela, adding that the collection that they will be soon launching in the Indian market is the same that is sold across the world. She said, “We will not be designing anything specific to India. Our collection boasts of colours and embroidery that Indians love. The work that we do is very commercial and we have been approached by the retailers in the past to sell the brand here. But we were not ready for it then. But in the last five years, Indian fashion market has seen a drastic change. Indians have adopted western silhouettes. We feel right now is the perfect time for us to launch our brand here, which is high-end couture. We will probably adjust a couple of our garments for Indian market but most silhouettes will be same. There will be certain kind of pants and we will do a lot of tunics. I think, Indian women are receptive to all kind of garments now.” The collection that will be also introduced in the forthcoming season of Wills India Fashion Week, will be made available through selective high-end stores here. After gaining a foothold in Indian market, the brand will further tie up with other retail stores. The price range will begin from Rs10,000 and will go as high as Rs40,000. The brand is also known for its accessories and shoes, that may be introduced to the Indian market later.
Pamela and lydia are hoping that after them, there will be many designers giving recognition to Indian skills. “We have combined Indian embroidery patterns with our aboriginal prints. The motifs are pretty similar. We have also worked with women from Surat and have used their interesting braid-like pattern. So skills in Indian are wide and we have been lucky to explore that. We still commission great deal of Indian textiles to be woven for us. We have got jacquard, chanderi and khadi. We also worked with ikat, we went to Hyderabad and met weavers in Varanasi,” said lydia. The designers are looking forward to healthy exchange between the two countries through fashion and say that they will continue to visit India. The next destination on their wishlist is Varanasi, “for a spiritual experience.”
photos Pankaj Kumar