Entrepreneur Maithili Ahluwalia introduced her new line Tiebele, taking inspiration from the architecture of Burkina Faso. Team Viva reports
On a sofa sat Maithili Ahluwalia, in what could best be described as a glamorous blue dress, a bracelet, red lipstick and her favourite Bata shoes. She fitted the image of the diva that fashion magazines labelled her as initially.
Maithili’s latest collection, Tiebele has been inspired by the Gurunsi architecture of Burkina Faso (West Africa) and Ghana. The collection has bold geometric motifs, hand painted on the mud houses. The pattern clearly took centre stage, be it in a weave, cut, print or embroidery, across both fashion and interiors. The color palette ranged from the earthy hues of beige, browns to rusts, the explosive mixes of oranges, reds and blues and monochromatic black and white.
“For me, a region or a theme is the starting point, the arc so to speak for a collection but we are very careful not to trivialise or exoticise that spirit. Africa, in its broadest definition, has always fascinated me, and the two continents share so much in terms of textiles because of their trade history. Revisiting these linkages but with a contemporary Indian eye is what excites me.
“So our mood board this year was inspired by the broadest idea of the Africa. But I always say this, I don’t think that these inspirations have to be taken seriously but as a starting point for a conversation but by no means a conclusion and I think our collection is very much an exploration of this dialogue and how we take Indian motifs, Indian textiles and traditions and how we reconceptualise them,” she told us.
Global living and travel have clearly left their mark, but she credits her mother and her late grandmother as being the true influences. A graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she obtained a degree in economics and sociology, Maithili said “I am not formally trained at all, either as a fashion designer or as a retailer or anything like that but I grew up in a family of aesthetics, my grandmother actually started in the 70s, what was then considered one of the first lifestyle store in a place called Bombay swadeshi, in Mumbai. My mother in the 80s was one of the most prominent costume and jewellery designer and she still designs jewellery three decades later. You can say that I have aesthetics in my DNA.” Having created one of India’s most special retail experiences, she said, “Clothes and jewellery should be be an expression of your personality. Fashion is not looking like somebody else and I think unfortunately that’s what it has become. We are now influenced by brands and trends but I think it’s very important that we only take those trends that actually add to who we are.”
Founder of Bungalow 8, the popular fashion and lifestyle destination, she told us, “Fashion for me has never been about looking at a magazine and trying to be like someone rather for me it’s looking at the magazine and understanding that there are certain elements that perhaps are you and taking those things and making them yours.”