Designers and artists share how the five senses have inspired them in their field of work in the first of its kind talk at the ongoing AIWF. By Shrabasti Mallik
Fashion, the very term rings about a million of bells — silhouettes, cuts, hues, fabric, sequin, drapes, layers, colours and so many things. There was, is and will be plenty of oomph, glamour and sassyness at the ongoing Amazon India Fashion Week, but the second day of the five-day gala hosted a talk which was unlike anything one can imagine at a fashion week.
The Fashion Forward Talk titled Border & Fall hosts An Eternal Feast — Feeding the Five Senses, did not touch upon fashion as in proper fabric, ramp and clothes fashion. It had to do more with the senses that inspire designers in their work, or as moderator and designer Malika V Kashyap from Border & Fall put it, “They will take us through what they see, smell, taste, feel and hear.”
To see is to believe
Rashmi Varma, founder and designer of her label, has spent the formative years of her life as a clothing and costume designer for films and theatre. So, it is but natural that the world of theatrics and celluloid have influenced her. “I indulge all my senses with a film because it allows me to transport myself to another place,” she said. The visual aspect of movies appeal to Varma the most — the riot of colours, the shapes, forms, thematics, the moving camera, design. Visual clips from a few movies aided her in explaining how the different aspects of the acting world intrigue her. “I can watch a movie about a hundred times, sometimes even without any music, and every time I discover something new and different,” she added.
Sound of music
Sudarshan Shetty might be appointed as the curator of the forthcoming Kochi Muziris Biennale but deep down he is an artist — one who is deeply rooted to music and looks up to the works of his guru, the great vocalist Kumar Gandharva. Shetty narrated the struggle and the life of the legendary Hindustani classical singer who refused to be bound by the tradition of any gharana. “He was a liberal teacher who took out the best of every gharana and also had the ability to reproduce old compositions,” said Shetty. In his middle age, guruji was diagnosed with tuberculosis of one lung and the doctors doctor’s verdict was to put an end to his singing. “But he did not give up and after five years, when he went up on stage there was a radical difference. Not only did his voice undergo a change but even his style of singing,” he shared.
Whiff of fresh air
How many of us can relate architecture with fragranceIJ The numbers would be few, if not none. But Jahnvi Dameron Nandan, founder of The Perfume library believes that architecture are buildings filling up empty spaces, much like the diffusing property of fragrance. The speaker shared how she derives inspiration from an art form like dance for her perfumes. “When you dance, you do not think,” she said, “Similarly in the case of perfume, it is all in the mind — you are not thinking. Both dance and fragrance come from the earth.”
As per taste
Well this is not the ‘taste’ that you relate to gastronomics, it is to do with the way you develop your taste (read choice). Canada based designers Amrit Kaur and Mrigya Kapadia of Nor Black Nor White shared how they developed their own personal taste in people, clothes, food, culture and traditions. Kaur said, “Being brought up in Canada I grew up with a mixed crowd of Jamaicans, Sri lankans and people from all over the world. I had to struggle to keep up with the mixed culture at school and my identity of a Sikh.” The wake up call for an identity came to them in college. “We felt the need to understand the place we come from, the places we belong and do not belong,” said Kapadia.
Then on, they travelled the length and breadth (well, almost) of the world including India, changing and adapting themselves with the culture and imbibing everything that they saw.