A sustainable fashion label pioneers a new fashion address, Ogaan. By Ramya Palisetty
Who would have thought that in the remotest villages of India, we could find inspiration for fashionIJ Young designers Amit and Richard Pandav, Sayantan Sarkar, Soham Dave, and Sreejith Jeevan went to these inaccessible places to collaborate with rural women and created contemporary trends that would change perspectives and urban notions. With splendid gowns, shirts, palazzos and skirts on display, the sustainable fashion label, Usha Silai in consultation with IMG reliance, started a retail store, Ogaan.
It all began with an institute where women are trained in basic skills of stitching and embroidery. They were imparted advanced inputs and guidance by the designers which helped them to reach a certain standard and resulted in the showcase of their work at lakme Fashion Week.
The fashion week experience enhanced their confidence and the brains behind the initiative committed towards the goal to inspire and encourage these women to work with dedication and perseverance with the designers, undertake retail and thus Ogaan was born. Dr Priya Somaiya, design coach believes that talent is universal. It is just a matter of receiving inputs at the right time. She wanted the school programme to not just discuss theoretically about empowerment. “Through this platform, we can see that every woman who is getting trained, is able to earn with respect. We integrated a sewing machine business and the experience of training and teaching in embroidery and stitching to create a fruitful journey. We identified four creative designers who belonged to the respective clusters. They knew the ethos and could speak the language.”
The villages were located in remote areas and were inaccessible but the designers were able to integrate the cultural legacy of the states in terms of colours, designs, cuts and silhouettes into contemporary trends and style. Somaiya feels that there is a need to bridge the gap between the tradition and modernity. “If the roots are not nourished, the edifice collapses.”
The budding designers identified wanted to work at the grassroot level. Says Somaiya “It was not easy to drive this process at the village level as there were a lot of uncertainties associated — what if the women don’t come out, what if the husband stops them, what if they do not understand the teachings. Surprisingly, they were intelligent and talented with an eagerness to learn.”
The collection has tags crediting the rural women and the brand’s intent is to fairly share the revenue with the ladies who have stitched these garments. The first collection under their label has been created by rural women in four clusters under the mentorship of designers who have imbued the collection with their unique take on the sensitivities of the region.
The designers worked with local women from the brand’s training schools in Rajasthan, Bengal, Gujarat, and Puducherry clusters.
Sreejith Jeevan, who launched his label in 2013 and has been displaying his designs at lakme fashion week since 2014 was given the Puducherry cluster. He incorporated a lot of grey, black and white with cinched belts and patchworks.
Kurtas formed a dominant part of his collection with borders on sleeves and windows as motifs to signify the French town.
Every window in Puducherry has a story to tell about an old seaside French colony and the people who have lived there. Inspired by this eclectic vibe, the designer’s collection is a refreshing narrative that connects the women who crafted the collection to their roots.
The designer and his team were staying in the white town which inspired the collection. Jeevan says, “The idea was to give the women a context since they have been in their own villages making blouses for a long time. When we told them about creating garments for the urban market, background information was required. To achieve this aspect, we showed them shops and we thought they should learn from Puducherry and sort of get inspired by it as well.”
The rural women had to undergo skill assessment sessions and were given training and design workshops. The approach used in Jeevan’s collection was learning by doing. It was a hands-on training where the team and the women worked with images and samples.
To bring in an element of Puducherry, south cotton fabric with borders were used as they are a metaphor for the place. The designer used an element of quirk, his signature in terms of motifs, embroidery and hand-stitched details.
The challenges were at every possible stage. “They were limited to few things not working out, the need for another perspective or skill but the energy and the eagerness of these women to work was motivational. It wouldn’t have been possible without their enthusiasm.”
Stepping out of the comfort zone was a learning experience for the designer. “The experiences like this are always interesting otherwise one gets used to a certain way of doing things.”
Sayatan Sarkar named his collection Mastikari, inspired by the quaint settlements of rural West Bengal. Efficient in zari work and hand embroidery, these women have sewn their stories into the marvellous collection where every stitch is a testament to the joy of creating. A lot of gowns in blue and burgundy with shrugs were a part of his collection.
The cluster given to him was in a remote village in Mastikari where 35 women were assessed out of which 15 were trained extensively after analysing their skill set. To keep the essence of West Bengal alive, the fabric used was khadi. Batik is a print which is the heritage of Bengal, so they used it for surface texture and Katha stitch was also incorporated into the collection.
For the designer, the inspiration came to him slowly while he was training them. “The village and the areas surrounding it were beautiful. We took the texture of the bark, trees and surface of marshy ponds to form the pleats. The horizon formed the colour palette and the character came from a girl in the team who used to wear her father’s pullover which was a complete mix and match.”
In the collection, a lot of layering was used due to Sarkar love for it. “When I imagine sewing, all I can think about are the paddle machines. From there, the idea to handcraft emerged. The fabric is handloom, the print is handcrafted and stitching is done on the paddle machine. With this, our aim was to minimise the use of machines in the textile industry.”
The global concern right now is decreasing the carbon footprint in the world. In the initial stage, he was scared about pulling off a fashion week through these women. “The way they picked up the techniques and their tenacity to adapt what was taught was phenomenal.”
As an individual, there were quite a few learning lessons for Sarkar. “Sitting in our studios with the most skilled labours, we feel that a lot is achieved but to train these passionate women and to come up with these designs taught me that patience is a virtue all designers should have. Also, nothing is impossible if one has the hunger to learn.”