It is indeed rare to see a fashion show these days where half the room is standing in ovation. But so moved was the audience – a very stylish one at that – by the show put together by students of Somaiya Kala Vidya institution in Kutch, at the Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI, even stalwarts like designer James Ferreira, model Binal Trivedi and architect Anca Abraham were left misty-eyed. Contemporary styles of clothing – pant-suits, dresses, kaftans, drapes, modern blouses and jackets – were presented in some antique hand dyeing and printing techniques from the Kutch belt in Gujarat.
The Kutch crescent, that stretches from Gujarat to Rajasthan, remains the most craft-rich belt in India. The crafts shown here were batik, ajrakh and bandhini. The young designers, most of whom are in their early 20s, and some have studied formally just till grade 10 or high school, have spent one year studying fashion at the Somaiya Kala Vidya school in Kutch.
Amrita Somaiya, who helms the school, has also started an initiative called Design Craft where the students are taught business and marketing skills. Shakil Ahmed Khatri, who lives 50km from Bhuj in a village called Mundra, is among the oldest alumni. At 43, he attended Kala Vidya in 2009, when it was called Kala Raksha.
He is a sixth generation batik artisan. Batik is an ancient art of resist dyeing using wax. “The course is of six semesters, and they teach us the basic of colour, design marketing, presentation and e.
