Did you know that Dhaka is not the only place that produces muslin? Or that in Santipur, West Bengal, there is a way to starching yarn that turns the threads “as stiff as a bone”? These are some of the textile stories that regale visitors at Chintz Muslin and the Forgotten Queen, an ongoing exhibition … Read more
Special commissions from Rahul Mishra | Photo Credit: Mitsun Soni A little over 150 years ago, over 30,000 hand cut and mounted samples of Indian textiles were painstakingly organised into an album series to educate and inspire commercial and design industries in India and Britain. Its creator, John Forbes Watson, called them ‘trade museums’. Watson … Read more
The gold lame hooded dress in Yves Saint Laurent’s AW/1991 collection was suggestive of sari drapery, while gold encrusted embroidery completed the French designer’s dream of India; (centre) the draped shirt dress by Gianfranco Ferré for SS/2002 reflects his interpretation of the sari, in the spiralling construction, and the many years he spent working and travelling in India … Read more