During this lockdown, everyone’s mental health was in shambles but the excruciatingly long period was particularly hard on women. While we all felt trapped, women found it even harder to cope with being in the confined spaces as they spent their days working twice, juggling between work from home and work at home which had us struggling with our mental health. Fashion Artist Sharmila Nair started a fashion art installation project titled ‘The Almirah’ to shed the light on status of women’s mind during the restrictions-led lockdown.
In every Indian household, there is an old rusty cupboard of your mom’s or grandma’s in which they keep all their belongings neatly stacked. It has been there for years and probably was gifted to them from their parent’s home on their wedding. That cupboard or the almirah, as they call it, has a very special connection to its owner, partly because it is a keepsake for them that reminds them of their home and partly because it’s their own personal space where they keep their trousseau and memories close to them.
Nair wanted to marry the concept of femininity and closeness that an almirah holds to a woman and the confined spaces they felt trapped in during the lockdown through an emotion-evoking film. It shows an open, archaic-looking wooden almirah and a woman standing inside one compartment and her feminine possessions in the other. Her emotions and expressions range from happiness to agony and frustration as the film progresses. This cinematic capture of the varied emotions and feelings women have gone through during lockdown speaks a thousand words.
When the nationwide lockdown was announced, most of us were ecstatic to finally spend the time with our family, catch up on the Netflix watch list and try out forgotten recipes. Although it started on a happier note, it turned out to be the worst nightmare for most women over months to come. We have fallen victim to domestic violence, mental harassment behind the four walls of their homes, many of us with no medium to seek help from our friends and family due to the restriction to travel.
The Almirah series begins with the feeling of happiness we all felt in the initial phase and then goes on to depicting sensuousness as a sense of separation from a close one, thoughtfulness as the fear and worry settled in, trapped as the feeling of loneliness caught up, anger that stems out of being helpless, frustrated for the seemingly unending trauma, sadness as we eventually realise there’s no hope and lastly, powerful as we emerge more sensible, prepared and hopeful about the pandemic.
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The brainchild of Nair, ‘The Almirah’ is also lined with emotive poetry that hits the right chords of your heart. The woman in the series is wearing sarees from her brand Red Lotus in fitting colours to symbolise her different states of mind, for example she wears the bright sunny yellow for her happiness phase, red for sensuousness and black and white check print saree for trapped and green for powerful.
Nair is a fashion artist, saree designer and entrepreneur from Kerala who has come up with powerful feminist campaigns before this that were equally stirring and an eye opener. Last year, she launched ‘18 Shades Of Black’, a range of black sarees as a protest against the Sabrimala Temple that restricted women dressed in black from praying. The campaign also featured 18 women wearing sarees and talking about discrimination they face in their life on daily basis. The collection having 18 sarees was a subtle take on the 18 steps of the temple.
Nair wants to turn the fashion project into a campaign that helps the needy and underprivileged. She told in an interview, “Through Open the Almirah we aim to inspire corporates to take this up as a CSR project where they can put across the idea of donating one valuable thing inside the almirah, for those in need. The valuables may be anything, ranging from clothing to basic essentials.” This is actually a great concept.