Exclusive: Designer Anavila M On Street Style Saree, Supporting Karigars, And Loving Every Guru Dutt Heroine’s Saree
Serious sustainability, street style saree and more!
Lakmé Fashion Week X FDCI welcomed India’s forces of fashion for another round of glitz and glam this year. For 2023’s first season, designer Anavila M, inaugurated the atelier, with her experimental take on sarees. Using the India-born silhouette as her favourite canvas, Misra’s Dabu collection was a celebration of the silhouette, indigenous crafts, and artisans, settled in the deepest pockets of the country. Through Dabu, Misra nurtured the relationship between human beings and Mother Earth, while pushing the idea of serious sustainability to the forefront.
View this post on Instagram
Post the presentation of her diaphanous saree collection, we sat down to take a dive into her inspiration boards, the idea behind sustainable fashion, putting karigars on the map, and women in films, wearing iconic sarees.
Q: Take us through your collection for this season, decode Dabu for us.
Anavila Misra: So essentially, the name comes after the craft, which essentially in Hindi, it also means dabana. Whenever you do block printing, it is like pressing something on the textile. Dabu is the craft of creating prints through designs by resisting the textile with mud. So, the mud is applied through blocks, it is resisted, the fabric is dyed and whatever area the mud holds on, creates the motif for you. And then we’ve also done some block printing on top of that and the base fabric, the textile, and of course, the canvas for our collection is linen mixed with zari. So, we worked with hand-woven linen, and zari to create the sarees today.
View this post on Instagram
Q: Dabu also pays homage to human beings and their relationship with Mother Earth. What inspired you to use natural elements for this collection?
Anavila Misra: When we started working on Dabu, I think it was all about the whole connection which the artisans of that place have with mud, how they hold on to it, how it’s close to them, how they’re working with mud all around it’s just so special. Sometimes you feel the mud should not make anything dirty, but then that’s the element you’re using to create this collection. So, we wanted to say how something so simple as mud is available everywhere. And that’s our first connection. We all want to touch it when we are kids going to play in it. The mood board was all about it and how something like that can lead us to a design language, which can be so beautiful and ethereal. And it’s also because the kind of motifs you use. They’re all drawn from nature.
Q: While there is so much that the Indian fashion industry is welcoming with open arms, the idea of putting the karigars on the map is still a slow process. We know so less of these makers behind some of the best designs. Is more recognition for karigars something that you aim at and how?
Anavila Misra: I think every collection which is successful and makes a mark is a strong collaborative work with the artisan. You cannot do it alone if you have to work on a collection, which is based on craft. So, I would say this collection is as much mine as my artisan. And in fact, the daughter of the artisan I worked with for this design collection, has been invited for a talk at FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week and she’s very much a part of it. We wanted her voice to be heard here on this platform and I’m super excited.
View this post on Instagram
Q: If you could steal a celebrity’s saree collection, who would it be?
Anavila Misra: There are so many of them. I think a lot of them who attended my show. Konkona Sen Sharma was here today. She has this very beautiful and raw collection of sarees. I love Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, and Sonali Bendre, I love all of them. They are beautiful people. We are connected to all saree lovers.
Q: Apart from choosing a saree for the usual occasions like weddings and more, what are the other occasions that you wish to see a saree at?
Anavila Misra: I want young women, like you to be able to open their minds to embrace it more and to understand it. It’s not difficult. I want them to leave the idea that it is fussy, behind and not functional. Like the models today, they are completely in love with the idea of now creating this with a saree. So, once you open your mind, then, you can hear unique ways and unique ideas of wearing it.
View this post on Instagram
Q: Can saree become India’s street style staple?
Anavila Misra: Definitely yes. Whenever I go to these clusters, women are on bicycles, they’re on cards everywhere you see that. So, it is a street style that just needs to come from rural India to the urban side.
Q: What is the one change that you hope to see in the Indian fashion industry?
Anavila Misra: I think in the last few seasons, the whole fraternity is really moving in a very positive direction where there’s more inclusivity, there is more respect for indigenous crafts and artisans, and there are various platforms which are created for them to voice their opinion. When I was talking to the organisers and they were organising this conversation around the future of Indian textiles, we spoke about how people in rural India are the next generation And I just said that maybe we should get somebody from there to talk about it, the younger voice and they’re so open about that. So, I see a very positive change of going back to the roots and understanding and kind of bringing it out. And I think that too, I think what we have to do is to embrace our roots once we embrace our design language and narrative will start coming out season after season.
View this post on Instagram
Q: Legendary late costume designer Bhanu Athaiya’s portrayal of female body bridged that gap between sensuality and elegance, without making garments look too raunchy. How can new saree designers like yourself, help female shoppers find that sweet spot between ease and personal expression?
Anavila Misra: We started 12 or 10 years ago, and now you look at the ramps and everybody’s giving their own language is more and more stories in the collection. You’ll find so many varietals here, which is such a lovely thing and that’s what will inspire younger people. All this can happen.
View this post on Instagram
Q: Indian cinema has gifted us with so many moments in a saree, tell us the iconic look from a film that you love?
Anavila Misra: I think mostly, Sharmila Tagore. And I also love how Guru Dutt portrayed women in old Bengali movies, I think they just presented the saree so beautifully.
Also Read: Neha Dhupia Walks For INIFD Launchpad At FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week, Talks About Mom Fashion
Q: Eco-conscious clothing still falls under a very inclusive market, offering products at a much higher cost than the usual. How do you as a designer make your product a preferred purchase for a wide spectrum?
Anavila Misra: This is a question where we want our artisans to be paid the value for their labour, their work and what is the cost of a product? So, I think this work is required at various levels. Like some of the stories we have here, have taken 20, 30 and 40 days to make. So you know, that whole work which has gone behind that saree and is important.
View this post on Instagram
I think it is a very close tug of war between finding price appropriateness for a larger audience and keeping the craft alive by also keeping the artisans happy about what they’re doing. So, I think we all need to find that balance as designers when we are collaborating with artisans, we need to see where we can find that balance and how we can kind of give a taste of that craft to a wider audience by creating products which are more affordable.
Hauterrfly is delivering all the piping hot updates from the FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week. Follow our series #HauteFrontRow here and on our Instagram to catch the coverage!
Image Credits: Instagram
