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Dress to the nines…the RED DOT and all!

Perhaps the story of the DOT making a point @svasa.design blouses sounds familiar to those who have been following our blogs. This narration is not a sequence but rather an observation on the subject.

The enchanting evening provided me a peek into the Indian dressing sensibilities of styles cuts, designs and fabric. It was a moment of awakening as the twilight transported me to the effectively loaded celebrations of fascinating Indian colors, traditions and culture. Laughter, food and colorful Indian #ethnic wear was flaunted in #striking wardrobe of dazzling silk saris & #svasadesigns blouses, lehengas, shararas, ghagras, kurtis & salwar – kameezes. The varied range played host to #handcrafted embellishments.

https://svasa.design/red-dot-1

The one fascinating common factor was the prominent BINDI, skillfully positioned between the eyebrows of the elegantly dressed ladies. Some matched their #garments while others boldly displayed one big @RED DOT on the forehead. To me the profoundness of the BINDI taking centre stage in the entirety of dressing in classic #hand embroidered clothes was one word; Masterpieces!

Now here is the thing; the history of how & when of the @RED DOT tells us of its cultural presence in the region of the Indian sub continent from ancient times. The red dot underlines a traditional bonding of long years, building a loyal relationship in the life of an Indian Hindu woman. Wearing the bindi as an everyday ritual is believed to retain energy and strength.

Identified by its emphasis on emotion and individualism, ethnic Indian dressing in handloom or silk from @svasa.design is incomplete without Jewelry, fragrant flowers and the traditional sindoora. The sindoor or vermellion on the forehead is called the pottu or kumkumam in South India, bindu or sindoor in West Bengal and other places. It is the ultimate elevation of the entire adornment practice that has come to stay through existence.

Creative tides @ our charming FOUR FLOWER!

Chatting over a cuppa with a friend was a good break with conversations mostly lingering on Indian ethnic wear and its revolution. I was overwhelmed by the generous compliments from my friend about SVASA.DESIGN’S active involvement in the times.  In all humility; I confess that her genuine good words were a measure of my faith in the industry as also of my self-worth.

Truly, the designers and artisans @ Svasa are high octane. Their needlework expressions are like a fresh splash of rain. Organic design thoughts and warm colours are nurtured with love to continuously give captivating blouses.

Our FOUR FLOWER embroidery was born out of sheer passion to give a different perspective to a longstanding motif. It is one of our earlier home grown ensembles, recreated from a page out of the Banni embroidery, mostly practised amongst the Lohana community from Gujarat, India.

Stories from the heartland of Gujarat have it that these motifs are a speciality of the community and were customarily embroidered on the garments for new brides. Bold motifs with vibrant thread embroidery, studded with tiny mirrors are fixed together with the traditional chain stitch. Svasa’s improvised narration is an ode to the craftsman of the community and their craft.

Our design conscious mavericks worked on the original needlecraft and gave the floral motif a raised effect by first securing the petals with thick twine. The other innovation was to give it a Matt finish without using regular silk threads. Cotton threads are embroidered over the twine to give it that raised effect which makes the motif FOUR FLOWERS so attractive. We create them in different colors.  Black base with turmeric motif or chilli red, dark red, indigo blue, rust, burnt orange, fanta orange and others.

The decision to stay with traditionally hand woven cotton in RAVEN BLACK, twelve years ago has paid us in good stead. Black is Beautiful and any colour threadwork would blossom against the background. The neck was designed to be a leaf shape studded with miniscule mirrors characteristic to Banni style.

FOUR FLOWER has semblance to four Clover leaves; lucky are the ones who lay their hands on it.  The blouses disappear as quickly as they come. Watch for our next wave of FOUR FLOWER. They are as reliable as the tide!

https://svasa.design/four-flower

Fav ‘Ranju’ at our VRITTI photo shoot!

Young and trendy Ranjani’s sunny disposition made this informal go-with-the-flow photograph session such a joyride. This fun-laden project had a perfect setting in the cool expanse of a haven close to my heart. Over cups of filter-coffee and rasam, between makeup sessions, hair styling and identifying VRITTI BLOUSES to match the right sarees, jewelry and accessories, we were left feeling fabulous.Ranjani was anything but exhausted despite a busy photo shoot session. It was an exciting day for SVASA with its share of mixed feelings as we progressed with our candid photo shoot for our new vertical, ‘VRITTI’. This session was particularly significant as we were on the threshold of launching our ‘Youthful ‘collection.

Ranjani’s trapeze acts made every shoot look effortless. It was a delight to see our bubbly muse discover herself while giving us lasting memories in the true spirit of VRITTI; confident, stylish, young and carefree!

Colour Wheel

My emotions colour the rainbow

Understanding the Colour Wheel was a game changer for me, immensely beneficial in my profession as a designer of exclusive women’s clothing house.

As a design creator, playing with different colours, my desire is to achieve visual depth and a substantial façade. The color combinations that I pick for an organic piece of attire are inspired by energies and textures available around me as also being reliant on my bag of memories, my insights and impressions. To conceive and initiate a design illustration with just the right dosage of colour infusion is an incredible feeling.

I build up the design texture gradually inlaying it with colours of my choice, much influenced by my prevailing mood which helps me process my feelings into the design that I create. I take on the challenges of mood swings while switching between shapes and colours, working through layers of fabric in silk, linen and cotton, shifting from the work table to the floor.

In the end, the journey is well worth every emotion, if the ensemble has captured typical mood-colour characteristics of the bright & beautiful, perhaps sunny happy colours of a rainbow after some rain, better still the let-me-be tone on tone or the more intense black & white.

The wearer is my muse and it is she who translates my work of ‘Colour creativity’ to the phenomenon we call ‘Personality’.

Colour Wheel

My relationship with colours

The process of choosing colours for my creations is exhilarating. Embarking upon a design requires me to trust my intuition and not go overboard with my colour choices. It requires me to balance between my mindful self and not so mindful self, controlling of colour patches and letting go. I react to the changes, each time I toy with the palette on a design illustration. This constant process creates a ‘conversation’ while creating an ensemble of blouses, thence, hopefully carried on by my clients, the beautiful people who wear them.

Isaac Newton’s Colour Wheel theory fascinated me from my little girl days. We learnt to put blobs of paint in a circular shape like a wheel. The colours from each blob was mixed together to derive new and different colors never seen before. The colour wheel had every hue from bright yellow to crimson red.

Color wheel thread

It was a total thrill to learn that RED, YELLOW & BLUE are Primary colours. Coded as the core colours, the primary colours are robust, stand alone shades that form the base for the numerous other colours, derived by the process of mixing. The sophisticated Secondary colors are derived from mixing primary colors. Orange is a combination of red and yellow. PURPLE comes from a mix of red and blue. Spectacular Tertiary colors are formed from mixing primary and secondary colors to obtain unique shades of Grey, Coral, Aquamarine, Dusky browns and Burnt oranges. The combinations are endless.

Over the years as I progressed to being a designer, since my first design class with my teacher Ms. Chandravadini, the universal concept of primary, secondary and tertiary colours opened doors to endless possibilities. Thus began my passionate journey of celebrating colours in my designs for ethnic Indian women’s clothing.

My relationship with the Colour Wheel continues… never to stop. Well, Not yet!

Of Hope, Promises & Personal style!

Each month is a unique destination with the month of December being witness to contemplation and resolves, stock taking of milestones and accomplishments, of celebrations. This vibrant, charming month wraps up the year with hope into the future.

The season’s festive enthusiasm is in the air. Celebrations beckon and it’s time once again to change the décor over, bake cookies, bring in new wardrobe, gift, share and dwell in the warmth of togetherness with family and friends.

After having nurtured the endless list of duties and responsibilities with thrift, hard work and resilience, what better way to be rewarded than to be pampered like the Diva with a woven Saree of natural fabric in hues of the season? Bespoke handcrafted BLOUSE embroidered with traditional Indian needle-craft makes for a statement when paired with the elegant Saree.

Another year gone well, yet another Life lesson learnt…. Wear your exquisite personal style and Play the music on…!

A toast to traditional work wear

The coolest thing about looking good is feeling good with positive self-image being a bonus.

Work places today are demanding of good work wear. There are ample opportunities for folks in the work environment to learn together to look good since there is a big overlap between clothes, personal wardrobe and corporate wear.

Well informed colleagues are great influencers and the workplace is a great platform for sharing of information on good grooming which can help everyone to stay on top of trends in corporate wear.

Svasa Blouse look

The Indian Corporate scenario is encouraging of donning Indian attire, especially with women business hotshots willing to experiment between Western outfits as well as Indian or Indo - western.  The elegant traditional Indian Saree has always been a favorite in the corporate corridors.

The colours of Indian handloom sarees  complete the look when paired off with hand embroidered blouses. Thefascinating aspects of these blouses are the subtle, corporate colours in natural fabric that display formal cuts of high round necks, boat necks, Chinese collars or stylish sailor necklines.

In East meets West industry interaction, smartly designed blouses are contemporary in taste and style that definitely go beyond the ordinary in corporate wear.

In- Tune with the eternities!

Designer apparels are a tribute to the cosmopolitan women of today. It’s that lovely peacock blue that wraps up so snug and pretty on the pink. That salmon pink is perfectly appliqued and handcrafted, lending an extravagant tweak to the texture. I breathe in the artistically embroidered works from Svasa, one remarkable piece after another.

Being in tune with preserving the heritage of the vast landscape of Indian textile, the effort to recreate designs from antiquity, by Indian designers has been a constant. The journey to the Seventh Avenue space in its entire splendor of natural fabrics and traditional craftsmanship is a serious involvement.

Conversations about ‘The Blouse’ have been a thing of the moment with Indian ladies. Scouting for the best seamstress is a relentless pursuit. The right fit, the neck patterns, the sleeves, the desired needlecraft and choice of colours, all of that in a tangent, must speak one language; that of a striking piece of art.

Crafted Blouses are made to measure, exhibit traditional handwork that never fail to bring back the warmth of the old world. A stylish garment is identified with lifestyles, trends and comfort fits as required by the body types that need deeper understanding, before being commissioned. At the creations, it’s a celebration of fabrics, from soft cottons, crisp linen to delicate silks and natural khadi.

The Svasa Design House has witnessed more than two decades of fashion evolution and presented bespoke blouses since. The inspired designs are woven stories to be paired with the matchless, elegant traditional Indian women’s attire, the Saree. The handloom hand - woven fabric, the well - tailored lines, with no compromise on quality makes it a brand worthy of going back to.