Chinar Farooqui prefers to be called a textile creator as opposed to a fashion designer.
This title has enabled the Jaipur-based designer to accomplish two things: leverage her skills to seamlessly integrate her design sensibilities across the lifestyle segment — from apparel to home linen and create ensembles where silhouettes and embellishments are always secondary to the beauty of a fabric.
“Technique is what drives my label.
The minute you start focussing on embellishments and other additional factors, the textiles take a back seat,” Chinar says, quite matter-of-factly. Known in the international market segment for the better part of a decade for her brand Injiri, the 39-year-old recently unveiled two of her collections — a Spring/Summer’19 line, Mulmul that was launched at Paris recently, and an Autumn/Winter’19 collection which will be showcased at the Designers & Agents show in New York City soon.
“Though my interest in textile springs from local weaves and is inherently Indian, I have never been able to entirely fit into the industry here, since most collections are usually festive-oriented and are occasion-wear. These are aspects that I do not identify with,” she says.
Fundamental aesthetics
Continuing to focus on two of her favourite artisan clusters, in Gujarat and West Bengal, the collections are two sides of the same coin, both minimal, featuring classic, easy-to-wear silhouettes. Much like its name, Mulmul, the spring line is hinged on the Dhaka region’s famed translucent and gossamer-soft muslin. A culmination of what Chinar calls four years of collaborations with the weavers, the line uses traditional Jamdani motifs and chikankari embroidery — a Mughal-inspired design directive from the 13th century. “Both Jamdani and chikankari are a play on muted colours and shadows. They work perfectly with a fabric like mulmul. Though I have tweaked the Jamdani (which appear as huge motifs), I have kept the layout traditional.” Employing the use of panel detailing in the line, Mulmul has kurtas, dresses and jackets.
Look hue’s here!
Switching over to a jewelled toned colour palette for the Winter collection, Rang sports hues of red, leaf green, sea green, cobalt blue, black and charcoal and places sole focus on the Bhujodi weave of the Kutch region. A woollen line, Chinar explains that a special weave was developed to make the apparel lightweight.
“The technique used in Rang is Andhri, which is the unwoven weft space on both ends of the fabric. This space is used as a gap to cut the fabric off the loom. In our explorations, we used the spaced wefts to enhance the softness and to reduce the weight of the fabric,” she says.
The colour palette is also a stark contrast to the white and ivory monochromes that Injiri has used in the past. “I felt that winter is the best time to wear saturated colours and decided to work on Rang, keeping this in mind.”
Mulmul and Rang are priced at Rs 12,000 upwards.