Deepika Govind showcases her Summer Resort 2012 Collection ‘The Woman in Blue Checks: Cauvery’s Tale’ on Indian Textile Day on March 4, 2012 at the Lakme Fashion Week (LIFW), Mumbai. Her inspiration for this collection was the fascinating weaves of Ilkal in Karnataka. It’s an ode to the weavers of this town in Karnataka who continue to uphold a 1,400-year-old craft. Her focus she says is to promote handloom and the dying cottage industries and to provide a fresh impetus to the traditional weaves of India through a more contemporary interpretation. Ilkal was an ancient weaving centre where the weaving is said to have started in the 8th century AD.
Govind creates her line out of woven fabrics from Ilkal, Karnataka, renowned for its traditional sarees with its trademark checks. Checks have always been a source of incredible fascination for Deepika because of their geometric precision — very much like her other passion — the Ikat. In the handloom sector, uneducated yet exceptionally skilled people show wondrous precision in weaving motifs and it is this exceptional skill that Govind wishes to showcase. The collection is a contemporary interpretation of the Ilkal checks.
It offers easy drapes captured in traditional Indian textiles-an organic line of mostly drapy tunics, dresses and sarees reinvented in a modern capsule. It’s a play of drapes, colours and patterns — the abstract spacing on horizontal and vertical planes of checks and stripes creates a stunning visual treat. Appliqué, cutwork, frayed edges, combining print and surface embellishment, deft play of checks and stripes to create a trompe d’oeil. Experimenting in silhouettes, deliberating on tailoring techniques — variations on the asymmetric hemlines, deconstructing seamlines using seam excess to create elegant drapes, allowing the fabrics to flow naturally into a garment. The accent is on easy sophistication with rustic charm.
Fabrics used are primarily Cotton, and Silk, in checks and stripes, the bolder patterns specially woven by the designer from Ilkal, as well as chequered silk and cotton weaves from Salem, Chettinad, Narayanpet, Venkatgiri and Kancheepuram — fabrics of South India, along with Mushru cotton, cotton Ajrakh prints, resist prints, silks & luxe Satin silks.
The colours of the collection are Indian jewel tones such as deep Indigo, Sapphire, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine, Dark Cyan, hunter green, deep jungle green, fern, teal, Byzantium, antique fuschia, deep magenta, cerise, aubergine, rich carmine, candy apple red and black.