BENGALURU: At a time when fashion is getting a lot of flak for not being sustainable or being a major source of pollution, celebrity designer Latha Puttanna’s collection Maaya is a classic example of how fashion can be a piece of art without being hazardous to the environment. Her collection is made of fashion waste from her recent workshops.
The designer calls the collection a free-flowing art. This collection is very close to her heart because during the pandemic she realised she had so much leftover textiles or embroidery which she could use creatively.
“I recently completed 30 years in business. Whatever we had in terms of textile, embroidery everything, I thought I would do a sustainability story on making use of all of this,” says Puttanna, adding that she came up with close to 300 blouses.
Why blouses? The swatches might not have enough to make a saree but definitely adequate for blouses and cutaways sleeves. It was not a problem to create different looks in it.
“In one of the instances I didn’t have embroidery for both sleeves so I decided not to create another embroidery at all and just use it on one sleeve. It has its own interesting looks and I think I will remember this collection forever,” says Puttanna.
She is quite happy with the outcome.
“You don’t have to have uniformity in designs. You can play around so much when it comes to design. You have an eye for it and you can look beyond uniform ways of wearing things. Designs and fashion do not have to be calculated. It is definitely something that was done out of free spirit. I didn’t follow any rule at all, “ says Puttanna, adding, “All the pieces are unique because everything has a crafted element to it. It’s got hand-crafted swatches and block prints. There is so much history for me as a designer. So many pieces are from an outfit I would have created,” she says.
Another reason for picking the idea of making blouses is because she felt it was versatile. “Blouses don’t require too much fabric. This way I was able to use whatever I had,” says Puttanna, adding that currently she is working on her spring-summer collection which is going to be launched soon.