CHENNAI: A plethora of vibrant and flowy six-yard sarees interwoven with hand-painted traditional mural art, different vintage shades of Chettinad cotton sarees with a contemporary touch, block-printed sarees and Kancheevaram silk sarees…these are some of the things available at Yaashna, a label by city-based designer and wedding planner Madurya Srikanth, who is busy prepping for her maiden exhibition-cum-sale this weekend.
Though Madurya had always wanted to start her own label, the day of her wedding reception sparked an idea, which pushed her to conceptualise the label. “My mother-in-law along with her colleagues had created a six-feet-tall hand-painted Radha-Krishna mural art as a décor piece for our wedding reception. When the bride and groom are supposed to be the main focus of that day, the mural painting became the talk of the event!” she quips.
“When I received compliments from guests about the beauty of the art piece, I thought ‘What if a person feels the same way? Beautiful, confident and being the centre of attraction’. That’s when I started talking to mural artists about the art, the tradition and so on… until then I didn’t know much about it,” she recalls.
With traditional mural art usually done only on white canvas or the traditional white Kerala sarees, the designer explains that she wanted to incorporate the art in colourful sarees. “The traditional artisans aren’t used to doing it on any fabric other than the white sarees which are said to make the colour of the art work more vibrant. So, I experimented on colours and combination,” she shares.
Keeping the originality and tradition of the art intact, the paintings were interpreted differently while designing the first batch of mural sarees. “I work with artisans in two workshops, one here and another in Kerala. All have a set pattern of mural designs which are mainly gods and also set colours. They’ve been doing it for generations and it’s difficult for them to come out of their comfort zone…but, with the right guidance they have been able to adapt to what people prefer now!” she points out.
From mini motifs to paintings of traditional dancers, gods, music inspired murals and so on, the collection has it all. To add more traditional quotient, handcrafted kunjalams (tassels) are also made a part of the sarees. “They are handmade with the thread from the saree and synced according to the colour combination and designs on it. Also, we embellish it with rings, and mini motifs.”
The USP of the label is to produce unique sarees for every customer. “No customer will get the same saree. We will design it according to the clients taste and tweak it a little bit so that so that the designs are unique to each client. We want everyone to have a unique piece,” shares Madurya who has already been receiving orders and queries from people around the globe. “I’ve been receiving calls from clients from UK and US. It’s very heartwarming to see such a response. In fact, a few sarees have already been booked!” she says enthusiastically.
Her next collection will be Indo-western inspired attires with mural art and bommi paintings. “We will be exploring the type of mural art motifs that can be incorporated in crop tops, palazzo pants, anarkalis, masakalis, straight cut pants and so on,” she adds.
Visit Spring Haven, Thiruvanmayur from
October 7 to 9 for more. Call: 9500057536 or visit: https://www.facebook.com/
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