The unassuming personality of Rimzim Dadu is deceptive by the bold moves she makes on her mood board. In her hands, steel turns into a flowing sari, and paper takes the shape of a dress. Her experimentation with materials to give her creations three-dimensional qualities and appreciation for the process as an art form have led her to be known as a ‘progressive texturist’.
Dadu’s signature designs include using leather to create the traditional patola weave; making cotton behave like paper rendering crisp, finished edges; and her widely popular Rimizim Dadu sari, where hair-thin steel wire is sewn together to create a structured yet fluid drape.
“Making a person try on something in metal and seeing them go, ‘Oh, I didn’t know it would be so soft and comfortable’, is something that drives me to constantly push myself and my muse —the material—further and further. When people describe my work as wearable art, I feel vindicated,” she says.
To mark the completion of 15 fabulous years in the fashion industry, Dadu launched her new collection at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) recently. In her new line, she revisits her own creative journey since she launched her eponymous label (originally named ‘My Village’) in 2007 at the age of 21.
“It was interesting to revisit the work I did and see it with a fresh perspective. We took inspiration from our textile innovations at different points in our journey to make the latest collection. It was refreshing to see that textile explorations from more than a decade ago are still relevant,” says the
36-year-old designer.
The collection features a range of silhouettes–– jackets, blazers and kurtas for men, and saris, lehengas, dresses and more for women––using innovative surfaces, including, but not limited to paper, silicone, acrylic, steel, re-engineered zari and chiffon.
Dadu is a rebel in more ways than one. In a fashion world that holds silhouettes sacrosanct, it is a texture that is the showstopper in her designs. Her design philosophy is all about an alternative perspective to the use of traditional materials by way of unorthodox yet intuitive handcraft techniques and vice versa. Often, this involves deconstruction, modification and reassembly into a new form.
It is the “deception of fluidity in structure, and structure in fluidity” that excites Dadu the most. Having grown up around textiles—her father is a garment exporter—fabrics and other materials were her playthings. As she grew older, she started travelling around the world with him for his shows, realising soon that design was what she wanted to do. Even though she did her formal training as a fashion designer at Delhi’s Pearl Academy, her curiosity is the primary driving force behind her creative process, pushing her and the materials she works with to do something unexpected.
“Surface texturing is at the heart of everything we do. We love seeing the unexplored potential of
a material, often by breaking them apart and then putting them back together. That’s how we discover our techniques to understand a material’s ability to take shapes on human forms. The process of creating silhouettes kicks in at this stage. This too is driven by the re-engineered material and its abilities and we don’t force a silhouette on it,” she explains.
A champion of body positivity, the designer keeps comfort and wearability at the core of her designs.
“I believe in celebrating all body types. We charge the same for our clothes, regardless of the body type, and while I have always strived to make clothes that are technically perfect, I have also ensured that they are also functional and comfortable,” she says.
The decision to launch her 15th-year milestone collection as part of KNMA’s Art X Fashion series was motivated by her treatment of her designs as a form of art, and she has been exploring ways to expand her practice beyond the realms of clothes and fashion.