artnlight: Tia Pakhi

ArtnLight at A Celebration of Design Art Culture - Part 2

Monday, November 03, 2014

What made the event A Celebration of Design Art and Culture so special was the people Bhavna Bhatnagar of An Indian Summer put together. There was fashion, where Polka co founded by Anais Basu and Poonam Aggarwal bring together a fun and charming line of lovingly hand embroidered and fun and graphic shapes onto gorgeous natural fabrics that are just perfect for the Indian weather. The best example is Anais here in a 'Polka' top peppered with hot pink lips :) What need I say? I haven't seen anything cooler in a long time.

And here is Anais's Tia Pakhi and her famed line of butterflies, birds flowers and Love. All hand embroidered.

I love this picture of Chandan Dubey as much as I love her work. I got to see her gorgeous new line of work upclose & here are 2 of my favourite pieces among her collection. There is a full feature on her work coming up, but both of us need to take the time out for that and just make it happen.

Nikheel Aphale's calligraphic work I have been seeing for years and it was my pleasure and privilege to see Leehkin up close and also see it translated into beautiful products. Nikheel is currently in Taipei as I make this post, representing Indian calligraphy at the One Asia Project which aims is to "present Asia’s cultural richness and profound spirituality to the world in order to create a new cultural milieu"

Sumiran Kabir Sharma of the Anaam

QREOH was another collective that had a seriously talented line up of fashion brands that it was representing. From Anaam to The Pot Plant to Joy to Mae, they were each a treat to the discerning buyer. Unusual, simple, cutting edge and blessedly very wearable collections. Do check out the Qreoh Website to see what I'm talking about.

Jayeta Rohilla and her brand Mae

Himanshu Verma of RedEarth was there with his supremely stunning collection of Sarees.

Nigarish ~ Tree of Life showed their gorgeous skirts and Indian prints.

Kinche was there and their exquisite collection of Jackets. These pictures are not a patch on the real thing. You just HAVE to click on this link to see them in all their glory.

This post cannot be complete without a mention of the musical evenings which was an integral part. The 1st evening was made magical by Vidya Shah and her masterful rendition of Sufi classics and thumri. The 2nd evening was brought to a graceful close by Hindustani classical maestro Guru Arun Debnath and his musically blessed family.

And now sharing with you a few images of the Artnlight part of the Event.

What a joy it is to set your products along with and among antiques, I was given the room with the 100 year old original illustrations of birds framed in gold. To set my products below it was a privilege. To arrange my products in an antique shelf along with bound old volumes of Readers Digest arranged by colour.

This set of Yellow Botanical Tray and box was put aside before I finished setting up, because it was picked up by fellow exhibitior and the ever exuberant Payal Jaggi of Kinche. "This is mine" she told me.

There are exhibitions and then there are exhibitions, and this one somehow refuses to be called one, simply owing to the ambience, the people, the music and the grace of the people who put this together and made this come alive. I came back very grateful to have made acquaintance of the talents I met and the conversations we exchanged.
Image Courtesy: Serendipity, An Indian Summer, Vaishnavi Varadarajan, Sumiran Kabir Sharma & Vineeta Nair