Poornima’s Aana chandam
Poornima Indrajth’s brand Pranaah has grown into a well-known brand in Kerala. Every Onam, she strives to bring out a collection that has the traditions and customs of Kerala at its heart. If it was the famed Vaalkannadi theme last year, this year the fashionista has trained her lens on the age-old Thrissur Pooram — to be more specific on the caparisoned elephants that are the soul of the festival. The collection is aptly titled as ‘Aana chandam’.
Poornima states that every collection of hers has a story behind it and should evoke nostalgia. “ Though we are a bridal couture, I wanted to work with handloom this time and make it budget friendly. I love handloom personally and I have used the ‘varnakuda’ and the elephant motifs because everyone relates to it. I have used the motifs on blouses, skirts, capes and sarees. The name of the collection is a word we use most of the time and I wanted my designs to appeal to everyone. My daughters wear dresses from this collection as does my mother and mother-in-law. My designs are aimed at the younger crowd and I wanted my designs to transcend the ‘festive only wear tag’,” she says.
Poornima says that it was not easy to decide on the design of the elephant and it was her younger daughter Nakshatra who was the inspiration. She reveals, “Nakshatra draws well and she drew an elephant using the numeral 11. It looked very cute and had a nice shape and I decided to rework and use that. It is not easy to incorporate the elephant motif because the size of the motif is very important. Some customers may not like too big an elephant on their outfit. When I added the ‘varnakuda’ to the motif, it became complete.”
Neeraja’s six-yard Japaneese fusion wonder
“Bringing in western embroidery on your Kerala saree while every other Tom, Dick and Harry would be sticking on to the old mirror works, valkannadis, peacocks and paisleys, was highly experimental, especially when you are a designer in a land where people experiment the least in terms of fashion,” says designer Neeraja R. Kutty.
She defines the designer side of her as ‘loud and quirky’. Kerala sarees where gods and murals have been very much into the sartorial game, Neeraja introduced her Meraki collection for Onam. In her dexterous strokes, Japanese art and culture inspired motifs and designs got a stylised spin on this traditional attire. Sashiko, a traditional Japanese quilting technique, got rebirth on the six-yard wonder.
A limited collection of 15 sarees and five tops were the hot cakes on demand. “I make a conscious effort to bring in international trends in whatever I do. Coming up with an Onam collection is mandatory for any designer to survive in Kerala. I have always detested Murals and Gods being painted or printed on to Kerala sarees! Initially, I thought of bringing in some Mexican culture into our otherwise mundane saree. But the Mexican aztecs seemed too bold for the Malayali crowd and I decided against it,” Neeraja narrates her ideologies. Being a stylist herself, Neeraja’s quirkiness extends on the trendy styles she suggests to drape the saris. She works in close association with the handloom weaver community. To suit her palate, sometimes she herself comes up suggesting ways to spin the yarn.
Vidya’s divine murals
It is not only well-known designers who are on their toes during Onam but home grown enterprises are also doing brisk business. Vidya Menon started dabbling in mural painting as a hobby. Soon her mural worked sarees became a much in demand entity and seeing the opportunity, she turned it into a business venture three years earlier.
Vidya does hand- painted mural works on Kerala sarees. She says," They are in huge demand and it peaks during Onam. Customers in Chennai and Mumbai prefer the Radha- Krishna and Ganapathi murals. I also work with men's shirts and outfits for kids, all incorporating mural work. In Kerala the Kathakali and peacock designs are very popular though Krishna murals are the most in demand.” Vidya works with handloom and tissue sarees and takes 5 days for painting on a handloom saree which increases for a silk saree since she has to put a base first, so that she can paint on it.
