Wedding bliss

While designers all over the world have been working on their autumn and winter collections this season, in India and for Indians abroad, it's wedding time. Carving a niche in traditional Indian ensembles with a great emphasis on textile and embroidery, leading designer Ritu Kumar recently unveiled her first entire collection of bridal wear.

Bearing the distinctive signature of the designer, the clothes are resplendent in Indian finery making a mark on the weaving of the gota. "Usually in gota, plastic is used, thus giving a very shiny effect," says Kumar, "but in this collection I have tried to revive the actual process of gota weaving, which involves a fine silver thread to be gold plated...to bring out the desired pale but classic effect."

The collection includes lehengas, farshis, chooridars, salwar kurtas, odhnis and sarees with motifs ranging from the traditional schools of Jaipur, Farukhabad, Dhamadka, Baag and Manchipatnam.

Immensely striking, the embellishment does not depend upon crystals, sequins or any other plastic ornamentation, with the metallic effects being created with the mixture of dhapka, aari and gota, teaming both gold and silver to create the fabled Ganga Jamuna effect. With heavily embroidered pieces to delicate net versions, the collection is very moderately priced. Says Kumar: "I think it's an abosolute waste to invest so much in wedding outfits since they are rarely worn later".

Having 28 years of experience, Kumar has emerged from the time when India was going through a metamorphosis in the late '60s. With plastics substituting mud, brass and silver, factories producing paper and nylons replacing the ever-traditional cotton and silk, Kumar, among a few, started realising the value and the depth of the craft and design heritage of her own country.

Committed to reviving the legacy and battle against the facade of modernity, she began her work with hand block printers and two tables in a small village near Calcutta. Today Ritu Kumar is a brand name with which not only Indians, but people all over the world want to be associated with.

She has been designing for the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants, and has won the National Costume award for her creation adorned by Lara Dutta. Princess Diana had gone to her store in London and picked up an outfit.

"Later on, I did some customised designing for her," she recounts, mentioning that the Princess had wanted a temple sari because she was going to attend the opening of a temple in London and the package was in the courier, but it had been too late.

A designer with a difference, unlike others who mainly cater to the 'small' section of society, she has firmly established the 'medium' and the 'large'. Believing that the business runs around unhappiness with making one buy again hoping that they might be happy with their next purchase, the designer hates the dissatisfaction that has been created.

"Most women have enough problems to deal with," she says, "and then to be labelled on what they look like on top of it is amazing... This is natural, sizes will always change. I am not saying that one should get fat in the process but there is a realism about it".

Kumar strongly feels that Indian clothing is far more interesting and craft-oriented. "The options abroad are far more minimalistic," she says, mentioning that she has evolved the Indo-West fusion wear for the European buyer. Inclined to work on fabrics, she wants to go back into the districts where a lot of weaving is going on and where a lot of handlooms are made.

"Those just need to be tailored," she says "and there is enough already going on and that itself is exciting." Certainly, with one look at the collection, which woman would not wish to get married and in some cases, married again!