Sanskar by Sonam Dubal presents ‘Hidden Voices, Ancient Sounds’, a tribute to the languages eroded with time for WIFW A/W 2011. The collection focuses on the simultaneity of different cultures, separate in their own worlds, yet juxtaposed. It is the story of ancient India with its multiplicity of languages, design, textiles and people.
Embroidered jackets, coats and capes with ancient scripts like Pali and Dravidian, surface in languages that have lost their voices. These have been reworked in primal geometrics on velvet bodies like asymmetrical capes, formal evening jackets and pants. Instruments that have lost their sound have been conceptualized as decorative motifs in silk for kaftans, dresses and wraps. Mirrors have been worked on as a symbolic language of dots in circles, triangles and concentric circles. Mirrors and tattoos, central in the ‘Rabari’ tradition from Rajasthan, work as
symbols that reflect back to us what we have lost. The multiplicity of our spiritual traditions can be seen in the flow of Dervish style coats and long cut-worked jackets.
Velvet being primary textile for the coming winter has been shown in black and tonalities of gray and brown. Color in the collection is very controlled mainly coffee, charcoal, gray, bordeaux and tonalities of black, creating a magical winter.
The philosophy behind the collection is ‘movement’, in an inward journey enveloping concepts of universal idioms. The symbolic use of nature’s elements with the hidden whisper of preserving and protecting life underlies the play of ‘falling’ leaves and wood beads. Eloquent embroideries emerge in contemporary styled jackets – for the Sonam Dubal Woman.
