stripe rose

My final menswear design - a combination of both my rose motif design and my stripe design. I came back from our exciting weekend in Pushkar to discover this, and I just love it. So spot on, exactly what I was hoping for.

I have to admit I feel like we worked them too hard this weekend but to be honest they work so quickly that I think we all thought that they would be twiddling their thumbs. I feel like we left them too much to do, not with the intention of them doing it all but I feel like the idea was lost in translation - do it if you have nothing more to do but no need to worry if you don't get there.

I feel like taking it easy on them for a day or two to give them a chance to recover!

blue

on the road to Pushkar.

Ashram life

last day

Robyn

Not only did we have the opportunity to work with Ashok and his artisans but we had the hostess with the mostess during our time in India. Robyn Beeche is an incredibly special lady and I feel so, so lucky to have had her looking out for all of us during our time in Vrindarvan.

I know we would never have had anywhere near the experience we did without Robyn, what a treat! Thank you Robyn.

Robyn has an incredible energy and positive attitude about her which really shows in both her earlier work (above) and her commitment to documenting ever changing India. Take a look at some of Robyn's beautiful work here.

doorways

I've been too frightened to pull my camera out in front of these damn monkeys!! Today I had to brave it as it was our last day in Vrindarvan and I've been staring at these doorways each day as we walked past to go to the studio. I was holding on to my camera very tightly today!

Chai time - a daily occurrence, if not more and one of my favourite moments in the studio. Everyone stops and just enjoys, very special... 

drawings

jewellery

smells

Ok, so I've taken a different direction here. I had initially considered developing a stripe design which I may pursue if I have the time, but I decided to play around with a combination of the two ideas.

Here I have also used a base cloth that I dyed back in Sydney which I will be making my shirt from, it's a cotton drill with a green wash, uneven and slightly dirty.

I've been able to get them to work with a cotton/poly thread rather hen the silk and I'm really happy with the results so far. In some ways it feels like a shame, coming all this way and not using any beading/ sequin work but I'm making a point of learning what I can while the artisans work on my designs. 

I think what is beginning to happen in this piece is that its beginning to move away from a really neat and finished look which is really exciting. I think the biggest challenge is communicating what exactly it is that I want, it occasionally gets lost in translation which can lead to happy accidents but not always.

Ashok and the artisans work incredibly long days, they are there a few hours before we get there at 9.30am and when we leave at 6pm each day they work on for a few hours still. I'm intrigued as to why all he artisans are men but I am yet to get any answers from anyone.

I've had a minor bought of gastro overnight, delightful! A few girls have come down with it quite badly so I appear to have got of lightly considering. I made the call to take the day off from the studio, it feels a shame to miss out but I've been feeling so ordinary that I thought it best to rest up and be ready for it all tomorrow.

I took the opportunity today to take a few photos of the ashram we are staying in. Robyn who is our hostess with the mostest is looking after us so beautifully, it's quite an incredible experience. When we arrived a few days ago and were being shown around she mentioned that George Harrison stayed in one of the rooms and recorded some stuff while he was here. I think Robyn found it hilarious that I was so impressed and in hindsight I can see why, coming all this way to India there is far more to be impressed and inspired by.

Vrindarvan is quite incredible in a number of ways, it's like stepping back in time. What I'm finding the most confronting is the smells, both good and bad. 40 degree heat and open sewers take awhile to adjust to.

Ok, so I know I said this was a menswear project but I just couldn't help but get a little pink in there. I don't intend to use this within my menswear collection but I really just wanted to try and move away from a more literal interpretation of the rose motif, and I have a thing for pink...

There are elements of this piece that really work but its feeling very 'tight' and neat still. I think given my concept I really want a slightly looser, more dishevelled look. How to get this across will be an interesting process!

What has completely blown me away is how quickly the artisans work, it's so hard to keep the new designs up!

Wow! This is the beautiful work I came in to find this morning. 

I'm realising that the silk thread is maybe a little to shiny for use in my menswear collection but this piece is really giving me lots of ideas. There are so many beautiful textures created just through simple thread work that I can apply to my next deign, very exciting! 

So, I've taken the leap and started my first design today! Here you can see Ashok (left) translating to Chand what we will be doing with this piece.

Above you can see the original drawing of my design, in an attempt to try and move away from the traditional and literal translation of the design I abstracted the original image but Ashok knew immediately that it was a rose!

I've approached this first piece almost like a sampler, the amount of different pieces of incredible embroidery we have to reference here is so overwhelming but as I am focusing on just thread work I've asked Ashok and Chand to show me lots of different stitches, both long and short needle.

The above photograph is where you can begin to see the way this is turning into into a more traditional rose. Ashok and Chand have treated the top section literally as leaves adding a dark green detail stitch over it.

This is how I have left it at the end of the day, can't wait to see how it's progressed by tomorrow.

Before I begin to show you some of the embroidery work I've been developing with Ashok and the artisans I want to give you a little background into where I hope to use this work.

I intend to apply my menswear collection concept to this trip and experience, as a bit of a background we have each been given a designer in which to emulate within our designs. I am working with a Japanese designer called Miharayasuhiro (I have to think about it everytime I say it). His work is quite utility and workwear inspired and he uses a lot of beautiful fabrications. He often creates a lot of texture within his digital prints but he also plays around with quite beautifully worn and distressed pieces too.

Mihara often uses very traditional techniques in new and surprising ways, an example is the creation of a camouflage style textile which was woven the traditional way kimono silk is made. It is not until you see it up close that you realise he has used traditional Japanese cloud iconography to create this 'camouflage' design..

As well as emulating Miharayasuhiro I have developed a concept to tie in with his aesthetic. The beginning point is the below quote from a favourite John Steinbeck book, The Winter of our Discontent: 

' In June man, hustled by instinct mows grass, rifles the earth with seeds, and lock sin combat with mole and rabbit, ant, beetle, bird, and all others who gather to take his garden from him. Woman looks at the curling-edge petals and sighs, and her skin becomes a petal and her eyes are stamens. '

Taking the above quote and imagery I am creating a Fifties workwear inspired collection and the beginning point for this trip has been the above image. I have explored multiple ways of playing with this floral motif as I want it to end up quite abstract and undone, not obviously a flower, it will be interesting to see where this adventure takes me...

Another day in the studio today, my first attempts at long needle were not so successful but we've discovered that Mandish is a total natural and she is already working on some beautiful techniques.

After the studio today we visited a temple and were fortunate enough to see it in full swing. Lots of beautiful music and a really incredible energy.

I'm finding it really difficult to put into words so much of what I am experiencing in India so far but I can tell you how I feel about the monkeys. They are menacing, like the Wheelers from Return to Oz, none of the girls get the reference but if you watch this you'll see what I mean. It's the stuff of nightmares (for me anyway) and we've begun stomping through the markets to get to the studio and today we even started taking big sticks in case any of them get too close. Ironically we're the ones that are living in cages.