Of Dreams & Drapes

Rooted in small-town values and affecting an old-world charm, a crop of new designers is digging deep into history and nostalgia to make a style statement.

- Chinki Sinha

IN the narrow lanes of Saharanpur, a small town in western Uttar Pradesh, about 200 km from the national capital, Mohammed Mazhar looks for inspiration for his next collection in the traditional embroidery work of the kadhaaiwalas (embroiders). The 29-year-old, who has shown his work twice at the Lakme Fashion Week and was named one of the finest GenNext fashion designers, is content to work from Saharanpur and not move to a bustling big city. Mazhar justifies his choice by saying he finds his narratives and context here, he resists accepted notions of a high-profile career, and, above all, has the courage to put this small town on the fashion map of the country.

It all started when as a class nine student, Mazhar set up a boutique with his senior in school. The senior’s father had a boutique.

In 2017, Mazhar’s first collection, called Dhobi Ghat, evoked nostalgia about his hometown. The washerwoman Sakina Begum, a regular visitor at his home, used to make a small mark on the clothes. The whites of his collection had these marks that Sakina, along with 30 other women, pressed on to the clothes to make a design. The next collection used darn or the craft of the rafugars.

“My inspiration is the Indian artisan, especially those indirectly contributing to the fashion industry like the dhobi or the rafugar,” he says.

Saharanpur is known for wooden handicraft and Mazhar’s family is one of the many engaged in this business. “Coming from a conservative Muslim family, it wasn’t easy to say that I wanted to be a designer,” he adds.

Today, he runs his label under the national rural employment guarantee programme and more than 70 people work for him. In his design, the visual language is distinctly made up of small-town life and the ways of the artisans there.