The Product Purist

Unravelling the numerous stories behind award-winning designer Suket Dhir and his most recent textile adventure – digital prints on ikat – that tell some interesting hybrid stories of their own.

- Arti Sandhu

If you are looking to read a profound story about a laborious craft technique that informs a sustainably designed contemporary fashion label, then look away. It’s not that Suket Dhir will disappoint you, but he certainly won’t give you this content in a neatly packaged collection statement.

Strangely enough, this is probably why he and his work are so endearing.

I’ve known Suket longer than I have known his work. Primarily because he would stand out like a beacon sporting a salt and peppered full beard with a bowler hat atop his head amongst the crowd of sameness at Delhi’s fashion events. His mentor, Asha Baxi, who was also my professor in college and now a dear friend, had already warned me that his talent was one to look out for.

When he won the International Woolmark Prize in Menswear in 2016, his designs stood out much in the same way in that they didn’t appear to be too bothered by current trends, but instead represented what can only be articulated as a moment to pause and think about process, value and experience. By this, I am referring to the obsessive and unique 8+ shade ombre ikat weave Suket developed in Telangana using Cool Wool. One that would also be notoriously difficult to initially develop and then scale up for the manufacturing of multiples.