dyeing photos on Flickr

Art and science — almost alchemy and magic — are used to create this extraordinary colour: indigo or neel. To extract the dye, the indigo plant is grown, harvested and fermented through a complex process. The yarn in this sari has been dyed three times to give its depth of colour. The dye and the sari were both commissioned by Nila House, a non-profit organisation reviving natural indigo and sustainable livelihoods by collaborating with farmers, craftspeople and designers.*

Colour

Colour has always been central to Indian design. Behind this lies process, science, culture and history. The mastery of Indian craftspeople in extracting, producing and transforming colours has long been an art form — allowing endlessly creative uses of colour in textile design, from block-printed patterns to tie-dyeing. The contemporary expressions shown in this exhibition are rendered in an organic colour palette, rooted in an Indian aesthetic.

Producing colour increasingly reflects more sustainable and environmentally conscious ways of working. Indigo — a natural blue dye with a complex colonial history — is now witnessing a slow fashion revival. Atmospheric pollution in the form of carbon emissions has also been used for creating dyes.*

From the exhibition

The Offbeat Sari

(May – September 2023)

A major exhibition celebrating the contemporary sari. Curated by our Head of Curatorial, Priya Khanchandani, this exhibition unravels its numerous forms, demonstrating the sari to be a metaphor for the layered and complex definitions of India today. It brings together dozens of the finest saris of our time from designers, wearers and craftspeople in India.

Worn as an everyday garment by some and considered by others to be formal or uncomfortable, the sari has multiple definitions. Conventionally an unstitched drape wrapped around the body, which can be draped in a variety of ways, its unfixed form has enabled it to morph and absorb changing cultural influences.

In recent years, the sari has been reinvented. Designers are experimenting with hybrid forms such as sari gowns and dresses, pre-draped saris and innovative materials such as steel. Young people in cities who used to associate the sari with dressing up can now be found wearing saris and sneakers on their commutes to work. Individuals are wearing the sari as an expression of resistance to social norms and activists are embodying it as an object of protest.

Today, the sari in urban India manifests as a site for design innovation, an expression of identity, and a crafted object carrying layers of cultural meanings. The exhibition unravels the sari as a metaphor for the complex definitions of India today.

[*Design Musem]

Taken in the Design Musem

Dyer Street by Dan Hill