BARGAD – THE STRANGLER – CURATOR – JDADA2019

“Life’s too short to wear boring clothes.”

—- CARL CUSHNIE AND MICHAEL OCHS —-

Designer’s Rakhshitha H.L. and Varshini M’s collection, “Bargad – The Strangler” has been inspired from the banyan tree and its tangled visible upside-down roots which are indistinguishable from the main trunk, when it touches the ground. This is one of the reasons why the banyan tree is also referred to as strangler. Keeping the aesthetic of the roots of the tree, the garments of the collection are completely made out of cotton ropes and are devoid of any fabrics and stitch lines.

The beauty of the banyan tree is highlighted by its upside roots and downward branches. Inorder to achieve the look of the roots, the designers have used knotting and weaving techniques to form a perfect structure and shape of the garment with pure cotton ropes. The knots used for the garments are lace knot, square knot, bow knot, basic knot and chain knot, whereas the weaving techniques used are single head weave, double head weave and basic weave. The garments are devoid of any fabric. Since the garments are completely handmade there are no trims and stitches. The colours used for the collection are in brown and green shades to represent the banyan tree.

Though knotting and weaving techniques have been used in garments before, they have not been used to create whole garments. Hence, the designers have made complete garments using both the techniques without any fabric.