Earlier this year, American stylist Law Roach reached out to Delhi designer Rahul Mishra for a custom outfit for singer-actor Ariana Grande to be worn during the promotions of Wicked: Part Two. The ask came with a reference photograph: an Art Deco inspired black dress with silver-grey 3D high-rise buildings engulfing the wearer, presented as part of the Rahul Mishra Paris haute couture show in January.
On 7 November, Grande wore the ballgown-like dress, which reimagined the CGI-generated skyline and architecture of The Wizard of Oz’s Emerald City with metallic threads, sequins and glass beads. The dress is among the few hand-embroidered creations presented in the recent past by designers celebrating Art Deco—an architectural style, defined by sleek design and geometry, that is marking its centennial this year—in all its glory.
View Full Image
Since its introduction at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925, Art Deco has been translated worldwide across industrial arts. In India, its strong presence can be found both outside and inside homes—from the cemented railings of Mumbai houses and havelis of Jaipur to the graphic combinations of gemstones and angular silhouettes in jewellery and watches, and in triptych mirrors shaped like petals in old Delhi furniture markets.
There are several research papers and books dedicated to the influence of the style on Indian design, barring fashion. Unlike in the West, if one sifts through the collections of Indian fashion designers over the past decades, not many Deco-inspired examples come into view.
“You will see a few occasional pieces here and there. Lecoanet Hemant did beautiful flapper and fringe dresses about 10 years ago. Abu Jani Sandeep, Gaurav Gupta, Tarun Tahiliani and Manish Malhotra do Art Deco lehngas. Raw Mango, Kshitij Jalori do saris and textiles,” says Tina Tahiliani, the driving force behind Ensemble, a multi-designer fashion store with branches across the country. “But I’ve rarely seen entire collections dedicated to Art Deco.”
Tina Tahiliani put together an exhibition of fashion pieces as part of a recent Art Deco Alive festival in Mumbai, the city with the largest collection of Art Deco-style buildings in the world, besides Miami. The show included a 1920s flapper-style dress by Tarun Tahiliani, a silver-encrusted Manish Malhotra lehenga-choli, a Raw Mango sari with sunburst motifs, and an Anamika Khanna draped skirt-corset ensemble. “Art Deco was a very specific time in history. It emerged after World War I. Before the war, people were more conservative in their sense of style; you would see crinolines, corsets, and gowns. Art Deco was a phase that symbolised freedom. There were lots of bias-cut dresses and fringes. In India, we saw Art Deco more in motifs and weaves (for example, the sunburst and chevron prints in Banarasi saris, and zigzag-printed salwar-kameez by Ritu Kumar), rather than in embroidery and silhouettes, which we are seeing now.”
View Full Image
When Mishra showcased his Pale Blue Dot collection on 27 January in Paris, it was the first time he fully embraced Art Deco. “Art Deco is about modernist glamour with severe geometry. My work is mostly inspired by nature, which is also all about geometry,” says Mishra, who studied the style as part of his course at Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design. “I chose Art Deco style (for Pale Blue Dot) because I wanted to present an apocalyptic scenario… what happens to cities when people leave them. That’s why you see the use of strong lines, black and silver colours—they brought darkness.”
Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, the Mumbai-based couturiers known for using Art Deco style in their work, too, opted for a black-silver colour palette when they presented their showstopper dress as part of the runway show at Art Mumbai two weeks ago.
Actor Tabu closed the show in a jacket-kurta-trousers ensemble that had Purana Qila embroidered in silver—an Art Deco take on their 1991 archival piece. “If you see the original piece (quite colourful, in shades of white, red, orange and yellow), you’ll know it’s the Old Fort. Many assumed it was Mumbai because we used black; in India, especially in the northern parts, people are not so familiar with the concept of Art Deco. In Mumbai, Gujarat, Rajasthan, it’s still popular since there’s a stronger presence (in buildings, especially).”
There’s ample need to raise awareness, as Smiti Kanodia, the co-founder of Art Deco Alive, found out while putting together a style guide for guests invited to a 1920s-themed soiree as part of the festival. The guide included Gatsby-style flashy coats, striped saris, bejewelled headgear, one-shouldered dresses with tassels and multi-string pearl chokers.
“Many people were confused; some weren’t fully aware of what Art Deco fashion was. The guide was our way to inform as well as educate. It (Art Deco) has been part of our culture, our pop culture, for a long time. If you look at Helen’s songs from the 1970s and 1980s, her shimmery, golden clothes, the ostentatious jewellery—it was all very jazz, Art Deco inspired,” says Kanodia. “It’s just that we don’t know as much as we should, especially in the space of fashion design.”
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons fashion designers haven’t fully embraced Art Deco is because of the vastness of the traditional Indian design vocabulary, says David Abraham of Abraham & Thakore.
“In recorded fashion history (since Indian fashion became an industry, say, 30 years ago), geometric motifs are certainly visible but on and off,” says Abraham. “I have seen photographs of old chiffon and georgette saris, carrying them, but I don’t think they were added consciously. The architectural style is an acquired taste and very different from the design language consumers are used to.”
Plus, creating an embroidered Art Deco piece can be a long process. Over 25 artisans spent one month creating the Ariana Grande dress. “Art Deco came into being when things in the West were flourishing. Here, things weren’t as bright then, so that could be why there wasn’t an instant uptake. Plus, the Indian fashion industry is still very young, and people are still exploring. You might just see more Art Deco fashion next year.”
