Time to get your wardrobe a traditional, artistic makeover
- Around 200 antique chanderi, bandhni sarees will be showcased
- More than 100 exquisite dupattas
- Age-old traditional Abhas kurtas are the main attraction
New Delhi, December 12, 2018: Make a style statement this wedding season with the age-old traditional fabrics as Padma Shri Shobha Deepak Singh is back with Vastra Shobha, an exquisite exhibition and sale of royal textile heirlooms. The three-day textile extravaganza, kickstarting from December 13 at the Kendra Art Gallery, Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, will see contemporary and traditional sarees and dupattas in fine quality chanderi, silk and organza. The exhibition also has rare zardozi borders done in vibrant colours such as rich purple, magenta.
“There is a niche market for antique textiles in India. So, I began collecting antique textiles, which were mostly torn. Then I learned how to make it wearable again and that’s how this exhibition fell into place and has been on from last 25 years. Now, I collect both antique and new but of very special quality,”Shobha Deepak Singh said about the Vastra Shobha.
The 75-year-old Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra director’s desire of preserving the antique textiles started about four decades ago when a woman came to her house with some old sarees. She was surprised to see the intricate work and purchased all the sarees and gave them to a specialized team of restorers. Then the sarees were sent to Banaras for polishing and other finishing touch-ups.
However, the owner of these sarees and the dupattas are a mystery. But seeing the finesse she claims, some of them could be belonging to erstwhile royal families. This time her exhibition will also have Abhas, an age-old traditional classical cut and style from Kutch.
Pointing towards a pink kalidar kurta, she elaborated, ”These kurtas, you won’t get it anymore. This technique is dying now. The genuine abhas could be date back nearly a century. Abha has come from aba a word commonly used in the middle eastern countries which means a top garment or a mantle. The abha based on an age-old traditional classical cut and style, is basically a kalidar kurta without a slit on the sides, with a lose flair and it hangs lower than a normal kurta.”
Shobha, who herself wears handlooms as her day-to-day wear, is sad how modernity has compelled these lovely costumes into museums or wooden boxes in far off villages. But at the same time she’s happy how Indian designers are reviving their own traditional fabrics. She has a clientele even in Bollywood. Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Shekhar Kapoor are admirers of her brand. Even the French fashion house Louis Vuitton has displayed Shobha Deepak Singh’s Vastra Sobha at LV outlets, where Vastra Shobha’s zardozi, antique irreplaceable rare textiles, veils, borders and coats were on display.
The Vastra Shobha exhibition, on till December 15, will have collection ranging from Rs 2000 to Rs 60,000.
RSVP:
Shakti Raj Vidyarthi
