The Silkworm’s Folklore Makes Way Into Vogue

Born into the first family of silk, Jeyasree Ravi of @palam-silks# knows her way around SILK.

 

Just like her mother, Designer Sunita Yogesh, daughter of Jeyasree Ravi is a self-taught artist, designer and an interior stylist.  Her latest voyage takes us into the Vogue Wedding Show landscape to showcase the exclusive Folklore Collection. The distinctive designs are inspired from the lost Indian artworks and architecture.

With rich colors and subtle designs, Folklore collection brings back a mélange of tradition and youth in the six yards of panache and grace. Embodying traditional ecstasy, these exclusive silk sarees bring in the allure of forever young look. Staying on trend made easier with Folklore!

Before taking the plunge into the world of Kanjeevarams, Sunita Yogesh pursued surface pattern designing course from Central Saint Martins in London and has also worked with artisans from Rajasthan on the traditional art of hand block prints. Folklore is her first collection, designed and executed in Kanjeevaram.

Walking down memory lane, Sunita reminisces about her wedding held in Bangalore. Sunita’s wedding was a gala affair. She sported personally designed Kanjeevarams on all wedding functions. Unfortunately, even after 190 days of weaving time her wedding attire, was 20 days too late for the wedding date. Conveniently, Ms Jeyasree Ravi featured her missed-out wedding saree in her annual fashion show, Silkline, under the much-awaited round, Muhurtham Collection. A spark was ignited in Sunita and she started working on her designer dreams.

The next step in her journey was hosting the “Squared” exhibition featuring Acrylic portraits with several textures. Upon witnessing Sunita’s work Jeyasree Ravi instantly knew that  she wanted to translate the artwork on a kanjeevaram. The result was a first ever kanjeevaram fraternised with 10 different fabrics in the same saree. This unique creation was titled as “Blend n Trend Silk”. This was Sunita’s first experiment in the line of designing.

The next stop for Sunita was at Central St Martin’s London. After an aggressive learning experience there, Sunita visited Bagru in Jaipur and learnt the art of hand block prints from the local artisans. This is where she found her love for “handloom”. She added – “The process of dyeing, designing and printing with my own hands added so some much of value and character to the product”.

On the subject of Folklore Sunita adds – “Folklore is a collection that is inspired from rural Indian architecture, a genre I’ve admired all my life. This collection speaks more about me than Palam and that is the reason the collection is signed off as Folklore by Sunita Yogesh.”

 

The premise behind the collection is rooted in “traditional” motifs. Folklore also aims to go deeper into the ideology behind Indian-born designs – let it be designing on fabrics, architecture, paintings and several other cultural aspects where original Indian creativity is exhibited. With Folklore Sunita wanted to create a design palate based on the creations of rural artisans without any formal education. We wanted to create a design palate for the most traditional fabric of south Indian that is inspired from rural creativity of all platforms, not just apparel.

 

Folklore launched by Palam Silks was premiered at the most prestigious Vogue Wedding Show in Delhi in Aug 2018. Ms. Sunita and Ms. Jeyasree shared space with eminent designers like Anita Dongre, Manish Malhotra,  Sabyasachi and many more. Palam Silks has been chosen twice in a row to represent kanjeevarams from the south. We must say, we are more than delighted to showcase the folklore collection at Shopzters!