Arrangement: Charu Parashar's eponymous brand is known for its variety of prints.

Heritage textiles have always been a huge part of the Indonesian fashion scene, but the same can be said for nations like India with a vibrant history of weaving.

When you think of Indian fashion, colorful saris probably come to mind, but despite their popularity, saris are not all there is to Indian textiles. Take for example khadi — handwoven cloth comparable to Indonesian tenun. 

Like Indonesia and its love for tenun, khadi is enjoying greater popularity, including with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, and its production involves hundreds of thousands of workers.

In this spirit, the Indian Embassy brought in two up-and-coming Indian designers to showcase their collections in a recent show in Jakarta, featuring creations cut from khadi textiles. The show, titled Fashion Sutra, also marked 70 years of diplomatic relations between India and Indonesia.

Pratima Pandey, with her brand Prama by Pratima Pandey, went with easy silhouettes reminiscent of a summer stroll.

Handcrafted floral embellishments lent a touch of delicate femininity to prairie dresses in soft neutrals, while embroidery details also abounded across the collection.

The few menswear items were similarly styled, loose and floaty with floral detailing in light blue.

Colors ran the gamut from the perennially subtle, such as white and ecru, to a rather bold copper and red, the latter seen in combination for a statement jacket.

Heritage: Due to the complex manual process, a fabric can take as long as three months to complete.

While Western-style garments could be seen in the lineup, Pandey held true to her Indian heritage through items such as the tunic-like kurta, made feminine through lighter fabrics and floral detailing.

Pandey described the woman wearing Prama as “a sensitive woman, who knows what she’s looking for”, adding that the purchaser understands what she’s buying from the get-go.

“The person is someone well-traveled and well exposed to a lot of things, and thus she understands what she’s investing in.”

Pandey said one of the first things she noticed when first starting out was how to keep the tradition going, which in this case means a love for traditional Indian clothing.

“There has to be a thin line between keeping what is required from the past, and how to make it go forward without losing the ethos of it. I think you have to be really sensitive in how to handle it,” Pandey explained.

This thin line was especially noticeable in Charu Parashar’s eponymous label, which ran with the concept of traditional and thoroughly modernized it.

The opening look was a printed open jacket inspired by batik, layered over an embellished cropped bustier-esque top, and finished with satiny straight black trousers.

Elsewhere, traditional was the name of the game, with pieces like a scallop-print lehenga skirt paired with a ruffled top, a silk sari with matching set in rich navy blue, or the coat-like sherwani for the men.

Parashar’s signature prints gave many of the garments a sense of modernity, and the designer herself said the brand ethos was revivalist.

“The synergy is between the old and the new, and that’s what I try to create, whether it’s my bridal couture, resortwear, or Western wear. Everything starts from trying to bring the Indian heritage in, but still giving it a very global feel,” Parashar said.

Fashion celebration: Models showcase Charu Parashar designs during the Fashion Sutra event organized by the Indian Embassy for Indonesia in Jakarta to celebrate weaving heritage in India and Indonesia.

She revealed that every garment in her brand was fully handmade — no machine work is involved.

There is also a large market for traditional textiles and garments in India, Parashar says, as the textiles have been a part of the culture since the time of the Vedas.

“As designers, we work on our silhouettes. I’m known a lot for my jackets, so I try and create more Westernized silhouettes but use Indian textiles. The client is getting a piece of heritage, but gets an outfit she could wear in Paris or in New Delhi.”

For emerging designers, Parashar offers the advice of creating modern silhouettes, while sticking to one’s heritage.

Pandey notes that encouraging the use of handlooms or handcrafts to create the textiles slows down the whole fashion process. 

Creating a single khadi, Pandey says, can take up to a month and a half, with the embroidery taking another two weeks. Overall, a garment will then be completed in two-and-a-half to three months.

“The fact of the matter is, a lot of hands are involved in making one outfit, thus one outfit gives a lot of people a livelihood,” she said.

“The textiles and the craftsmanship have to be the heroes everywhere.” (ste)

— Photos by JP/Narabeto Korohama