Sanjay Patel

Sanjay Patel is back after his extremely successful Little Book of Deities with Ramayana : divine loophole. The cleverly titled book has been described as 'whimsically illustrated' and I agree. A mammoth labour of love , complete with sketches and drawings, this is definitely a collectors edition . Epic. More here.
Excellent review of the book by Avinash Rajagopal  here.

Madhavan Palanisamy

Madhavan Palanisamy spent over 10 years in advertising before finding his redemption inside the walls of the camera. Using a combination of editorial and fine art styles of photography, he interprets the strange beauty that surrounds him and creates a world where anything can happen. Madhav is a self taught photographer and draws his inspiration from cinematic imagery and graphic design.  His new series titled Chennai Remix is showing at Apparao Gallery, Chennai till the 30th of August.

Ankur Gupta

Ankur Gupta is a lover of stories. His frippery is heavily laden with sequins, crystals, dusted with glitter, and held together by embroidery. Fix your gaze anywhere on his garment, and a tale will gradually blossom, taking you through the textural treats of his homeland India. His kaleidoscopic mind’s eye is replete with imagery from his childhood, capturing wonder and naiveté. Ankur Gupta still embodies an innocence, that allows him to create without inhibition. His work is a sartorial piece of soul,  embellished with bursts of colour, creativity and compassion. His clothes fuse emblems from Hinduism, fables from jungles,  animal mandalas and chunks of nostalgia from his very own life to actualize detailed, fascinating articles of clothing .

Whats your favorite article of clothing?

Jackets, ties, dress shirts.Apparently silhouettes in my first collection " Ambiguous desires of a child" were highly inspired by jackets (though partly inspired by shapes of fishes, tortoise etc)  which can be worn as dresses and otherwise.But i can feel i am getting inclined to dresses

What sort of music do you like to listen to while creating/ideating?

I am highly driven by strong emotions of varied kind which actually goes in each time I design, think, draw, talk and everything I do.

So the music I like also is what I call "Power Music", it could be a background from a documentary or special voices and noises from different places, regions, dialects.

I like Grizzly bear, Klaus nomi ( imagine the artist in today's world with all that technology), Yann Tiersen- my favorite for long, such an amazing Talent, M.I.A, The Doors ,Beatles. I also love magical Gulzar and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia,.

I think I will invest in good recording equipment to record amazing noises in India like the way they juggle tea, vegetable vendor screams about his stock, chants in small temples and mosques near small villages around a river.For me Great Music is kind of Magical Voice not just a Noise.

What are your plans for the future?

From my earlier experiences while still a student I learned that Indian artists and craftsman come to cities to find work while being underpaid or are forced to work overtime without will. They either do not start families or even if they do they do not have personal life because of (not on records) slave work!

Most of the crafts are on verge of extinct just because second or third generation of these artisan do not want to continue the same trade. They end becoming peons at local markets or something of same sort where skill is lost.

It’s very unfortunate to cut costs or to earn more profits something of this sort is done to an artist, who is human indeed.

I do not recognize this as part of Fashion.

Thus one part of my bigger plan, i joined hands with Japanese American designer to form "Atelier AM" where we will give embroidery solutions with vision of ethical and fair trade.

I am already working on my SS11 and Apart from this i have been offered to creative direct collection for next season by an Italy based company.

Favourite designers, why?

 They all very strong personalities with a strong poetic vision who have delivered the very best again and again.John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld, Alber Elbaz, Alexander McQueen- his studio use to have crazy energy and i was in love with it, Dries van noten , Elisa palomino (i address her MAAJi- bcs of her strong oriental influences and of course because it means mother).

  

Comment on the Indian Fashion scene at home and abroad

At home I would say there has always been a penchant towards different forms of weaving, embroideries and printing from age of kings & queens to present day.

Which is The Great Indian couture and will always be.

At the same time there are designers, very well hooked and aware of trends and seasons in international fashion and thus creating and catering to markets of their respective choice and many have succeeded  to make their mark.

What sort of advice would u give to ppl with creative startups?

Be true to Yourself and your VISION.

You will be punched, kicked, laughed at and the same time overly appreciated, talked about but do not let anything affect you because everyone has a point of view.

Views with Visions survive.

Padmaja Krishnan

Transit Design is a small-scale fashion and textile “laboratory” set up by Padmaja Krishnan in 2005. Inspired by the unexpected, Padmaja creates “non-conformative, quirky and peaceful” clothing for men and women, as well as curious and finely detailed handcrafted products using only natural materials.

Inkling Prints

These gorgeous, intricate designs are the handiwork of London based Kiran of Inkling Prints.

She hand carves the patterns on lino and hand prints them on to cushion covers and bags. Kiran started Inkling Prints when she moved to the UK from Singapore. Scour her labours of love at her flickr and her website.

Kali Arulpragasm

Kali Arulpragasm is Superfertile. She has a fearless personality, a brand of brash that works for her. Her jewelry is an extension of this firebrand quality. Big, bold pieces that make socio-political statements with just a gentle dose of subversion. Her inventiveness comes through by way of materials. In CRA$H, she uses infographic pie charts and bar graphs, solemn emblems of the recession, inlaid with glitzy stones and enamel , street styled on the working man – it’s safe to say she also possess a wry sense of humour.In her latest collection , Mankind, flesh toned clay figures gather around the models’ torsos, speaking a softer more universal message – love. I ask her abt her quirks and she retorts,’I’m the only South Asian I know who applies tanning lotion and bronzer to make me appear darker”. 

How would you describe your aesthetic? What influences it?

My parents are very proud of their Tamil heritage. I was taught very traditional values and all the goodness that came from our heritage...culture, music, good spicy foods, perfumes, all the smells and colours, costumes, decorations, jewels and festivals...I was taught to be aware and be proud of what South Asia offered to the world. I was born in London, grew up mostly here, Yet I'm drawn to the Old India, and the parts which interest me are the parts that are not trying to be something else. Pretence is boring, I try to be honest with everything I do.

Your pieces are very conceptual in nature, what about the wearability factor?

Yes, the concept comes after the message and the wearability I have fun with.  Sometimes my message is so serious that I find humour in the design or Inject some Irony into the design. This is the part I enjoy and I think it makes my designs speak.

I'm a conceptual designer, message and communicating that message is important to me.  My concerns of wearability comes last because I feel that is the easy part. I can always take parts and make smaller pieces. Break it down. The inventors’ collection  come in one pendant necklaces, key rings and broaches. My tourism collection, necklaces were reduced to 50%, or parts of the necklaces were made into pendants, bracelets and ear rings. It's not that hard to work it out.

My most recent collection CRA$H is very wearable, I made pendants and chains in stones of statistics, numbers and facts of our very current Global financial economic crisis. They are Bar charts and Pie charts and statements. This has never been done with jewels. I read the economists of last 2 years, the FT and decided to show the glory of our nations debts and loss in bling!. It's a collection that got me respect from designers in Paris when I showed there in Oct 09. Only they know how hard to pull this off. Some pendants have more then 3000 stones, all paved by hand.

Who wears Superfertile?

Everyone that I would like to know.

Is jewelry your thing or do you create in other ways?

I wear many hats. After designing jewelry and production, I do everything else, from scouting models, art directing shoots, styling, make up, building installations and lookbooks. It's never ending...if I go onto do other things, I'd like to go bigger, add sculptures for homes, furnitures etc. You won't see me reducing impact.

For your The real super stars collection , you speak abt the relevance of glorifying inventors, the catalysts of change , why did you pick their heads specifically? Does this allude to yourself, as kali?

It's just a co-incidence that my name is Kali, it's actually short for Kalyani, but Kali also means 'New' in Tamil.I wanted to focus on inventors Face/heads for a few reasons, firstly it's there unknown faces that I wanted to present to the world, secondly, it's also miniature sculptures castings of their heads that you see in museums of important and Influential people. I wanted to preserve them and honour them for their contributions. It's also my way of delivering the unexpected. I wanted to show the possibilities of Design in Jewelry. And maybe there is a part of my ancestors influence in my work.  But I don't sit through history books but yes some of my designs after they are completely made up from imagination have some relations to dance costumes and temples, statues,  I have not physically seen before or maybe when I was a child l may and forgotten but still it's imprinted somewhere ...maybe I think in my past life I must have been a jeweller for the gods and maharajahs palaces in India. I'm very drawn to royalty, leadership and rulers. I can see one of my necklaces worn by a warrior at a royal function...I aim to dress all like warriors and kings and queens!!.

Whose work do you find most compelling?

I'm a big fan of Chanel. I watched Coco Avant Chanel many times. Coco is very compelling. Mc queen, hussaine Chalayan, Ashish and artists I have too many. Tracey Emin, Chris Offeli, Yoko Ono, Picasso, frieda Kahlo and all the local artists go by their first names in India, Africa, Mexico...my studio is filled with their work.

Whats on Kali's ipod these days?

Motown classics. I've lost my music after my Ipod crashed!

Do you follow  any of the South Asian designers on the scene today?

I love Ashish, he's originally from Delhi based in London. Were friends now and I wear mostly his clothes.

The dreaded question,  whats next for you?

I'm now made part of the Royal Academy of Arts comittee, so I'll be involved with the next event for the schools. I'll be going to Milan and Paris, for shows next year. I'd also be featured in a big movie that I'm so happy to be involved with. I have to produce some jewels for my new fan Alec Jeffreys, DNA finger printing inventor. Who discovered my collection recently. I'll be continuing my work as before.

Sanchali

Daksha Gowda is a conservationist and a revolutionary simultaneously. She spearheaded Sanchali, which literally means movement. At Sanchali, they are keepers of the Indian indigenous crafts.Sanchali is an interactive museum of that acquires indigenous articles from around the country and educates the public by letting them interact with these objects.

 Daksha Gowda remixes the traditional aesthetic and creates wearable items such as personal accessories. Here, Daksha has reappropriated used cloth and embellishes with beads to create a beautiful pair of earrings that are contemporary chic.

Fahd Burki

Zen & surreal at once. Open-for-interpretation works by Pakistani artist Fahd Burki via Grey Noise.