Indigo block print lehenga in the winter

Another one in the long running series of dupattas that are converted into sarees and then made into lehengas …

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

This lehenga (also known as gaghra or chaniya or just simply a gathered skirt) used to be three dupattas that I wore as a saree for ages before realising that the number of indigo block print sarees in my wardrobe was astounding. I re-homed a few of them with other saree-enthusiasts and decided to ask the boy to make this into a lehenga/ gaghra for my birthday.

I am wearing it here with a cropped merino wrap-around top, sneakers and was carrying a wool coat to wear over it in case the temperatures dipped further. You can view more photos of this lehenga in its previous avatar as a saree in a previous post from over two years ago here.

I do tend to wear full-length gathered skirts quite a bit in my everyday outfits and definitely could do with an indigo piece. Being the crazy plant lady I am, I also quite liked the dabu printed motifs on this particular length of fabric.

Dabu printing is an elaborate traditionally unique way of dyeing and printing by which exceptional motifs are created on handwoven and machine made fabrics. The recently declared Unesco world heritage site – Jaipur, is surrounded by a number of traditional villages that comprise of predominantly block print artisanal communities.

By taking advantage of the fine desert sand of Rajasthan, generations of craftspeople have been able to create this mud-resist known as ‘dabu’.

A cold-water resist, dabu is particularly effective for blocking out areas during an indigo bath. The character of dabu and the wooden blocks used to apply it, go together to create the distinctive patterns known as dabu prints.

Block prints like these are done by instinct and don’t involve much mechanical interference and they display obvious signs of the human hand, imperfections that are a part of the timeless beauty of the craft.

What gets me completely enamoured with these fabrics is the knowledge that it involves generations of a community, a heritage built around the craft, where artisans often across religions, castes and tribes form a shared history.

I really love wearing these prints on everything from pants to dresses to sarees to skirts to work-shirts to singlets and what have you. One of my favourite items of clothing though is the traditional cotton gaghras or chaiyas that are every day wear for many nomadic tribes people in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. I love wearing them throughout the year and believe that they are the most fun as winter-wear.

Some of the ways I plan to wear this lehenga/ gaghra in the winter are listed below and I am always looking to add to this list:

1. Paired with a beanie, sweatshirt and chunky boots for when the temperatures hit single digits.
2. Worn with a merino base layer, a thick embroidered choli over it and converse hi-tops.
3. With a chunky cable-knit sweater, an over-size denim jacket and knee-length boots.
4. With a lambswool turtle-neck, a leather jacket and double sole sneakers.
5. With a basic merino sweater, a dupatta and a Kutchi embroidered shawl.
6. With a tight cashmere body suit and an angrakha or front open anarkali over it.
7. With a silk and wool fitted sweater, a trench coat and heeled boots.
8. With a merino base layer top plus leggings, a peplum top and fleece-lined booties.
9. As a dress, I just tie the gaghra over the bosom, wear a heavy duster cardigan over it and tall boots under.

What are your favourite ways to upcycle sarees and what is your preferred way to style a lehenga/ gaghra as the temperatures drop?

If you are keen to read about similar topics, I have previously published the first in a series of post about the various kinds of hand block printed fabrics from different parts of India, which you can find here, I have also posted another block-print-dupattas-turned saree-turned-lehenga and various ways of styling it in the warmer months here and here is a post from few years ago in a bandhani lehenga with a grey sweater.

 

Different styles of Indian hand block prints

Manual block printing on textiles using wooden blocks has been an artisanal craft practiced in India for centuries …

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

Hand-block printing is one of the oldest and currently among the most popular forms of ornamentation on textile surfaces.

Based on available historical texts it is believed that printing designs onto fabric most likely originated in China about 4,500 years ago but it is on the Indian subcontinent where hand-blocked fabric reached its highest visual articulation.

Indian artisans of yore possessed unparalleled expertise in the secrets of natural plant dyes, particularly with mordants which are metallic salts that both create color and allow it to adhere to fabric.

Between outside influences from Persia and elsewhere, the impact of Mughal invasion and the diversity of the subcontinent’s own indigenous communities and tribes, India has one of the most spectacular pattern vocabularies on this planet.

The saree I am wearing the the photos features the Jawariya Dana, a tribal print from Tarapur, a village in Neemuch district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It has a beautiful combination of alizarin hand block printing on the body and Dabu resist techniques on the border and parts of the pallu, displayed on mul cotton fabric.

Jawariya Dana is just one of the many styles of hand block printing from India and I thought I’d list a few of the types I wear quite often over a couple of posts here on Pleats n Pallu.

Jawaria Dana is colloquial speak for ‘jowar ka dana’ (a grain of sorghum or cereal grass), it is a traditional design term used for the block prints made on the odhanis (scarves) of women from the Bhils, Jats , Bhilals and other tribes of Rajasthan and MP.

They usually feature a red or pink (pink for the bride in kachcha colour, the colour is supposed to bleed and colour the bride pink) with small dots allover which are the size of grain of jowar.

Traditionally the danas would be made using the Indian tie and dye technique called bandhani however, these block printed ones are more common these days. A few local artisans in the area still follow the traditional bandhani technique to decorate odhanis and lugdas (body cloth).

These are sarees hand block printed and alizarin dyed in black and red . Blocks used are same as what the printers use for printing for the tribals so there would be misprints or defects as well.

Nandana is another elaborate style of manual block print practiced by the local Chippa community in Tarapur. It is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process involving about 16 steps to get to the final design.

Traditionally these prints decorate rough thick fabrics used for making ghagras (gathered skirts) for the women of tribal communities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. These prints have a limited number of block patterns, mostly flowers and fruits that are printed in the same manner all over the fabric.

I believe there are just five designs ranging from small buti to big buta known as mirch, champakali, dholamaru, amba and salaam are the signature motifs for these prints. You can see a saree featuring this print on a previous blog post here.

Dabu is a unique fabric art-form created by a mud resist process using wood blocks in the Bagru village of the western Indian state, Rajasthan. In this, a design is sketched onto the background cloth which is covered with wet clay sprinkled saw dust.

The saw dust clings to the textile as the clay dries and then the entire cloth is dyed in select colors. The parts with the clay and sawdust mixture do not catch the dye and remain colourless. The fabric is washed post dyeing and drying and may be dyed again in a lighter shade to cover the patterned area.

Traditionally this form of printing was environmentally non-toxic because it used no harmful or synthetic dyes.

You can see sarees featuring this print on sarees in previous blog posts here and here, on dress and shirts here, here and here.

The Bagru style of hand block printing is eponymously named after the village it has originated from, which is a short drive from Jaipur.

In order to created these prints an artisan first stamps the background block (locally known as gudh), followed by an outline block (the rekh) and finally the datta are filler blocks which complete the design.

On average, a printer uses a minimum of four or five blocks to etch one motif on a length of hand printed cloth.

It sometimes takes a couple of days just to carve and finish a single block, as the selection and seasoning of local woods is an elaborate process, specific to each pattern.

In Bagru, carvers often use woods like sagwaan (teak), sheesham (Indian rosewood), or rohida (desert teak or marwar teak) when constructing blocks. You can check out this print in an older post here.

There are many, many more types of manual block printing on fabric from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu etcetera that I will elaborate on, in another blog post.

Backless choli love

My obsession for backless cholis, the traditional wear for many tribes people in Gujarat, borders a little bit on the extreme …

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

Spend a wonderful weekend at the mountains, chasing water falls and climbing rock faces and had the best time camping. Sometimes wonderful memories are made away from civilization and feeling free, uninhibited but awed by the sheer beauty that surrounds us.

This a picture heavy post but what can I say, waterfalls are my favourites.

Ofcourse camping calls for tried and tested comfortable clothes like this oft worn saree, choli with my trusted Palladiums Pampa mids. I have been collecting cholis for over twenty years now, initially they were meant for Navaratri outfits but honestly they are too pretty to limit to just festive wear.

I wear these cholis with chaniyas (gaghra/lehega), jeans, denim cutoffs, skirts, sarees, pretty much anything I can lay my hands on. Some previous examples, here, here, here, here, here and here.

The Rabari mirror-work and hand-embroidered cholis are generally quite popular  but I also love the more simple cholis that women from the Bharvad, Maldhari and other tribes people from Saurashtra wear.

The choli in these photos is an ‘ek dana’ bandhani choli that was made for ladies of the Maldhari tribe and fit me perfectly without the need for any alterations. I recently carried it on a weekend away in the mountains and wore it with a dabu hand-block print indigo saree for the car ride and a long hike down to this amazing waterfall.

I kind of created my version of a fun and comfortable dhoti drape with the soft saree, to keep me at ease on the long car ride plus the climb down the mountain to the waterfall on a very hot day.

Once the saree was too drenched and discomfiting, I quickly switched it for a pair of drop-crotch boyfriend jeans to get some food and drinks. The choli stayed put though the weekend.

On trips that involve a trek I cannot be bothered to put much thought into my outfit and only care about being comfortable, so the boots were a no-brainer. These Palladium boots have seen me through hikes in the Himalayas, bush walks in Australia, music festivals all over the world and I can’t seem to get enough of them.

The love child of a comfy sneaker and heavy-duty boots, these hard wearing beauties are the perfect whether I am exploring a new city, on an intense hike, dancing all day and night at a music festival, in the middle of no-where, wading through water and adventurers of all kinds.

In my world I think cholis like these boots are incredibly versatile and look amazing with anything at all but especially with the following:

1. With a saree
2. With an embroidered or plain gaghra or a ostentetious lehenga or skirt
3. With high-waist palazzo pants
4. With a gharara
5. They work great as crop tops with jeans
6. They looks smashing with denim or leather shorts.

Here’s to more wonderful weekends away exploring rainforests, a more conscious handcrafted wardrobe and definitely more fun ways to wear traditional pieces of clothing.