The models walked barefoot, sending a down-to-earth message. And the creations, too, were very earthy. It was Anavila Misra’s showcase of her Dabu collection at Lakmé Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI at Jio World Garden.
Dabu, you saw, is an attempt to present the sari’s stylistic nuances, philosophical metaphors and spiritual associations to nature in its raw form. The designer believes that a sari is not bound by zippers, buttons or belts but, like life, the sari flows into the vessel that is the body. The simple elegance of a sari, unstitched and exquisitely draped is the marvel of unfettered and fluid creativity.
Dabu, derived from the Hindi word dabana or press, is a very labour-intensive technique and involves several stages of printing and dyeing. A deeply sustainable practice, Dabu honours local resources (mud, gum, lime and waste wheat chaff) and a complete reliance on the bounty of nature.
On view were the twists and turns of the fabric, the dappled Dabu and print motifs in ochre, sage, indigo, kashish, gold and silver dancing in the swathes of fabric with gentle precision. The vegetable dyes, mud, floral and fauna used is a tribute to Mother Nature. Block printing using Dabu and direct printing were seen as a form of meditation steeped in creative oneness with nature.
And, yes, even the designer Anavila walked barefoot.
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