HARMONY
Source of inspiration: Kinnauri costume and Buddhist stupa.
The Buddhist stupa situated in kalpa in kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh (the kinnaur where normally, it does not rain only snowfall occurs and is stated as dessert of Himachal) is like an oasis in so called dessert for finding inner peace n happiness within oneself. The Buddhist stupa shown in the picture is embodiment of peace from where the inspiration of designing this costume is received and it’s design is crafted accordingly.
The brown color skirt made of kinnauri shawl symbolise dessert and Green colour jacket made of ‘malmal’ denotes happiness. The silhouette of garment is derived from the shape of stupa. The embroidery on jacket is taken from traditional kinnauri cap. The inner band, too made of malmal is a modified form of costume traditionally called as “gacchhi" in kinnaur. The gacchhi is 5 to 6 m in length wrapped around torso for holding infant/goods in its folds serving as pockets, thus, providing support to spine while climbing on mountains. On similar pattern, the twin colour band shown inside the jacket comprises multiple pockets all around it.
This work was a part of research project-Craft Cluster initiative – traditional Kinnauri costumes.
