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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Wearing feminism: Eina Ahluwalia
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Wearing feminism: Eina Ahluwalia

The jewellery designer creates her pieces with whimsical candour and a fresh fashion sensibility

Eina Ahluwalia. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint.Premium
Eina Ahluwalia. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint.

It was 4pm and Eina Ahluwalia scarfed down lunch at Les Parisiennes café, deep inside the Capital’s hard-to-navigate Shahpur Jat village. Ahluwalia was in town recently to showcase her latest jewellery collection, Paradisiac, at Nimai, the indie concept boutique next to the café. The opening was later, but a steady stream of women had begun to trickle in—lest the pieces got sold out.

It is a testament to Ahluwalia’s growing cult following.

For Ahluwalia, jewellery is a tool, a visual representation of a message. She subverts the idea of ornamentation. “That’s what jewellery activism is all about," she says, “where the pieces become secondary to the message it intends to convey." Raised in Kolkata, Ahluwalia has a master’s in business administration and worked with Exide Industries Ltd, the battery company, for four years. She then set up a software staffing subsidiary of the family business, which undertook projects for electrical substations. “That was the tipping point. I was really bored staring into a computer all day," she says. By 2003, Ahluwalia had experimented with various mediums and realized that making jewellery made her happy. “It also garnered the best response, which was an impetus for me to pursue it," she says.

Steeped in heritage and traditional craft, Ahluwalia’s jewellery in metal, resin, brass, silver, copper, enamel and gold is statement-making. What sets it apart is its whimsical candour and negotiation with feminist ideologies through a fresh fashion sensibility. At the Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2015 in August, she put together a thought-provoking experiential installation titled Pilgrimage. The idea: identifying society’s impossibly high (and often thwarting) standards for beauty. Ahluwalia transformed the hall into a tunnel-like temple space, referenced dramatically shaped mystical Venus figurines and created altars for them. “Each altar had all the paraphernalia we use to change our physical appearance, from make-up to constricting body shapers to 10-inch high heels," says Ahluwalia.

The second part of the installation had two rows of six models each. “We made them look like clinical clones of (TV celebrity) Kim Kardashian," she says, explaining that they sat on opposite sides of the space, with only their heads bobbing out of one single cloak. Metal, terracotta and enamel necklaces were worn on top of the cloak.

Interestingly, the roles were reversed here, in the hunter becomes the hunted sort of way. Models looked at you judgementally, as if you were walking down a runway. If you moved past this, you came face-to-face with three mirrors, each with words such as “makeover app", “retouch filter" and “beauty filter" scrawled on them. There was an audio hub that had 10 headphones loudly whispering positive affirmations and a giant TV that played visuals of Ahluwalia’s face—with/without make-up—and a version of an imagined botched up face-job in a “disturbing loop". “It was like a black and white horror film," laughs Ahluwalia.

But it was brave to put herself out there and stage this elaborately dark exhibit— with a delicate message that could possibly have been misconstrued—at a fashion week. “It’s relevant, not brave," she corrects me. “It’s what we need—this necessity to celebrate and accept all forms of beauty, and love ourselves for what we are. Sometimes, what we need is not easy to accept," she says.

Ahluwalia’s collection ‘Paradisiac’, showcased at Nimai in Delhi.
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Ahluwalia’s collection ‘Paradisiac’, showcased at Nimai in Delhi.

The idea of making jewellery with a social message has evolved with time. In fact, until 2009, she successfully made (and sold) contemporary—a mix of organic, geometrical, natural and minimal—versions of traditional heirloom pieces, which included necklaces, earrings and rings. “But I wasn’t satisfied," she says. “I didn’t want to do something purely commercial. I wanted to add meaning to these ornaments." When her younger sister, Atikaa, joined the business later that year, it gave Ahluwalia the scope to widen her vision. Her works are priced roughly from 3,000 (for a hand ornament, or haathphool) to 32,000.

In 2010, Ahluwalia trained under Ruudt Peters, a pioneering conceptual jewellery artist in South Holland, and followed it up by studying new materials and methodology at Alchimia, a school of contemporary jewellery in Florence, Italy. It transformed her design philosophy, which started veering towards keeping the handcrafted tradition alive through sustainable use of newer materials. A collection titled How I Felt, designed in collaboration with a Dutch artist, Beatrice Wanders, came next. “It was made with felt, but it was too conceptual and irrelevant to the Indian market," she says.

Ahluwalia hit home with the Wedding Vowscollection, which took a stand against domestic violence, in 2011. “We drew on motifs of power and strength and converted them into jewellery," she says. There was intricate handmade fretwork on a large kirpan-shaped pendant that opened up as a knife, a play on the mangalsutra. Trishuls (tridents), which are symbolic of the trinity of love, respect and protect, were used as typographic earrings. And there were engraved pendants inspired by 16th century Saxon knives. Made out of silver—Ahluwalia’s favourite metal because of its malleability—and brass with 22-carat gold plating, it was an intelligent collection that sent out a strong message.

In a way, Ahluwalia was creating and educating a new market by inserting a message into everything. This collection was followed by several others—most notable among them being Old Fashioned (2013), which reimagined nostalgic pieces as new classics. Past Perfect Continuous (2013), a capsule collection, sought inspiration from the Baroque grandeur of pieces from 17th century Italy to the exuberance of 18th century French Roccoco, which resulted in quirky earrings, necklaces and cuffs. All We Need Is Love (2015) was a mini line about countries at war with each other and has the word “pyar" (love) inscribed on necklaces and bracelets in Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu.

Ahluwalia is also making her entry as a conceptual artist—she took part in a show by Apparao Galleries earlier this year. Some of the pieces she showcased included a knuckleduster ring titled Death Of Terrorism—a mini coffin with two AK-47 guns inside—made after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks; a brooch called Do You Think You Can Tell that uses resin to depict the splatter of blood; and a necklace, Planetary Protection, made out of 63 astrological rings. “It was an ironic take on people’s obsession with wearing these gemstone rings as a means to protect them," she says.

An intuitive artist, Ahluwalia is crafting jewellery with an emotional connect, while ensuring that utility and opulence coexist harmoniously. She says she doesn’t design for a muse; it’s meant for women across the spectrum. “I want to empower them in my own way by making jewellery that can survive and resonate over time."

Supriya Dravid tweets at @superear.

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Published: 14 Nov 2015, 12:23 AM IST
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