Inside Chorus, the Mumbai atelier that is celebrating craft in all its forms
Karishma Swali on building a new multidisciplinary atelier, working with international brands like Dior, and finding eco-friendly solutions to what we wear
When the Mumbai store of Moonray, a four-year-old ready-to-wear label started by Karishma Swali and her daughter, Avantika, shut down a few months ago, it seemed like it would cease to exist. But last week, the same address in the cultural district of Kala Ghoda opened the doors to Chorus, a brand by the mother-daughter duo that expands the Moonray universe to include ready-to-wear, couture, skincare, and a café with craft at the centre.
Karishma, the force behind Chanakya School of Craft—the embroidery house that works with international brands like Dior and Fendi (and where Chorus is also crafted)—says, “There’s no gap in the market that we are trying to fill. It’s my 30th year with Chanakya, and the School has completed 40 years, so we began to feel that we needed to represent craft at a larger scale." They started working on Chorus two years ago with a design collective that includes designers Tina and Nikita Sutradhar, artist-designer Joohi Mehta, embroidery specialist Renu Sahu, and 13th-generation master artisans.
A walk across the store, filled with baskets shaped like bronze vessels, cactus leather shoes, candle stands that flip over into martini glasses, and cold-pressed soaps, reflects what the Swalis want to build: a lifestyle brand that showcases Indian craft.
As soon as you enter the 980 sq. ft ground floor space, you see a light-blue cocktail dress, the upper half heavily embellished and the lower shaped like an accordion. It is striking yet easy on the eyes, a feeling that extends throughout the collection, which includes a one-shoulder dress from leftover textile waste and an upcycled denim jacket.
In an interview with Lounge, Karishma talks about Chorus, her learnings while working with international design houses, and working towards eco-friendly solutions to fashion. Edited excerpts:
What’s the idea behind Chorus?
The desire to honour craft as a living practice that evolves through research, exchange and curiosity. I wanted to offer the spirit of craft in a way that it can be experienced right from a sculptural textile to a clay vase or a woven shawl. So, we have blurred the boundaries between different media and put craft at the centre. Craft is a container of our culture. It, of course, tells the stories of our past, but in many ways it teaches us about community, collective identity. Our crafts are versatile, global, modern and porous.
Porous?
How seamlessly they can fit into our lives. For example, we’ve used fringe, what we call jhalar, in the first collection. Jhalar has existed in India’s design language for a long time, from wall hangings to lehngas and maharaja coats. But for some time now, they have almost gone out of circulation because many feel they make an outfit look old and heavy. What we’ve done is made them more playful, so there’s movement across layers, and used micro pearls to make them almost weightless.
We have also found a way to repurpose reticella (a 17th-century needle lace technique), which has almost died. There’s also basketry, practised by women throughout India, and presented it in sculptural forms. The idea is to bring a fresh design language, but the fundamentals are age-old.
When it comes to Indian couture and even ready-to-wear, there’s ample bling on offer. Your clothes are understated by comparison.
In India, the meaning of craft is something quite decorative or opulent. But the voice of craft really comes through the practitioner; craft is just a medium. Craft can hold many expressions. It can be quiet and minimal, as well as bold and sculptural. It can also be so refined that it’s almost invisible.
You’ve worked with several design houses. How has that association influenced the research and approach to craft at Chanakya?
They have expanded our understanding of what craft or what creative expression could be. What has stood out is that craft has the versatility to take the skill of a master and marry it with a visual vocabulary a creative director wants. This teaches you about the limits of what a fibre or a technique can become. Like nature, as a concept, is used extensively in fashion. But we wanted to look at parts that don’t receive attention. So, we looked at plants and flowers from a botanical research perspective. We looked at plant groups and found ways to represent them not in the traditional way, but with a spirit of realism. And we did that with use of micro-bead weaving techniques. The end product looks 3D, sculptural, but also as if it’s a print. Imagine the power of craft.
Chanakya recently worked with UK startup Fevvers to create plant-based feathers for Stella McCartney that were presented at the Paris Fashion Week.
Every year, over one million ostriches are killed for leather and feathers. So this collaboration was based on the idea to find a solution that offered the movement, lightness and luxury of feathers without violence. Our role (at Chanakya) was to incorporate the feathers into the garment. Essentially, find ways to strengthen the material (of feathers) and embroider it in a way that allows it to be used within fashion. We’re still working on perfecting the prototype so that it becomes a permanent solution to stop bird-killing.
Are you working on more such solutions?
Yes, every season. Like we’ve looked at unconventional materials like silicon waste or pins and turned them into something that Maison Margiela or Moschino has used. We’ve used raffia, a trendy material abroad, and we made it with date palm waste. Chorus has sequins made from flattened glass bottles.
So making eco-friendly materials isn’t as big a challenge as many brands make them out to be?
There are firms doing great work. There are some in Arunachal Pradesh and in the north that are working with fabrics made using milk and soya waste. There is innovation happening in India for anyone really willing to opt for something clean. It’s just that a slightly higher premium one has to pay for it, and the informed consumer is ready to pay for it.
As the world talks about India’s craft knowledge, the interest among artisans towards their own craft is reducing. Would you agree?
One undisputed fact is that we have inherited an unbroken lineage of craft. Today, India has the widest, most skilled artisanal base across genres of handcraftsmanship. The rest of the world has lost out or they are in the process of it. So, India today stands as a reservoir of craft knowledge. Even within fashion, there’s so much variety. There are villages in Andhra (Pradesh) dedicated to just crochet. That’s one side of the story.
On the other end of the spectrum, the awareness or the connectivity to craft has been lost in our pursuit of what the West is doing. It’s this lack of understanding that has now led to craft communities not being patronised. And the lack of patronage obviously then leads to them not being able to continue their craft. This is what is maybe causing craftspeople to rethink what the next generation should do. Plus, the living wages need to make sense to them.
Has the perception of the world changed with time when it comes to Indian craft?
The world comes to us, Indians, because we have the highest level of skill. It’s not a price-driven or a labour-driven decision. It’s an excellence-driven decision. Within our own country, people need to understand and celebrate this, and honour craftspeople because in many ways, they form our country’s identity.
The way the world is able to understand and view us largely depends on how we are able to explain ourselves to the world. We need to look within rather than outward to give craft and the maker of craft what they want and deserve.
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