Fashion & Art: a Potent Potion!

By Beverly Pereira

Photography: Courtesy Tarun Tahiliani & The Singh Twins

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Tarun Tahiliani’s Spring Summer 15 collection showcased at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer Resort 2015 features motifs, imagery and colours inspired by the celebrated art of the British-Indian Singh Twins...

Fashion and Art are not exactly strange bedfellows. Think Andy Warhol’s portrait of Yves Saint Lauren or Warhol’s iconic flowers that played muse to Prada’s Spring 2013 collection. More recently and closer to home, Tarun Tahiliani has collaborated with the internationally acclaimed Singh Twins, whose works of art play muse to his Lakme Fashion Week Spring Summer ‘15 collection.

The Singh Twins - Rabindra & Amrit                                   Tarun Tahiliani with his model Chitrangada Singh

The London-born, Liverpool-based Singh Twins, Amrit and Rabindra, describe their work as ‘past modern’ as opposed to Post Modern, portraying their Indian and British identities through the application of eastern and western aesthetics. Using motifs that represent British Asian life, cityscapes and pop culture, their work is tinged with the personal and the political and can be viewed as a social commentary with tongue-in-cheek humour.

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Hugely inspired by this melange, the designer first showed the ready-to-wear fashion line at the Wills India Fashion 2014 in Delhi as an ode to the Singh Twins’ art. He has now crafted garments for the Mumbai Lakme Fashion Week that bring to life the Twins’ well-received Indian miniature paintings, detailed black and white drawings and digital mixed medium art that explores an exclusive relationship with their home city of Liverpool.

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Tarun, himself, is known to skillfully blend the modern and the traditional and augmenting this with the Twins’ affinity for reviving the age-old technique of miniature painting and the juxtaposition of modern iconography has led to a range of digitally printed separates - kaftans, jewel tees, dhoti skirts, lungi skirts, leggings and dresses etc. Some colour palettes and elements have been creatively reworked by the designer to harmonise with the collection.

Wheel of Fortune                                                                                              Aquarius

The twins’ Wheel of Fortune has been incorporated as a whole on to a Tahiliani kurta, while decorative motifs from their black and white Aquarius have been reassembled and colourised within the design of another outfit. Silk kaftans, much like a vast canvas, allow the twins’ paintings to come through beautifully. Saris are rife with colours, featuring borders that carry Persian motifs borrowed from their paintings.

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His menswear also features text vignettes, stylised clouds and waves, borders and decorative motifs from several of the twins’ works, offering fashion lovers an artistic take-away, proving yet again that the art and fashion are strong counter-influencers!