DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT
TIMELESS APPEAL
From the walls of an ancient Mexican pyramid
and the metallic skin of burnt aubergine to the
aromas from an iron skillet with slow-roasted
bell peppers, the texture of a road surface, and
colours of a sunset, it is the ‘ordinary, everyday’
things that inspire Padmaja’s designs. Drawing
from these diverse elements, she designs
garments with classic cuts and fits—those that
are stylish and timeless—for style, comfort, and
fulfilment. She does not create keeping a current
trend in mind, or design for a particular season
or market. Her design philosophy is to look in
the eye of the odds and create clothes that are
simple and sophisticated, beautiful and imperfect,
classic and contemporary, shiny and textured,
young and mindful, strong and graceful, grey and
avant-garde, slow and not fully controllable.
Padmaja remarks, “As we work right from the
yarn stage, a tremendous amount of care and
thought goes into the weaving, designing, and
making, to ensure that our garments are not just
stylish but extremely comfortable and versatile
too. They can be worn with equal ease by women
of different physiques, and hand-washed at
home. In these times of ‘use and throw’, we find
a true sense of achievement when we hear back
from our customers, who treasure the clothes
purchased from us and continue to use them for
several years. The energy of a slow, handcrafted
garment is completely different from that which
is mass-produced.”
SILENT, MEDITATIVE,
STRONG, ENIGMATIC, AND
REFLECTIVE, PADMAJA
FINDS THE USE OF LINES
IN ART OR ON CLOTH
MUSICAL, AND EVEN
POETIC.
QUIET HIGHLIGHT
Apart from engaging in weaves and different
textures, Padmaja works with embroideries too.
Perhaps the element that speaks through her
garments, albeit in a soft voice, is the rich and
unusual surface treatment that majorly comprises
lines. Silent, meditative, strong, enigmatic, and
reflective, Padmaja finds the use of lines in art
or on cloth musical, and even poetic. She takes
inspiration from master artists such as Nasreen
Mohamedi and Antony Gormley, both of whom
work extensively with lines.
Lines in her work are rendered as weaves, or
as pintucks through machine stitches or hand-
embroidered kantha. And while they have a
certain sense of order, being handmade gives
them a slight unevenness, which balances the
symmetry, revealing the finesse of the maker and
celebrating human vulnerability, all in the midst of
structure. In this way, from the natural fibre yarn
to hand-weaving and hand-stitching, from the
tactile solace of the cloth on skin to the comfort of
cuts and rhythmic lines on the surface, Padmaja’s
garments gently spur the wearer to think about
them, to be mindful of garments bought
and worn.
APPAREL
I
June 2019
I
95