DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT
MINDFUL, MEDITATIVE FASHION
Mumbai-based designer Padmaja Krishnan’s collections speak softly of mindfulness in
designing, buying, and wearing garments. Brinda Gill writes.
“Padmaja is a quiet, modern design voice from
India that combines classic and contemporary
sensibilities to create liveable, loveable, and
breathable women’s clothing that is beyond
the superficially elegant,” says Mumbai-based
designer Padmaja Krishnan of her eponymous
label. She designs shirts, tunics, dresses, stoles,
skirts, pants, saris, and blouses that are carefully
handcrafted using handwoven fabrics made of
natural fibres namely cotton, silk, linen, and their
blends. These are awash in soothing colours and
styles that are infused with simplicity, elegance,
and timelessness.
THE CALL OF TEXTILES
Padmaja grew up in an academically inclined
family in Kolkata, where the cultural ethos of
the city instilled in her a deep interest in textiles,
clothing, and art from a very young age. The
1980s were the years of limited retail of garments,
which meant buying fabric and getting it stitched
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by the local tailor. This would take her on errands
with her mother to the local khadi shop, where
she would indulge in colour, texture, and textile,
and savour the opportunity to observe and be a
part of the magical process that turns fabric into
clothes. She would collect pictures from foreign
magazines—as there were hardly any Indian
magazines dedicated to fashion in those years—
and she would wonder how she could get the
local tailor to make something chic enough to
her satisfaction.
While experimenting with textiles was her
favourite hobby, Padmaja went on to major in
Accountancy/Economics, and was preparing
to become a Chartered Accountant. By then,
she found herself enjoying sewing garments—a
skill that she had learnt informally from a
tailoring school in the neighbourhood. A little
encouragement from her sister led to Padmaja
taking the National Institute of Fashion Technology
(NIFT) exams. She completed a course in fashion