The six yards of charm

Simple and elegant is the style much in preference today. Gujarat based designer Pradeep Pillai designs sarees keeping in mind the tradition, and his signature style is all about being beautifully simple and elegant. He has launched his designs at a store in Hyderabad.

Shining light on his sarees, he shares, " I have passed out from NIFT in 1999; since then, I have been working with handicraft sector, I was doing few consultancy projects and while doing them, I got to work with a few weavers in Bihar.

In 2011, I started on my own and since then I am working closely with the designing and weaving sector."

Regarding the store in Hyderabad, he shares, "Since last two years, I have been selling through the brand called Kanakavalli, a Chennai-based line of stores, which now has a presence in Hyderabad"

"In India, we do not follow fashion cycles like in the west. Here, people buy clothes if they like them, and continue to wear them. They do not throw away the clothes after six months or after the season ends.

Saree is something that if you buy it today, you will keep on wearing it; like a life time investment. A mother gives it to her daughter, and it moves on from generation to generation.

It has nothing to do with fashion cycles. Then, it sounded logical and I started working on sarees and went handloom."

Handloom is no joke when it comes to the weaving part of it, and to make designs most preferred by the people.

He shares, "I use a lot of geometrics in my designs; the look is very classic and the motifs would be much more contemporary, so they appeal to both older and younger generations."

"I work with desi tusser, and not the tusser you find in the market, which is Chinese yarn. I use the local thread and so it drapes nicely and customers keep on buying it.

The production is low, because, there is a lot of hard work put into it. I only have few weavers, who make these sarees so, that's one of my specialities. I also work with linen, cotton and silk for my sarees."

He wishes his clients to wear his sarees more often and not restrict it to one odd ocassion. "I do not make elaborate sarees; I concentrate on the regular ones.

Elaborate sarees can be worn once, but I want my customers to wear them always. My designs are such that they are not very loud."

Moving forward Pradeep will be coming up with a contemporary line. He says, "I will coming up with my own clothing line, using my own textiles.

I will get the textile hand woven. Nothing would be western, but more of contemporary in design. It would be something that you can wear anywhere and everywhere."