Sense & Sustainability

This past Friday night, I had the opportunity to showcase my latest collection "Ticket to Ikkat" at a fundraiser for a documentary film about eye clinics for the poor in South India. Treehugger was there and loved the dresses! Here are photographs from the show and a link to our shop if you are interested one of the dresses. Special thanks to photographer Thomas Concordia for the runway shots.

For the hair and make-up, the producers wanted something that was more flamboyant than a heavy eye and a neutral mouth. So I thought about the fabrics of the dresses, their history and the special occasions that would warrant the wrapping of such beautiful saris. (The dresses are all made from saris from Orissa.) Weddings seemed the most obvious, and the brides hailing from Orissa wear ornate wedding make-up that highlights their eyes and cheek bones. I wanted the models to channel tradition and the future at the same time. So I asked the make-up artist to do a simpler version in metallic colors, and the brilliant hair artist already suggested gold leaf in a up-do for the hair.

I think this is how I would dress if I visited James Cameron's Pandora. Not sure if I would do this look again, but it was fun for the occasion. It was a rewarding challenge to straddle the folksy and elegant.