Meet PADMAJA KRISHNAN
Padmaja, an alumnus from the National Institute of fashion Technology, New Delhi, has had solo as well as group exhibits of her work in several countries including UK, Japan, USA, Hong Kong and Portugal.
Selected to showcase her clothes at zero-waste: fashion repatterned, a specially curated exhibition of international designers at the A + D gallery, Chicago, March 2011, she has also exhibited at Ecochic Asia, October 2010, Hong Kong the first dedicated fashion show ever held that exclusively celebrated Asian designers' contributions towards improved environmental and/or social conditions within the fashion industry.
Padmaja was featured along with renowned international textile artists/designers in an exhibition of fashion clothes titled “Transformation: Material . Magic . Memory”, at Hong Kong Polytech University, March 2010. She was selected to represent India at Experimenta Design, Lisbon, September 2009, an international biennale dedicated to design, architecture and contemporary culture. An India finalist at the 2008 IYFEY entrepreneur search by British Council, her clothes was showcased as a part of New World design at the London Design Festival in 2007.
Her contemporary take on kaantha embroidery art of Bengal, has won her the best textile creation – grand Prix at the International quilt festival, Birmingham in 2007.
Artist statement:
‘The inspiration comes from the unexpected, from looking at the environment around with insatiable eyes, experimenting with office tools, daydreaming and a wish to hide the limitations of the techniques used when making clothes’ – Koromo by Jurgen Lehl
The approach to design is intellectually reductive, reexamining and reducing details to produce unpretentious simplicity.
The endeavor is to create objects of excellence that are timeless and hopefully will give pride to the maker as much as to the user.
Quoting Ruchir Joshi:
" The great Hindustani vocalist Kumar Gandharva used to say `most people sing the full face of a Raag, I always try to sing the profile.’
Whose shirt is it, that’s been flipped over so?
Is it a memento from a close friend that someone can’t bear to be away from?
Is it linus’ blanket?
Is it an erring boyfriend’s favorite piece twisted?
But again, if the humor is never very far, neither is beautifully disciplined understatement. In the underwater circus of kitschy excess that makes up a lot of the Indian fashion scene today, she confidently holds her line. And her color. And her stitching. The whimsical shoal of kaantha stitches on the shoulder of a kurta is balanced by a classical notation of buttons, it takes a few seconds, a triple-take to realize the sleeves and body of a skirt (yes, her skirts have sleeves!) are slightly different colored, made from two normally warring fabrics brought into harmony.
There is literally and metaphorically a layering here, that is unmistakably Padmaja’s – a couture-handwriting that is unique and beyond the superficially elegant. She is precocious, wicked, and yet, without any heaviness, very serious. In her design, tradition is deeply respected even as it’s brought into a close dance with the contemporary and the futuristic: a frayed hem left open refers simultaneously to the weaver’s loom in mid-shuttle, to grunge, to old Vreeland saying `never explain, never apologize.’
The fascinating thing about Padmaja’s work is that she does the same with textiles and clothes. Whether it’s an item of everyday use like Jholaa or an elaborate dress Padmaja takes it and turns it inside out and finds the profile where most designers would embellish the full face. Her brilliant riff on the common Jholaa that she constructs out of a shirt is one such example: the side-bag is at once recognizable as itself and also as an upside-down shirt with the sleeves forming the shoulder-strap. There is beauty here, but it’s combined with mischievous wit and, often, a mysterious narrative."If you live in Mumbai (India), this is your chance to witness one of her upcoming exhibitions: SLOW.Useless
 |
| model ::: Meeta Vasisht, photograhy ::: Koushik Sarkar |
To re-look at all that’s useless and discarded, to choose techniques that are slow and not fully controllable, to look for effects in defects, to find the weakness of the machine, to use repeats that are bigger than the field of vision or just to cheat the unsuspecting eye are some of the ways Padmaja uses to break the tedium of mass manufacture and to create subversive, avant garde clothing that can be labeled classic and quirky at the same time.
 |
| model ::: Meeta Vasisht, photograhy ::: Koushik Sarkar |
‘wild silks: khadi linens: malkha cottons: kosa saris redefined as asymmetric tunics: kaantha scraps: hand sewn techniques: rags: deconstructed skirts, seamless jackets, classic kurtas, hand woven men’s pants– This exhibition will feature her explorations with the ‘SLOW’ and the ‘useless’.
On Facebook: Padmaja
Her blog: TransitDesign
You can email Padmaja on krishnan.padmaja@gmail.com or contact on 0091-9930272339.
