Fashion designer Agnimitra Paul inaugurates 'Swadeshi Diwali' at Studio by Starmark

The collection on offer has an exhaustive spread of home decor and Diwali decorations sourced from various corners of India, starting from clay diyas to copper urlis to bandarwals, copper vessels, metal and glass tealight holders, enamelled candle holders and even carved stone items.

Talking fondly about Diwali, the eminent fashion designer said, "Diwali for me essentially means Kali Pujo and though it is slightly low key, compared to the excitement of Durga Puja, it is all about enjoying with the family, bursting crackers with my two sons, lighting diyas, etc.”

Describing the ‘Swadeshi Diwali’ collection at Studio by Starmark, Agnimitra Paul said, “I think this collection is fantastic and it just shows the amount of creativity that abounds in our country. It is high time we Indians realised the wealth our country offers in terms of art and crafts and not be proud of things we have brought from France or the US. Especially with the prevalent socio-political mood, where a call has been made to ban Chinese and Pakistani goods, it is the least that we could do to support indigenous arts and crafts. Why should we borrow from any other country in the first place, when we have so much potential and a rich heritage of our own?”

“I particularly loved the candles, the baskets, the terracotta urlis and copper utensils in this collection. They are all so pocket friendly and yet so innovative in their design. I keep coming back here regularly as it’s one of my favourite places to shop for my house. I love the Madhubani painted teacups and kettles as I myself use similar Indian art forms like Madhubani and Ikkat for my Indo-Western creations. All of this…I mean the electic collection here…appeals to me greatly.”

Speaking about her collection at Studio by Starmark, curator Minu Jatia said, "We came up with the name Swadeshi Diwali because it struck a patriotic chord. I came up with the idea of this collection a year back and realised it is tough to curate a show like this as it needs extensive travelling, convincing craftsmen and meeting the right craftspeople. There’s so much creativity in our country. In fact, all of us should do our bit and promote that which is truly ours."

Minu Jatia further stated, “Seventy per cent of the items in this store are Indian products. Production took a long time because many of the items are hand-painted or hand-finished or hand-made, and explaining the work to the artisans and the crafts people took a while. I decided to showcase my collection during Diwali because nothing can be more auspicious than this occasion and it symbolises the beginning of new things to come," she said.

“Key challenges about the Studio by Starmark collection,” said Minu Jatia, "was that the crafts people were not organised and not quite professional. Concepts like finishing or packaging were completely alien to them. Added to that was the fact that there were time constraints. Moreover, with their mind set, they would simply follow their own schedules and in many places, language proved to be a major problem.”

“As far as the collection goes,”  Minu Jatia added,  “it is very different as we have brought in the concept of home as a whole…combining both entertainment and puja elements together…a unique concept in retail curating, which  cannot readily be found in other places. Moreover, we wanted to exhibit handmade and hand crafted products. The stone urlis are hand crafted from real stone and even we also have copper vessels which are very healthy to cook in. Added to that is the fact that most of these items are indigenous sourced from all over the country…with diyas from Gujarat, Assam, Rajasthan, and brass artefacts from southern India.” 

(Reporting by Tanushree Sen)