Manik Bagh Collection

Designer Muzaffar Ali’s collection of Maheshwaris for Rehwa Society pays tribute to an art deco jewel, the Manik Bagh Palace

Prerna Makhija 

     

First Published: Thu, May 16 2013. 09 43 PM IST

A sari from the Manik Bagh Collection.

In 1929, German architect Eckart Muthesius met Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar Bahadur in Oxford, UK. Over the next couple of years Muthesius, commissioned by the soon-to-become maharaja, built and furnished Indore’s famous Manik Bagh Palace in the art deco style of the time.

Muthesius worked with cult artists and designers like Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Le Corbusier and Louis Sognot, using luxurious ebony, chrome, metal, steel, glass and wood pieces to convert the palace into a modern marvel. Although the palace now houses the office of the commissionerate of customs, central excise and service tax, Indore, and most of its antiques have gone under the hammer, designer Muzaffar Ali hopes to keep its memory alive through a new collection of Maheshwaris designed for the non-profit Rehwa Society in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh.

Ali, a close friend of Richard Shivaji Rao Holkar, is best known as a film-maker responsible for screen gems like Gaman and Umrao Jaan and for his fashion design label Kotwara, which he launched in 1990 with wife Meera. Ali says he met Richard in the early 1970s and drove around Madhya Pradesh, with Indore and Maheshwar as the base. “As an artist and with similar moorings, it (the Manik Bagh Palace) made an interesting impression on me,” says Ali. “I was intrigued by the richness and detail of design and texture.”

Ever since the Holkar family set up the Rehwa Society in 1979, designers have been invited to work with Rehwa’s weavers in Maheshwar. Designers like Rakesh Thakore, Rohit Bal and Ritu Kumar have even incorporated the traditional weaves from Rehwa in their collections. Sunanda Dawar, design head of the Rehwa Society, says designer collaborations have been few and far between in the recent past but the society plans to revive the trend, starting with the Manik Bagh Collection.

The limited-edition collection of saris and dupattas has borrowed heavily from popular deco motifs that are mixed and matched in multiple colours, some bright, others more sombre. Dawar says the new collection has broken away from the traditional reds, oranges and pinks associated with Maheshwaris. It has new colour combinations like grey and yellow, and beige with purple and black.

Since the cotton-silk weaves used were extremely delicate, the designer opted for self-on-self printing of intricate scallops, fans, fish bones, diamonds, squares, bricks and triangles to create a three-dimensional feel. Dawar says printing on Maheshwaris is tricky and often looks artificial, but promises that with this collection buyers will be hard-pressed to distinguish between weave and print. Borders done exclusively in thread work too make use of geometric shapes.

The exhibition will tour New Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai. But Ali says the collection will remain a work-in-progress and new styles will be added once Rehwa has gauged audience reaction.

Rehwa presents the Manik Bagh Collection, 17-19 May, 11am-7pm, at Kotwara, DLF Emporio mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi; 24-26 May, 11am-7pm, at Kotwara House, 10, Kaiserbagh, Lucknow; and 1-3 August, 11am-7pm, at Artisans’, Kala Ghoda, Colaba, Mumbai (22673040). Saris start at Rs.6,000. For details, visit www.facebook.com/rehwasociety or call 09810259503.