The vibrancy, boldness, lust for life and grit that were contained in the life and the works of legendary painter Frida Kahlo, has had the world inspired over many years now, with many artists being proud of their Fridamania, thereby turning Frida herself into a metaphor for art and life.
To bring the elements from Frida’s much-celebrated life to Chennai, well-known fashion designer Shilpa Vummiti is presenting ‘Kahloscope’, a one-of-its-kind initiative, where she aims to bring fashion and art together.
One of the works from the series
In collaboration with photographer Sunder Ramu, this project will showcase Shilpa’s latest summer collection — full of bold colours and floral adornments (fashion statements that the feminist icon, Frida is much known for) through images, which tell the painter’s story. “Sunder and I were discussing and we came up with this idea, where we wanted to do a whole series based on Frida’s life. We got tired and bored of what everyone’s been doing in the city with fashion, which is mostly repetitive, dull and plain. We wanted to change that. So, we will be showcasing photographs that depict Frida’s life, while incorporating my designs into it. One can expect a lot of flowers, surrealism, bold silhouettes and a very colourful range — all of which bring out the strength in an independent woman who loves to make a fashion statement,” shares Shilpa.
The title, ‘Kahloscope’, as Sunder shares, brings together Kahlo and a kaleidoscope, wherein one can look through to have bright, colourful and varied insights into Frida’s life.
Unlike many fashion collection launches, there will not be models walking the ramp to showcase the designs at Kahloscope, but just the pictures doing the talking. “Of late, with many taking up photography, everyone seems to be copying each other mostly and it’s not adding to any creativity. We wanted to do something that the city hasn’t seen before. If one tends to notice outside our country, all the fashion shows done abroad have a tale to tell. We just didn’t want to shoot with elements from Frida Kahlo’s life, but also depict her life through our series. Her art, personal life, dressing sense, sexuality, confidence and her strength — all are a part of this story. We’ve also explored the angle of how her relationships had a correlation to the kind of art that she created,” elaborates Sunder Ramu, who has been working on this series along with Shilpa for almost a year now.
From a technical perspective, shooting with bold colours was also a challenge, Sunder adds. If one likes the designs they see in the series, which will be launched on March 17 at Humming Room, Shilpa, who specialises in bespoke clothing, will recreate the designs in fabrics like pure silks, cotton, art silks etc.
To add another dimension to this project’s surrealism, the series will also exhibit terrariums and air plants from Savage by Shaun ‘Dsa, which look like a world in themselves.
