Sonam Dubal presents hidden voices and ancient sounds

Spicezee Bureau

Sonam Dubal’s 2011 line – Sanskar is a tribute to the languages eroded through time. It focuses on the simultaneity of different cultures, separate in their own worlds, yet juxtaposed. It is the story of ancient India with its multiplicity of languages, design, textiles and people. The collection speaks of secret languages that created magic and addressed the roots of our cultural being, incorporated into the story that unfolds through the current compilation. Coats, capers and embroidered jackets with ancient scripts like Pali and Dravidian surface in languages that have lost their voices. These have been reworked in primal geometrics on velvet bodies like asymmetrical capes, formal evening jackets and pants. Instruments that have lost their sound have been conceptualised as decorative motifs in silk for kaftans, dresses and wraps. Mirrors have been worked on as a symbolic language of dots in circles, triangles and concentric circles. Mirrors and tattoos, central in the ‘Rabari’ tradition from Rajasthan, work as symbols that reflect back to us what we have lost. The multiplicity of our spiritual traditions can be seen in the flow of Dervish style coats and long cut-worked jackets. Velvet is the primary textile for the coming winter, in black and tonalities of gray and brown. Colour in the collection is very controlled mainly coffee, charcoal, gray, bordeaux and tonalities of black, creating a magical winter. The philosophy behind the collection is ‘movement’, in an inward journey enveloping concepts of universal idioms. The symbolic use of nature’s elements with the hidden whisper of preserving and protecting life, underlies the play of ‘falling’ leaves and wood beads. Eloquent embroideries emerge in contemporary styled jackets - for the Sonam Dubal Woman. Patronage of his jackets by women who are eclectic and evolved and have supported the line through the years include Natascha Weir (wife of Bob Weir of ‘Grateful Dead’). Catherine Zeta Jones, Leslie Coburn, (Director of ‘Americano Casino’), Gail Percy (anthropologist), Sonam Kapoor, Monikangana Dutta, Tabu, Madhu Trehan, Karen Anand and Malvika Tiwari to name a few. (You may want to view on Facebook : Sanskar by Sonam Dubal –section Eclectic Women in Sanskar) Enhancing the already existing track, is the prestigious showing on the Asia Society New York presented on October 6 th, 2010. It was very well received and added one more milestone to the impressive body of work. Dissolving tragic identities simultaneously with the wheel of change, Sonam Dubal’s collection emotes the need to nurture individuality in thought, life and language. So many languages have been forgotten as have old scripts and the way language was used as symbols in certain cultures. Over the centuries, we lost our heterogeneity. This collection of Hidden Voices, emanating Ancient Sounds recreate through design and silhouettes the panoramic depth of our culture. Everywhere, people want to speak. dress and do the same thing. Hence, there is a cultural deforestation that needs to be opposed!