MANILA, Philippines - Filipino international lifestyle designer PJ Arañador presented his spring-summer 2011 resort collection in a world-premiere gala fashion show in New Delhi, India, as sponsored by the Ministry of Textiles Government of India through the Development Commissioner for Handicrafts, Export Promotions Council for Handicrafts and the National Center for Design and Product Development India.
The show, dubbed “Eco-Fashion,” featured handcrafted and sustainable jewelry and contemporary wear using traditional Indian needlecrafts. It created a new platform for Indian handcrafted textiles and handicraft embellishments through the popularity of the global green fashion movement.
The designer developed handcrafted apparel and accessories collections from craft clusters all over India. New line concepts and design sensibilities galvanized the design direction. It strives to develop a distinct Indian contemporary look based on forthcoming forecasts.
With focus on artisanal crafts, the collection seeks opportunities in global requirements for green manufacturing, where it uses less or zero electricity. It also addresses social responsibility by bridging the high-fashion design business with production from skilled rural communities, a trend common to many global designers.
The show will tour Europe to promote the Indian green fashion movement to the world.
A major accomplishment for a Filipino designer whose body of work spans Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, the Caribbean and South America, PJ Arañador celebrates 12 years of professional design services in India through the show, which many Indians described as creating history in India. Top models from Europe, Russia, South America and India donned the creations for foreign buyers to relate to the image-building project.
Arañador’s design philosophy has always dwelled on exquisite crafts, which create a sense of origin for his designs. In this collection, his themes are on nature and the emergence of the green economy, where fashion has become responsible for creating jobs among marginalized and forgotten rural craftsmen.
The designer did ample research on centuries-old Indian needlecrafts including the most expensive hand embellishments such as gold embroidery called “zari,” a technique meant for Indian royalty of the past. For the purpose of modern scales of economy, embellishments were graphically engineered rather than overworked.
Modern applications of digital printing graphically engineered with traditional folk painting were introduced. Innovations such as bamboo jewelry were highlighted in his works on the theme Eternity, where the most exquisite peacock dominated the theme done in hand-scissored faux feathers made from raw silk rather than using real ones. Handmade footwear includes embroidered Indian “chappals.”
Exquisite textiles such as handloomed silk, jute, linen, organic cotton and modern blends were done in spring-summer 2011 colors dominated by trendy tinted whites, blurring grays and mid-tone metallics, not forgetting the summer brights for which India is known, being a country that worships colors.
The designer is the head creative designer of the National Center for Design and Product Development in New Delhi, India, where he has a team of 12 professional Filipino senior designers mentoring junior Indian designers in home, fashion and industrial design in order to service the requirements of over 8,000 craft exporters and 70 million craftsmen all over India.