
BB: Can you tell us more about your ‘Demoiselles’ collection and Picasso as the inspiration behind it?
Salita Nanda: My collection is inspired by the cubist painting ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ by Picasso, it is my interpretation featuring 5 women in the painting. I centered the entire collection around these empowered women and gave them virtues. There are also these African undertones in the painting. When you research the painting there are lots of scripts around African masks that are depicted in the painting, so taking those influences and undertones, I have used African symbols that basically depict the virtues of these women. They depict the virtues of love, power, strength and freedom. And if you look at the other prints and African motifs as well they all sort of amalgamate together.

BB: The color palette and prints in your collection are an appreciation to the value of artisanal craft. Is that true?
Salita Nanda: Yes, I basically put a lot of emphasis on the way my garments are crafted. If you look through some of our runway garments, they were very structured, they were held up by bone wire and those are not easy to craft so there is a lot of craftsmanship that goes in, it takes anything between one or two weeks for a single piece of garment to be made.

BB: How did you land upon Picasso being your inspiration?
Salita Nanda: I think I was drawn to the geometry, the painting and the cubism aspect of his work. I thought it would go well with the theme. Basically we produce these textiles- these 3D fabrics have actually been made in the 3D printer with the use of Nylon. It’s the rawest form of nylon which developed this fabric. If you look at the texture of the fabric it’s all geometric in nature and I felt like these two would go really well together.

BB: Your collection keeps referring to women empowerment and the painting in question is that of women at a brothel. So what is the connotation there?
Salita Nanda: So again the collection was my interpretation of the painting, so although the painting is around this unconventional idea of women in a brothel I think my interpretation of it was showcasing the strong, empowered women who are comfortable in their own skin and being themselves.

BB: Tell us something about the ‘sculpt’ aspect of your collection.
Salita Nanda: I think keeping in theme with the whole idea of sculpt, the garments were very structured, very boxy in nature, they were also kept in tone with the painting. If you look at the way women in his paintings are drawn they are very masculine, they are very structured and the entire collection has an architectural feel to it and goes well with the idea of sculpt.
Written by Khubi Amin Ahmed on 27th Mar 2015