Chennai-based designer organises unique ‘golu’ art installation

CHENNAI: Sruthi Kannath, a Chennai-based bridal designer has put together a first-of-its-kind blouse golu art installation at her store Sruthi Kannath in Nungambakkam. The event was inaugurated by Carnatic singer Sudha Ragunathan in the presence of other socialites. The idea is to highlight the importance of sustainability while also showing the hard work that goes behind their designer wear.

The dissected ensemble art installation ideated by Ashwin Kashyap, brand specialist of Sruthi Kannath aims to portray the nuances that go into the craftsmanship of their hand-embroidered bridal lehengas. “Since it’s Navaratri, I thought why not display our craftsmanship through golu’s padi (steps) concept. I ran this idea through Sruthi and she immediately began working on it with the team,” he says.

But there’s a hiccup, Sruthi wanted to eliminate the use of silk and make it entirely sustainable. Ashwin says that was the biggest challenge for the team. “We would come up with a design and then we would realise, ‘No, it’s not sustainable’ and we had to discuss and work on it again,” he chuckles.

“We replaced silk with banana silk and used fabrics like satin, net mesh, cotton nets and other fabrics that are easy to break down from an ecological perspective. Material wastage is common during production, we have repurposed that into goti tassels for the lehenga,” says Sruthi.

Taking the opportunity to spread the word and importance of sustainability through the art installation, the store, Sruthi Kannath at Nungambakkam will be organising a ten-day talk from September 26 to October 5 featuring several experts from the wedding industry like photographer Amar Ramesh, vegan makeup artist Samantha Jagan, jeweller Kavya Potluri, designer Hafiz Khan among others. The talk will also be streamed live on their Instagram handle.

“It’s going to be sundal, chai and conversations,” Ashwin laughs at the impulsive tagline he came up with for the talk and says that people can call and check with the store for slot availability before walking in.

The art installation will go on till October 5. For more details contact 9962290988.