Sewing a design

Creative output

Nearly everyone wants to be different. They want to ‘stand out’, be ‘unique’ and escape the so-called ordinary and mundane. But hardly anyone does. Malika Shukla, however, fought hard to get off the mainstream wagon. Even as a kid, she knew she wanted to stand apart from the rest.

That’s why she started ‘M Design Studio’ when she came to the City. “I come from a small town so it was likely that my friend and I would end up with the same clothes and designs. I didn’t want this;  I knew I wanted to be different. So I’d stitch my own clothes. But since there was only one store that sold dress material, there was a chance I’d still end up with the same thing. That’s when I started making my clothes out of curtains and bedsheets,” she says. This innovative streak lasted and now she has moved to working on accessories.

Malika makes a colourful range of crochet earrings, jhumkas, bracelets and bangles. Although the art of crochet is pretty common, she has given the items a unique touch. “A friend narrated a story of how someone gave her earrings made of pulses and when she took it out of her cupboard, moths had eaten the entire thing! I don’t want the same thing to happen to my works; I don’t want them to fray after a few uses. So I have made a mixture that I use as coating. They will last for at least two to three years now,” she explains. This ‘coating’ is nothing but a watery mixture of Fevicol and maida. “You can’t use this coating on the surface because it affects the thread, but it can be used behind. Instead, I coat the surface with just Fevicol and water. I did try using varnish once but the smell wouldn’t go away so I stopped.”

A fashion designer by profession, Malika decided to start this venture when she came to Bengaluru a few years ago. “I stopped working as a fashion designer when I came here because I didn’t know many people. Instead, I began teaching at various institutions. But that got boring because the students didn’t show enough interest. So, I started experimenting with various mediums, crochet being one of them.” Why does she focus on crochet? “When I was working on a crochet earring, a neighbour came in and asked me to make her some and even her friends like it. Soon, I was trying out different styles and learnt more about crochet,” she adds.

She pays a lot of attention to photography and how the items are placed. This helps her market her products better. For details, call 9448265904.