On a quest for comfort in fashion

"I am a quiet person and so my clothes are also quiet!" says Jaipur-based designer Chinar Farooqui of the clothing brand Injiri. Her clothes come directly off the handlooms, are hand-weaved using only organic products, and are completely sustainable. Her weavers are spread across India - from Gujarat to West Bengal. Her specialty is as much in comfortable clothing as in cosy home linen.

Ask her about the unusual names both she and her brand have, Chinar says, "My parents loved the beautiful colours of chinar trees and named me after them." And about her brand name Injiri, the designer says, she has always been fascinated with different cultures and stories from all over the world right from her childhood. It was in one such stint that she encountered the word 'Injiri', which means 'clothes from India'. In early days, the famous checkered textiles from Madras were exported to West Africa, and the natives, especially the Kalabaris from the Nigerian delta, referred to these South Indian textiles as Injiri. "I liked that word and its association with India. From the beginning, I wanted Indian textiles to travel all over the world, be loved, appreciated and identified by all,'' says Chinar.

Though a first-generation designer in her family, Chinar credits her mother for her own interest in clothes. With her father working as an Indian police personnel in Rajasthan, the family was living in 'chotu chotu' villages where he was posted. Her mother enjoyed looking up at the colourful clothes with their intricate embroidery and designs displayed at the weekly village bazaar. And Chinar always accompanied her mother on these weekly stints and so germinated her interest in hand weaves, colours, organic clothing and the stories attached to them.

"My mother would always ask the seller the reason for the particular colour or design the weaver had used and they would narrate a story behind it. Even my clothes, if you look closely, will narrate a story of either the particular weave, design, motif, colour, or the yarn from the place it was made,'' elucidates the designer, who graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Baroda. And then her interest in textiles drew her to do Masters in textile designing from NID.

According to the designer, most of the customers just walk in and buy products for their appearances or the feel. If these customers would just pause and ask the shopkeepers as to why a particular motif, colour or a combination is used, they would be pleased to hear the story behind that piece, and then even buying a simple apparel will become an experience.

In fact, this is one of the reasons that Chinar's clothes have that classic touch of timeless age. She says, "I do extensive research whenever I plan any new design. For instance, I will look for references for any particular architectural pattern, or any particular event in ancient times for my designs. Only then do I use it in my own style by keeping the aesthetics of the original design in mind but with a new touch. In India, as you travel, you will find every region has a specific weave, colour and design. From a piece of cloth, one can easily identify the origin of that particular material - you have bandhani from Kutch, jamdani from Bengal, ikat from Odisha, and so on. So, it's great fun to study each of them separately and form a new design."

Her clothes don't have Indian impressions only. Chinar says that whenever she travels, she loves to spend a majority of her time in the local museums, libraries, and study clothes there. Besides India, her most impressive experience has been travelling across Europe. "If one studies textiles of different countries, one will find a definite link between them, especially the handmade and handcrafted ones. And so, I like to bring in those influences in our textiles and give my clothes a universal appeal," explains the designer.

In her quest to perfect the designs, she spends a lot of time with the weavers too. Initially, traditional weavers were reluctant to incorporate her designs as they would need to change their style, but over the years, her gentle talk, persistence and the surety of continuous employment with a definite order of a large number of handloom clothes, her cluster of weavers willingly incorporate any new designs from her.

Her clothes are for comfort wear. She mostly works with cotton, muslin, etc, and her identity is that her clothes don't enhance body contours. Her clothes look simple, but subtly tell you about the grace and comfort in them. There are no age restrictions on her clothes either. A 15-year-old to a 70-year-old can wear her clothes and still look smart and stylish. In just nine years, since the inception of her brand Injiri, Chinar's clothes are being marketed from more than 300 outlets all over the world. Speaks volumes about this designer's universal appeal.

Chinar Farooqui is certainly happy that currently a lot of interest is being generated for the handloom sector. And many designers, including the newbies in the business of clothes, fashion and style have started talking about this sector. "But I am hoping that this interest is genuine and not because it is trendy to talk about handlooms today! No doubt, a lot needs to be done to keep the handloom sector alive, but we can also imbibe so much from our weavers, handicrafts people, and their knowledge. Every designer would need a lot of time and interest to sustain and keep this alive for the future generations," says the designer.