Kalpavriksha. Tree of life. It is a motif in cultures around the world, from Buddhism and cosmology, to Hinduism and symbolises the interconnectedness of all living things. Today it is rendered in an eggshell-white micro-crochet panel at Chanakya's atelier, suspended from a wall in its downtown workshop in Mumbai. Casting a honeycomb of light through its filigree openwork, it is like an exquisite web spun from cotton. Nearby, workers from the atelier, known as some of the foremost textile and embroidery artisans in India, are in meditative states doubled over their respective works. They're demonstrating a handful of the 300-plus handcrafts that Chanakya holds expertise in. There is micro-beading and appliqué, zardozi, a kind of metal bullion stitch, zari, an embroidery that traditionally uses real gold or silver for brocade applied to saris, and kantha or traditional quilting.
Like the idea of the tree, the crafts they practice connect them to something larger, a notion Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri couldn't stop thinking about as she formulated what we are here in India to see: Dior's pre-fall ‘23 collection, staged at the colossal Gateway of India monument. “Throughout history, textile was so important for different communities to have a dialogue between them,” she says. by Clare Hunter, who she met and whose ideas on craft as a culturally agnostic tradition and universal mode of expression stayed with her. “It's an important reference in my work because sometimes in fashion, we forget.”
