B.F.A. Fashion Design
Instagram | LinkedIn | Email
From the Heart of India to San Francisco’s Catwalk
Designing an entire fashion collection requires enormous inspiration, a source of energy that will be poured into new designs and ideas. B.F.A. Fashion Design student Jagmehak Mandhan got hers from the heart of her home country, India. Everything that means “home” to her, like her mother, her parents’ wedding, their roots and traditions, her own personal life experiences, and a special detail: peacocks. Those experiences are ingrained in her daily life.
Mandhan was born in an area rich in culture and tradition. The designer conveyed her country’s traditions with the lavish color palette of a peacock, the national bird of India. She used technical boning structures to depict the wings of the peacocks.
The crown jewel is her mother’s wedding dress, which Mandhan will include in her collection, adorned with hand-embroidered Aari work, an ancient and traditional Indian form of fabric embellishment based on the Tambour embroidery technique. Mandhan also put her personal touch on the garment by making changes to fit her collection.
Her thesis collection’s unique features are the materials, all sourced and dyed in India, and traditional accessories from her home country. Among them are Chanderi, a lightweight cotton with gold dobby patterns, and Dola, a silk blend fabric known for its drape, mainly used in sarees.
Words by Maria Martin, B.F.A. Fashion Communication and Styling
