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Daily Drawings

16th September 2016

After four hours of Cleopatra (1963), a mmust watch for all it’s Greco-Egyptian splendour, COSTUMES. And fierce eyeliner game.

Bardot flounce with a hint of rouge

Drama & Emerald

Cleopatra-esque, bardot with a hint of rouge and some dramatic emerald

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Oorja Makkad

Blogger | Designer
Millennial Sareephile
Indian Textile Aficionado

Musing on fashion, handicraft, sustainability narratives, cruelty-free beauty and eclectically homegrown design. Find me on Instagram @oorja.revivestyle.

#HANDCRAFTEDISBEAUTIFUL

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oorja.revivestyle

What's the sexy, boujee, ratchet way to say Mashru

What's the sexy, boujee, ratchet way to say Mashru but made with viscose modal fibres instead of traditional pure silk for brands?

Ans: 'Vegan Mashru Silk' 💅

Jokes aside, both are gorgeous and desirable of course. As per the budget you're comfortable spending. Just thought this deserved a caption 🤭😂

Mahadev 🌒 Artwork: @manuvratnair

Mahadev 🌒 Artwork: @manuvratnair

dainty night 🌓 in gold & silver handloom silks

dainty night 🌓 in gold & silver

handloom silks: both purchases from @fabindiaofficial
haslis with dainty trinkets in gold and silver, a creation of @aarna.store. I'm really enjoying Kalyani's minimalist, contemporary pieces this month! I think my move from boho, kitschy, Colaba Causeway jewellery to an elegant, delicate trinket loving lady is complete 🤭

dainty day ☀️ in gold and silver textiles: 1

dainty day ☀️ in gold and silver

textiles: 1) handloom linen blend checked saree, a purchase from Aindrila of @rahibyaindrila. I've mentioned her work often because I've shopped from her so much! She curates the most beautiful weaves on her IG store. The first saree I ever bought for myself was from here!
2) Kashidakari, a Kashmiri embroidered saree, purchased more than a decade ago in Manali from a local artisan shop. This saree has quite a story, if you've followed me for a long time you already know. I'll talk of it again soon, haha.

hasli with dainty trinkets in gold and in silver, both creations of the lovely @aarna.store 🤍

Of freebies, paid projects and influencers: It's a

the first digital artwork ever made of me was in a

the first digital artwork ever made of me was in a Kashmir shawl, what does that say? 🖤❤️ A gift from my godmother, purchased on travel. It's pretty much iconic, I've worn it aplenty and I want to make it part of my heirloom legacy!

This is a machine embroidered kashidakari. In my experience with Kashmiri textile traders from Manali to Mumbai to Lucknow to Delhi to Mussoorie and now online, I have never once met someone who dishonestly sells a machinework as a handwork. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe they're a great bunch. I really like this about kashidakari. It's clearly declared which is which, machine or hand. The reverse also shows evidence of cut yarns, little knots and all the imperfect signs of hand-embroidered, and obviously the price reflects it. In my opinion, whether I'm buying a machinework kashidakari or a handwork, I'm glad as long as I am pouring funds into purchasing from the same body of artisans who sell both. Behind every emporium, creators are creating both machine and hand embroidery to cater to customers of all budgets. They are usually honest to declare which is which.

I don't support turning machine embroidery-hand embroidery into an evil-good thing. It's narrow minded and harsh. If the very regional craft community that created this textile heritage is simply trying to meet demands, reach more customers by going beyond hand embroidery exclusively and employing their artisans to make machine made too, they are not wrong to do so. They are simply trying to survive and adapt. This I say only for this particular example of kashidakari, not for embroideries across India, each has a different situation. This obviously has grey areas, not BnW.

If someone in Bangalore made a machine aari design and sold it as handwork kashidakari, THAT'S wrong. If a craft cluster of traditional kashidakari artisans of Kashmir is diversifying itself by also making machine variants, I see no problem in supporting this if your budget is limited to machine. If you can afford to, keeping hand embroidery culture alive with your money is the most noble thing to do. Kashmir shawls are royalty incarnate, not easy to buy for all!

More on kashidakari this week 🌹

Specialities from Kashmir via @artsofhindostan, wh

Specialities from Kashmir via @artsofhindostan, whose feed is such a treasure of art, craft and tasteful delights ✨

Repost from @artsofhindostan:
'Papier mache domed box with lid, painted and varnished papier mache, Kashmir, c.1875

Kashmir was famous for its decorative arts many of them brought over the centuries by craftsmen from Iran. With strong demand domestically and in Europe, the art of painting and varnishing beautiful objects made out of papier mache was encouraged. The finest early work like our example was developed by applying layer upon layer of moistened paper into a mould and then using a process of smoothing, painting and varnishing. The box is divided by vertical lines into eight segments of decoration. Four of these have birds in foliage with bright hues of blue, pink, white and green, while the other four segments have human figures in rich attire on a gold ground.'

my nightly haldi doodh cuppa 💛 I feel so weird

my nightly haldi doodh cuppa 💛 I feel so weird calling this a turmeric latté. The English speaking world still calls a pho a pho, a khow suey a khow suey, a kimchi a kimchi, a spaghetti a spaghetti, a Quesadilla a Quesadilla, doesn't it? Wasabi, bao, lasagne, crêpes, Foie gras, shakshuka, au gratin, plenty dishes are called by their given name in regional language. So why shouldn't a traditional haldi doodh remain that, for everyone? Why should a chai hilariously be called chai tea? Why should samosas be called fritters or a patty? Diid you know that samosa is officially present in the Cambridge English dictionary? Why should khichdi become kedgeree?

Some may say, it's just a word. To me, in all honesty, sometimes it feels like cultural erasure at a subliminal level, as if our Indian dishes and language aren't worth the two second inconvenience of somebody bothering to call them by their given ethnic names.

To be fair, we're no different towards dish names for our own fellow states in Indian cuisine. Most people from North or Western India don't bother to try to learn or say the name of a South Indian dish, or a Bengali dish. Even if you're pronouncing it wrong, simply trying to call it what it's called is a mark of respect for other cultures. You're gol gappa, they're puchka, you may call it a chutney, they call it inji-puli, you call it pao, Goans call it poi. That's life, we all take up space and are unique. It's not rocket science 😂 Us Punjabis are quite privileged, little to nobody fumbles with naming a Punjabi dish - in a small way because the Bollywood we all grow up watching has been 99% upper caste Punjabi culture representation ONLY and every other community is most likely portrayed as a caricature from a North Indian lens. Most of the world thinks Punjabi cuisine is Indian cuisine in entirety 🤷🍗 Some food for thought. Call a chai a chai!

The French have made it so that if you can't say their french dishes in propah french, you're an uncultured pleb. An Indian person will look down upon another Indian person for not pronouncing a french wine or food right, it happens all the time in South Delhi/Bombay. We need this sass for desi food too 😂

dainty, contemporary, delicate handcrafted trinket

dainty, contemporary, delicate handcrafted trinkets is where it's going to be with Revive.Style X Aarna this July! I've always loved styling their traditional, karigari-heavy silver, as you're accustomed to by now 🤍 This time, Kalyani has designed such darling, weightless pieces in a spin-off from her usual style. They are artisanal, high quality contemporary investments in precious silver. Expect a lot of dainty jewellery inspo courtesy @aarna.store on my feed all July, and treat yourself to a few too, if you may! She's one among my favourite women-led small businesses in the slow design sphere.

Saree: Ajrakh on Gajji Silk, a traditional handblock printing craft of Kutch in Western India. This ancient style of handblock printing is believed to have been around since the Indus Valley Civilization! It uses natural dyes only, from indigo to madder root. It has its own vast design and motif vocabulary that is inspired from the universe, even the starry night sky, among other things. I curate and sell a lot of Ajrakhs on my storefront, www.revive.style. This one's from Fabindia!

Tried @natasha.thasan's drape again but this time with the Ajrakh on Gajji Silk. The heavy, lush traditional Gajji is so beautiful to work with, it's more structured and also, somehow, more fluid at the same time, compared to a poly-satin saree. The fact that this has a print and borders made it a challenging and fun experiment for a blouse-less drape ✨ I liked playing with placing the borders on the waist in an aesthetic way.

Where do you think this is the right outfit for? Me thinks, a candlelit dinner? Tell me in comments where you think I could go wearing an Ajrakh gown-esque saree and shoulder grazing pearl drops in silver! Let's fantasize for no reason while stuck at home lol

hameen ast 🌸 it's time to begin the MOST reques

hameen ast 🌸 it's time to begin the MOST requested series and theme! So many of you beautiful people - who share my obsessive ways - have nudged me about curating a series on crafts and textiles of Kashmir, I'm finally ready to do this!

#KashmirCraftsWithReviveStyle

Expect:
- Bi-weekly (or more, if I can) posts on my Instagram feed styling my beloved Kashmir textiles, anecdotes on their construction, and the stories attached to how they were sourced.
- Snippets of craft and textile history from research sources that you can refer to for further reading
- Objets d'art and non-fashion crafts get their due too!
- Some deeper dwelving on the blog - www.revive.style
- Plenty reshares of valuable Kashmir craft-related content on my Stories, from the work of other writers, bloggers and historical curators
- Some beautiful craft process footage straight from an artisan's workshop in Srinagar, and my experience of having Revive.Style's PR gifts made with the help of this generous team of artisans
- Amplifying shop recommendations and ways to connect to artisans directly wherever possible
- All the fun that comes with obsessing over the art, craft and design history from a region with one of the MOST beautiful aesthetic heritage's in the world
- Learning more from you and your engagement, recommendations, posts and stories. I'm hoping this sparks conversations aplenty 🌸

Needless to say, you're invited to share your own Kashmir textiles - I know a lot of you on here with enviable collections of shawls and sarees. You're also welcome to share any crafts, artworks, objects and the stories that go with them. Please use the hashtag and tag me! If you've already created valuable content or worked with artisans in the past, tag it and I'll be happy to reshare a select few pieces 🤍

@arunitapraharaj, @drapeastory, @myeloquentwardrobe and quite a few more of you are my rocket fuel for this. Thank you for hyping the idea for me consistently over so long! 🌼

PS: No end date in sight yet, I'll do this all of July and then we'll see about when we want to stop. Maybe forever? Hahaha

this drape def has 'cover of a Greek myth fanfic'

this drape def has 'cover of a Greek myth fanfic' energy🍷drape style credits: @natasha.thasan

a Sunday mood from January 2020 at @jogitajagwani'

a Sunday mood from January 2020 at @jogitajagwani's beautiful casa 🌴 wearing @rustorangedotcom tie dyed cotton 🌊

had to do this but with my kinda silver hoops 🤍

had to do this but with my kinda silver hoops 🤍 #Sadeness

🌼 linen shirt (menswear, borrowed) and cotton trousers are both M&S, the hoops are @_alankaara_

How many of you still listen to Sade in 2021?

it's not 'this day last year' anymore it's 'that d

it's not 'this day last year' anymore
it's 'that day in that particular stage of lockdown which feels like a whole different lifetime now' 😂

wanted to feel like Persephone but in a kashidakar

wanted to feel like Persephone but in a kashidakari 🌸

my feed has been quite 'dark' lately, I suppose I

my feed has been quite 'dark' lately, I suppose I have been too, the past few months, and sometimes what is created mirrors the creator's inner landscape. So an easy, breezy, cheesy yellow linen summer dress (I last wore this to the vaccination centre) in my little garden as an intervention on this feed today hahaha. And a beautiful, beautiful excerpt from a book I just started reading (the title is on the bottom right). To be easy, loosened, that is something that I'm trying to consciously imbibe in my daily life these days. Just BE-ing, and letting things be, and foregoing the uphill struggle against what ifs 🌼🤍

This is probably my first post in this new haircut. I love short hair, it feels so cute and sexy! I don't regret cutting my long hair at all. It grows back. And then I'll cut it short again 🤷😂

Via @niraamish Detail from Bishen Singh as a Youn

Via @niraamish
Detail from Bishen Singh as a Young Man. Uniara, c.1780. The Met.

Makes me think of wearing a cloud 🤍

vintage blazer, thrifted Afghan silver 🖤 blaze

vintage blazer, thrifted Afghan silver 🖤

blazer: a hand-me-down from my aunt
Afghan neckpiece: spotted it on someone's Instagram pre-loved closet sale

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