Fashion Design
Grainne Wilson
Shakti
Whilst living in India, I was intrigued by a group of people known as Hijras. Mostly hermaphrodites or eunuchs, they live in a close-knit community with deeply rooted practices. They are believed to be vehicles of the goddess Buhuchara Mata’s divine power and are called upon to perform ritualistic dances and songs at festivities. I was captivated by their shamelessness in their hyper-feminine identities and the great unbalance that this created in my interpretation of the country’s usually conservative gender-norms. I found a physical representation of this bold exaggeration of femininity in ancient sandstone figures from Northern India. These carvings of svelte dancing women with distorted proportions provided the shape and form of this collection. Using an unconventional approach to pattern cutting techniques and focusing on the physical form, Shakti magnifies the somatic parallels between the people of the Hijra community and the stone sculptures. Curved seams act as hyperbole of the female form whilst asymmetric shapes bordering on the bizarre and abrupt terminations reflect the feeling of unbalance. The colours were inspired by the vibrant chaos of India whilst the combinations of satin, velvet and slivers of metallic leather reflect the flamboyant dress of the Hijras. Embellished Sari remnants are pieced together to create a glittering textile surface and traditional ‘kantha’ hand stitching is a form of mark-making which echoes the decoration of the sandstone figures and the ornamented bodies of the Hijras.