In a recently held event, Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy caught up with ace designer Anamika Khanna for an exclusive interview on revival of weaves, her love for jamdanai, how the pandemic days were a learning phase for her and more.
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Storytelling is the one form of creativity that brightens the mind’s imagination to the fullest. The ambition of this event is to give the audience an evening of a memorable, unique storytelling experience. One where they truly feel the pulse of the AK|OK woman and witness her story come to life in a 30-minute play act.
Anamika Khanna had once mentioned to Firstpost, how
AK-OK is named by her kids when she was in hospital recovering from a serious illness, Viraj and Vishesh told her she would be: “OK, everything would be OK, everything would be AK-OK”.
Recently, Saks celebrated the launch of AFEW Rahul Mishra and AK|OK
Anamika Khanna. Saks is the exclusive retail partner for AFEW Rahul Mishra and AK|OK Anamika Khanna in the United States. As part of Saks’ commitment to delight and inspire customers with its world-class assortment. A true believer of art and heritage, Anamika Khanna says, “The craft or the heritage of India is so huge that the inspiration doesn’t end, something or the other just keep coming up.”
Edited excerpts from the interview:
If we are talking about revival of weaves that needs to be put into newer form, what is the weave you would recommend that needs to be revived?
I am going to be slightly biased here because I come from Bengal. I feel like there is a lot of textile from Bengal which is been ignored like jamdani which is so beautiful and somehow into the limelight because of its simplicity. I feel like there are lot other weaves in India that are getting a lot of attention, but jamdani isn’t getting that kind of attention that it truly deserves.
Fashion did go through a rough patch during the pandemic, what do you have to say about the business of fashion coming back?
I am not going to call it a rough patch. Two things happened during the pandemic. One, it gave us the time to reset and it’s very important to reset and it also made us harder and tougher.
We had to go through a lot of challenges. Personally speaking a lot of weddings that were postponed, but the budgets were much lower when it came to making outfits. We also had challenges on how to get the karigars to work in the safest environment. It made us more resilient and gave us time to think what I want to do with my brand. That reset during COVID I look at it very positively.
Diwali is knocking at the door, what is one way of draping the sari that you like, do you want it to look fancy or, keep it the way it is?
For once, I want the sari to go back to where it is. We have tried so many drapes with it. But I actually want to go back the original drape.