Awas
When the world came to a grinding halt in 2020, we spent most of the year in lockdown and my family and I were lucky enough to spend it locked down in nature in the sleepy seaside village of Awas in Alibag at our family holiday home outside Mumbai. What ended up as a short trip with 3 pairs of a clothes for a weekend, was seven months in nature living with essentials, country cooking and improvising with what we had in nature going back to what the earth provided.
AWAS, Summer ’22 named after the sleepy, seaside village is my personal homage to the place that protected us and brought us back to nature. I spent the year planting flowers, replanting some after we were hit by a cyclone mid year, reconnecting with nature with long walks and runs on the deserted beach at the break of dawn every morning, save me and a fisherman or two and the local indie dogs. Every evening after zoom work was spent walking alongside the beautiful casuarina and coconut forest that dotted our pristine beach and the skies were a technicolor that year with beautiful hues of pinks, purples and oranges at sunset which translated into my prints as a painting.
Each print in the mindfully designed collection, is a homage to the collectibles that year and humble plants that dotted our home and the seaside I would see on my daily run past the colourful village. Picking up shells with the kids and picnics on the beach and in the hills inspired me to design a collection I wanted to share with the world with joy when we re-emerged.
It’s the little things that we often forget and stop to appreciate. Awas, the little village was the biggest influence of peace, joy, shelter and inspiration that we will never forget. This collection is almost all consciously crafted with fair trade, organic, recycled and biodegradable fibers with delicate hand beading from our Verandah artisans in mumbai designed for summer joy in our studio in Mumbai.
A joyful ode to the tropics, this collection is the closest to home and hand illustrated to depict the small things that brought us peace and hope that summer.
