Mah Laqa is a print and fashion project taken up by my brother and me. We recently came across the 18th Century Hyderabadi courtesan, Mah Laqa Bai, a woman of many skills. An Urdu poet and great philanthropist, she remains unseen and unheard of, even by most Hyderabad dwellers. Through this project, we are hoping to bring to light her achievements and the good she did for the girls of the community.
We started out by making a mood board and creating a colour story for the project.
Drawing from Mah Laqa's tomb architecture elements, a line drawing of the main print was created. Shadows of Mah Laqa Bai, displaying her artistry in fields of poetry, dance, leadership, music and combat. The main print is composed of archways, each accentuating an individual print coordinate. Once we were happy with the main print, we experimented with different colour treatments.
The selected colour treatment repeat unit, followed by the print in repeat.
Taken from the main print, each coordinate was coloured using the selected treatment and put in perfect repeat.
For the garment collection, we chose to create an Indian wedding collection for Resort '22. Drawing from the Anarkali based silhouettes worn by Mah Laqa herself, we designed a capsule collection. Gold embellishments and embroidery were incorporated into the designs, adding a luxurious look.
From the collection, we selected two silhouettes and decided to get them made. The prints are digitally printed onto cotton silk fabric. These garments were then modelled with a resort theme.
Collaboration with Rumi Varma
