Looming Large

A textile designer, an entrepreneur, a passionate weaver, a social worker, a creative artist – she’s all these and much more. But in reality she remains a simple, easy-going person with high dreams in mind and the essence of her tradition in her heart. Julie Kagti is one of the most promising faces in the Indian textile industry today whose love for nature finds a serene reflection in her designs.

Coming from a place like Barhapjan in Tinsukia district of Assam that few have heard of, Julie Kagti has established herself as a clothing and accessory designer par excellence in the national fashion scenario. While children her age and time were busy pursuing regular careers like medicine, engineering, academics, administration and others, she fell in love with the craft of weaving.

Julie grew up as a regular tea garden kid, and was sent to boarding school in Shillong when she was all of thirteen. Crossing the threshold of the house with Loreto Convent, she spent her years, mostly out of the state. At home for holidays, much of her time would be spent in rapt attention, watching her grandmother unveiling her skills with the thread. “That’s how I picked up my interest in it,” says Julie.

“Growing up in the beautiful state of Assam, the sense of colour and aesthetics was deeply embedded in me. Nature has also been invariably my biggest strength.” When she discovered where her interest lay, Julie shifted from a customized degree, to the world she loved. “When I went to college I took up Economics; but I realised that designing held an inexplicable fascination for me. That’s when I witched over.”

Designing inevitably conjures up images of flashing garments, ramp shows, gorgeous models and lot of glitz. But Julie’s take is different from the cliché ridden concepts. Her idea is to keep it simple. “A lot of my work is inspired by nature, and nature as it is, has nothing glitzy in it.” Why did she choose handicraft? “Because in this area, you can do more specialised, one-of-a-kind work. For me, when I come out with a collection, what matters is that there should be a sense of the organic. I think that’s why I chose to be in this area.”

THE SAREE MAKER AND SUTRA

After graduating in textile designing from Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai, she worked as a textile designer with fabric manufacturing and export companies for a couple of years, in Bombay and Bangalore. At the same time, she was also working with an NGO in Andhra Pradesh. “I helped put up a weaving unit there. While doing this, I realised that the Indian textile scene is too rich. But it lacked contemporary appeal. So, I decided to put up a studio where I could experiment with modern sense of design and colour using the old traditional methods of weaving. That’s how the idea of having my own studio came about.” SUTRA, as the studio is named, began in 2001, with the objective of creating swatches using various organic yarns and materials like silk, wool and cotton, keeping the export furnishing market in mind.

"The saree is the uncut cloth. And there's always a romance with the uncut cloth."

Gradually, it found a domestic market among fashion designers who were constantly on the look out for new concepts to add to their collections. A small product range was also introduced with stoles, cushion covers, little hand bags and sandals. Then Julie started collaborating with a Bangalore based paper maker called Jenny Pinto, and won the ELLE DECO International Design Awards, India 2004 for the best wall covering category for their collaborative work in weaving handmade paper. Julie is optimistic about the international market. As she says, “It is very open and welcoming for handcrafted product. In fact this year, I had a stall in the Japan Textile Fair.”

Though she works in accessories, Julie’s greatest strength lies in her sarees. The Lakme India Fashion week, 2007 showed her spring-summer range that showcased her ‘romance with the uncut cloth’ in full glory. “The exposure was fantastic. It was nice to be a part of a big event.” Says Julie, “This year our focus is more on sarees. In fact, we want to stock up the shops with the sarees; that’s our new target.”

 

HER DESIGNING PERSPCETIVE

Every designer fashions his or her creations from a particular basis. For Julie, interaction between tradition and modernity is her stronghold. And her philosophy of interaction is aptly reflected in her work. Julie believes in creating designs and products which are ‘aesthetically appealing, practical in use, contemporary in style and infused with a little bit of humour'. How does she justify the humour element? “Well, as a designer, you could be doing a home accessory, a piece of clothing or even a car. It will always enhance the user. Humour is very elemental in breaking the ice when it comes to interacting. I use this philosophy to break the ice between the product and the buyer.”

That is probably what works, when she designs costumes for plays. Julie has designed for Aurobindo's Savitri and such others. Presently, she's trying to work on a new project where she's planning to combine textile and dance. The idea is to show the abstract qualities of textile. “Textile can be very transparent. It has a very short life and is fragile. It can be distressed very easily. And dance is another art form that can display these feelings very clearly. I have spoken to a few choreographers to help me put this project together.” Apart from designing for plays, Julie loves watching plays too.

"I want to be remembered as someone who made nice sarees."

Her favourite director is Ratan Syam. “His plays are very inspiring. He uses all art forms for his sets. From that point of view, I've always liked plays.”

HER OTHER INTERESTS

Does she design for movies too? “I haven't ventured into that field till now. In films, you generally have to design as a stylist. And styling is not exactly my strong point. But I'm open to the idea nevertheless.” She does like watching movies, though. “I love to watch Irani movies. I also enjoy Korean and Japanese films.” Reading is another passion that is strong with Julie. Apart from fiction and non-fiction, she reads a lot in her own field to keep updated about what others are doing. “Otherwise you live a very insular life; you're just caught up with yourself and your work. It's nice to know what everyone else is doing. I try to catch up with different art forms – photography, painting etc.”

SUTRA PLANS IN GUWAHATI

Sutra is currently stocked at Bangalore's Be: and Cinnamon stores, apart from Hooghly in Kolkata, Mumbai's Omo and Chennai's Amethyst. Asked about her plans for Guwahati, Julie reveals her ideas about doing a show in Guwahati, probably tying up with an NGO and preferably working for children. Her idea is to do something that benefits the local scene. “I think my work finds its essence from Assam and its natural aura. I think its time I gave back something to Assam ,” admits Julie.

As for the Northeast fashion scene she had little to say. “I am not very familiar with it to give an opinion. I have seen one label called ‘Angor' which opened its store recently in Bangalore . Their stuff is quite good.”

THREADS OF FANTASY

As for her future plans, Julie wishes to have her own signature store; especially one in Japan , she being so fond of their designs and crafts. She even uses the Japanese tie-and-dye technique called ‘shibori'; the art of resist-dyeing. Essentially a nature lover, she is weaving future plans of settling in the countryside. Her objective is “to transcend my work when I don't actually have to live in a city. I want to have my own workshop in the countryside where I can do my own dyeing, from fruits and stuff and the process can be completely organic.”

She might be a dreamer but she sure knows the facts that constitute reality. “When you plan to set up your enterprise, there are more days when things will go wrong than when they go right, but the trick is never to give up. The world today is getting very competitive. For smaller enterprises, it's getting harder. You have to persevere a lot.” At the same time, she is adventurous too. Asked whether she had ever been into something other than regular, she promptly replies, “I've done a couple of things. I've done river rafting; I go trekking quite often. Some day I would even like to go deep-sea diving.”

WELFARE WORK

Julie has done a lot of work with NGOs. She is a resource person with The Kishkinda Trust, an NGO based in Anegundi, Hampi, providing inputs in weaving, dyeing, product development and quality control for hand-made products using banana and corn fiber. While women trained under her have been working in several small hand weaving units, Julie plans to work with children too. What would she like to do if she becomes the Prime Minister of India? “I'd like to do something for children, their welfare, education and exposure,” explains the designer.

She conducts workshops and facilitates internship programs for students studying textile from various design schools both in India and from abroad.

“I time its time I gave back something to Assam.”

She is also involved in projects for the commercial textile sector, in design and product development and colour forecasting. In a nutshell, her romance with weaving has taken her to different levels, where she disseminates her skills for the benefit of not only the designing industry but also of those otherwise unemployed, unfortunate rural women of India.

With her grandmother’s gift running through her works, Julie Kagti carries a distinctive style mantra – “Make a product functional. Once it’s useful, it is beautiful.” The Indian textile industry might not exactly be flaunting rave reviews from the media or the glitterati, but in its own sphere, it has a lot to offer. From hand-woven home décor pieces to colourful garments in wonderful craftwork, Indian textile in its best can give the international market a shake and western designers a run for their money.

And Julie's work seems to anticipate such a future when Asian fashion will have a strong foothold in world fashion. How would she like to be remembered? “As someone who made nice sarees.” We know we'll have a lot more reasons than that.

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