Jajaabor’s latest collection, 'The Other Bose: A Taste of Love and Revolution,' showcased at London’s Devonshire Square, blends Japanese minimalism with Bengali craftsmanship. Inspired by Rash Behari Bose, it uses food, culture, and textiles to narrate a story of love, exile, and identity, symbolised by an Indian curry recipe that transcends borders and traditions.
Revolutions are usually remembered through speeches and slogans. Jajaabor’s latest collection, The Other Bose: A Taste of Love and Revolution, chooses a much more domestic symbol: a bowl of curry.
Presented on 20 September as part of Oxford Fashion Studio’s international runway programme at Devonshire Square in London, the collection draws on the life of Rash Behari Bose, the Indian revolutionary whose journey took him from Bengal to Japan. Rather than retell his politics, designers Kanika Sachdev and Neelanjan Ghosh follow what travelled with him: exile, love, belonging, food and craft. As Ghosh puts it, what stayed with him was how Bose’s revolution moved beyond politics and found its way into culture, food and human connection.
That idea is stitched into the clothes. Kimono-inspired silhouettes and sashiko meet Bengali drapes, jamdani and kantha, so Japanese minimalism and Bengali craftsmanship share one runway. Textile, silhouette and craft become the language in which the two places talk to each other.
The curry is the collection’s most unexpected symbol. It comes from the story of an Indian curry recipe that became Indo-Kari, affectionately known as the “taste of love and revolution". In the collection, it stands for something larger: how culture, food, memory and identity can cross borders, evolve and find new forms of expression. A bowl of curry, after all, travels more easily than a manifesto.
The show also marks a milestone for the label. Founded in 2017, Jajaabor, which means “nomad” in Assamese, has grown in India and the Middle East, and London is the start of its journey in Europe. It is a chance to introduce its designs and storytelling to a new audience and build relationships within the European fashion community.
That approach runs through every Jajaabor collection, each beginning with a story of a place, person, memory or cultural encounter, then translated through textile and design. Heritage techniques meet modern silhouettes, and the familiar meets the unexpected. With 'The Other Bose', the story happens to be one that lives in a kitchen.
If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:
Lovebirds' London Debut Sparks A Question: Can India Ever Be Represented Through One Lens?
The Polyester Age: How Fast Fashion Gentrified Cotton In India
Gul Sohrab Turns Everyday Indian Textiles Into Sculptural Fashion