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Of late, I’ve been observing all the ways in which Indian textiles have been pushed to its limits - from disappearing crafts being made into installations to the way the saree has entered the everyday conversation again; worn to the office by today’s youth with more ease than a linen shirt, and young designers reviving disappearing forms of weaving and draping saree in ways that fit their hyperspecific aesthetic (whimsigoth dress draped from a black banarasi saree, anyone?).
When on this topic, Raw Mango as a label has become synonymous with the finest of textile experimentation, in and of India, on a global scale. With each campaign, whether their handloom day special that celebrates its everyday relevance, to this latest festive campaign that is a study in surrealist storytelling, they continue to set new standards.
'Once Upon a River' unfolds like a fever dream; there are puppets and comical expressions at play, like something from an old Indian folk drama, juxtaposed with the models wearing beautiful pieces crafted using archival techniques. Filmed at the Shri Joraver Vilas heritage palace in Santrampur - a location that is at the crossroads of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, its 1920s Art Deco architecture becomes the perfect backdrop to showcase a collection whose core emotion is that of connection. According to the brand, “...the campaign delves into ritual and symbolism, depicting themes of union, change, and departure. The coming together of crafts, individuals, and symbols is mirrored in the environment: the land meets the sea, fish and birds converge, and lovers appear in multiples. Holy unions are imagined in a location that represents cultural confluence.”
To better understand the nuances of this collection and the surrealist storytelling of its campaign, I had a conversation with Sanjay Garg, the mercurial founder and designer of Raw Mango.
How did the Once Upon a River collection and campaign that celebrates unions of different kinds come about?
We are exploring the theme of unions, which is timely when things around us seem fragmented. The union between two people, between different forms of craft, between the land and the water - we explore them all in a dreamlike setting: a palace by a river in Gujarat.
The collection also heavily references archival textiles - we have drawn from Ashavali and Varanasi brocade archives, to Ottoman velvets, and even the inlay work seen in Mughal architecture. That’s what "Once Upon" alludes to: it’s a story that transcends time and reality. The technical innovations in textile, furthermore, see this theme of union through.
How do you think your creative exploration and journey as a textile designer and Raw Mango’s as a label from a long-term perspective resulted in this new festive collection? Could you share more specifics on the design process as well as the final iterations that made it to this collection, on the same thread?
This is a wedding-focused collection, but done the Raw Mango way. We always say it’s not just about the wedding itself, but the celebration is a union of two families. And it’s not just about the main day, but also for the other days and other celebrations as well.
With every collection, we try to do something new. It is an opportunity to introduce new innovations in textiles. In this collection, we engineered our Varanasi silk brocades for zardozi embroidery - it's a coming together of “kadhai” and “bunai” in a seamless way. Our garments have always favored weightless ornamentation - using new motifs and techniques within the weave - but in this collection, ornamentation plays a more prominent role. The tactile embroidery on brocades imparts a more ornate feeling.
The motifs we’ve used draw heavily from textile archives - from Ashavali and Varanasi brocades to Ottoman velvets. The silhouettes in 'Once Upon A River' also offer something for everyone in the celebration - they are fluid in that they adapt to whoever may want to wear them for a celebratory event.
With each new campaign, you try to push the boundaries of storytelling, balancing originality and authenticity, now with a kind of elegant playfulness, of late with this and the previous ‘Playground’ collection. Could you tell us more about this campaign?
We would love to know, especially about the contributions of the homegrown creatives you have collaborated with, to bring this film to fruition - from music and script to cinematography and makeup.
In the last decade, the work we’ve made is rooted in collaboration with homegrown creatives. The body of music we’ve created - we’ve always made new music for our campaigns. Every year, we try to spotlight cultural elements like we did with the Kanhaiya Dangal (a type of folk storytelling that involves song, banter, clapping, and the dhol) last year or with tabla and kathak artists the year before that. We also worked with Baul singers from Bengal.
For Once Upon a River, the core thought was to showcase the coming together of ideas. Everyone on the team added their own point of view and perspective, which made the end result feel all the richer.
“In this story about unions, every creative person involved came from the thought process that India is not a singular stereotype. We saw multiple ways of imagining this country. Where someone is bringing a knowledge of history, another person is coming with an understanding of cultural artifacts like music, there were people who were very well-versed with the cultural aspects of the themes we were touching on.”
The films feature several locals who played various roles throughout the campaign. The people holding the mashaals are local dotaara players. The person who played the nav wala helped direct the sequence in the lake. There was a mali we worked with to create a specific prop. Even the way each character is dressed was inspired by cultures from across the country, as well as specific traditions that were rooted in the region. The people there helped us tie all the safas we see in the film.
The atmosphere of the films came from the antique masks, heritage carpets, and pieces with an incredible sense of history that we have used to decorate the sets. We also needed to create props because somewhere we are also referring to the union of land, sky, and sea. The bird and fish puppets seen in the film were created by a Delhi-based prop artist using papier mâché, textile, and internal metal structures.
When you put all of this together, I like to think of Once Upon a River as a dreamlike mishmash of cultural influences on the basis of collaborative input from everyone involved in the project.
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