Day Eleven & Twelve

After the research and analysis of a wide variety of aspects from both cultures, students were finally ready to begin designing. Working still in pairs, so to create matching garments or accessories for the same collection, the students made 4 initial sketches for the first day.

Fatima Pilgrami, an instructor from the Fashion Design Department at NİFT, very kindly offered to take us on a tour of some designer stores in Hyderabad. The university bus took us to one well-known fashion street where we were free to visit the following stores.

Origins – This was an exclusive store selling a selection of Indian designer labels. They seemed to specialise in bridal and evening wear, with heavily embroidered saris retailing for as much as 80 000 rupee ($2000). In Indian culture it is traditional for the bride to wear yellow, orange or green, but more modern brides are also opting for alternative bright colour combinations. The store also held a wide variety of “Sherwani”, the traditional suit worn by Indian grooms and also the traditional headwear called “Pagdri”, the Indian version of the turban.


















Creative Bee – This was another textile store which specialised in natural dyes, block printing and experimental weave structures.

WunderShop – This quirky store was run by Kedal Maddlu, an ex- graduate of Nift. The interior had been specially customized with a wide variety of decorative objects, mainly from Indian hand-craft and with a recycled flavour. This young designer had printed traditional symbols and kitsch references on modernized version of traditional Indian attire.






















Satay Paul – This store catered for the more mature woman with classical printed textiles, from saris to scarves, and also some rather nice ties for the male shopper.

Anokhi – Selling a selection of block printed fabrics, ready made garments and accessories, Anokhi is one of the better known design names in contemporary Indian fashion.

Ritu Kumar – Rita Kumar is one of the most famous textile and fashion designers in India. Heavily beaded sari’s and eveningwear with intricate embroidery are displayed alongside a more wearable contemporary daywear collection.
















On the Friday, we continued with the sketching and finalised each students design before breaking for the weekend. In the evening, we visited the “City Centre” shopping mall for some retail therapy and familiar food.

Day Ten

With the mapping now complete, boths set of students had a better understanding of their peers culture, and were now ready to prepare their moodboards. Still working in the same groups, students focused on a more refined concept developed from the initial board.

In general the imagery featured on the boards, and the visual presentation were interesting, with both students representing the most interesting aspects of both cultures. Problems arose, however, when trying to create a hybrid solution to fulfil the needs of the brief.

Olgay and Rohan decided to concentrate on the symbolic body ornamentation from Indian culture, called Sadhu, this was combined with the Evil Eye of Turkish culture.

Begüm and Abhilasha with some revision of their narrative calligraphic presentation concluded with a more graphically inspired solution which they complimented with some three dimensional design references.

Müge and Mayur focused on the relationship between the dance style of Sufism and Indian classical dance. By incorporating a variety of musical instruments from both cultures they expanded on their source material for design inspiration.

Day Nine

Finally, we had an uneventful (rodent free) night and everyone was well-rested to begin the workshop. We assembled in the pattern making lab and Şölen introduced the brief to the students. They were asked to work in pairs, one Indian student and one Turkish student. Several pairs had already formed before today’s workshop, and the remaining students decided to select their partners by chance from a draw. They are as follows:

Başak Cankeş – Aditi Sharma
Begüm Kapan – Abhilasha Choudhary
Yasemin Biricik – Shaivya Ruchi
Burcu Yıldız –Ruchika Gupta
Müge Elmacılar – Mayur Bhansali
Olgay Ergin – Rohan Sabharwal
Merve Sepetoğlu – Manas Ranjan
Ayşegül Göçen – Sartaj Saifi
Derya Gürbüz – Shwetank Kumar

Turkey and India are developing countries in terms of creating and communicating their global fashion brands. In both countries, contemporary designers seek international exposure through the modern exploitation of their cultural heritage, and rich traditions found in their historical textiles and costumes. Turkey is in a transitional period of developing cultural material into an international design language. In India, with the help of international fashion weeks and efficient institutions, designers are conserving the crafts related to the creation of Indian textiles, in tune with the industrial systems of production and marketing. Essentially, the integration of cultural research into design education in a pedagogical manner provides the backbone for developing a cultural identity in the contemporary fashion arena. This can be achieved by crossing the bridge between generations, recognizing the importance of cultural and historical design sources and re-interpreting their influence on contemporary design practice.
After underlining the importance of the cross-cultural dimension in contemporary design practice for both Turkish and Indian fashion, in pairs students were required to make a brain-storming session. What do they understand from Turkish culture and Indian culture? What are the components for reading a culture visually? How can they translate cultural indicators in to contemporary fashion?
In this cross-cultural workshop students are asked to explore, analyse and interpret key aspects of both cultures. From the assembled research, and with due respect to both cultures, they are asked to design a hybrid range of garments. The design interpretation must be both contemporary and wearable , and in no way related to the traditional clothing style of either culture.

Objectives

To introduce another culture while creating an awareness to their native culture.
To explore ways of understanding cultural material and to translate findings in to a contemporary design element
To create an international design language by translating cultural material in to modern looking international design solutions

Week 1 - Design Concept & Design Development

Monday - Research analysis.
Tuesday - Cultural Mapping
Wednesday - Concept Development Moodboards, Fabric experimentation
Thursday - Design development & Sketches
Friday - Final Design Illustration & Sketchbooks Presentations

Week 2 - Product Realization & Presentations

Monday - Technical Drawing & Pattern development
Tuesday - Pattern cutting & sewing
Wednesday - Finishing the garment
Thursday - Styling and photography
Friday - Final presentation and Fashion show

For the first day, the students are asked to create an A3 “Cultural Mapping” Board which explain various key aspects of both Indian and Turkish culture.

After an initial brain-storming session, each group decided to focus on specific aspects of their individual cultures and began to compare and contrast with their counterparts.

Begum and Abhilasha focused on a combination of Indian and Islamic calligraphy, including the Turkish art of calligraphy, Hat, which added a more spiritual approach to the mapping. They also contrasted the god of dance, Natraj with the Mevlana dancers from Turkey.

In their visually striking board, Yasemin and Shaivya researched the Islamic connection between Turkey and India but focused primarily on the motifs and architecture. By abstracting the imagery they were able to create a clean, graphic cultural map.

Başak and Adidi managed to collage a vibrant mapping, bursting with well-chosen imagery reflecting the colours, motifs and traditions of both cultures. One interesting reference point was differences and similarities between the facial expressions of the traditional women in both cultures which they will develop further into the communicative properties of their designs.

The result of the first days workshop was very encouraging. Each group successfully explored the idea of hybridity through the different aspects of both Turkish and Indian culture which is promising for contemporary design solutions in the following days.

Day Eight

Monday, and the first day of the workshop, but unfortunately we started the day on a very bad note. At 2:30 a.m. the students were assembled in the passage/balcony in front of their rooms, some screaming, some standing on chairs, and others crying. The cause of the panic was a tiny mouse (which Angela had previously evicted from her room) and an alledged sighting of a huge rat. After much discussion and persuasion, they finally returned to their rooms but few of them actually slept.
The following morning we made a rather late start to the workshop as most of the students were physically and mentally exhausted. Angela made a presentation on Turkish culture and afterwards we showed a promotional tourism DVD on Turkey which gave the Indian students a better insight into our culture.
The students ordered Pizza Hut which they ate with their Indian friends, and we all had an early night.

Day Five

Today was the second of our field trips and we were accompanied by the Indian students. Our first stop was a shop called Kalanjali in which we were able to find the most exclusive examples of Indian crafts. It is a gift store selling a variety of products, produced using a different traditional craft techniques, including furniture, sculptures depicting Hindu gods and goddesses, small ornaments, textiles, fashion and home accessories. Next door was also a clothing shop were we where once again able to find traditional Indian clothing and textiles.
We were all fascinated by everything we had seen and also were able to see a loose connection with particular aspects of our own culture.
After a hard morning sightseeing, a visit to McDonalds in Hyderabads biggest shopping centre was essential. To work of the Big Mac calories, the Indian hosts insisted on a visit to the amusement area in the shopping centre where we all got lost in the “Hall of Mirrors” and the “Fear Tunnel” and also experimented with a form of “Karaoke Dance”.
Next, we visited a Hindu temple, Birla Mandir in which we experienced almost all the rituals of Hindu religion. We purchased a coconut which we presented to a specific god, an old man at the temple accepted it on our behalf, he broke it in two realeasing the coconut milk and finally we were returned to empty husk, which we ate.
After leaving, shoes and other possessions (cameras, phones etc. sorry no pictures) at the entrance we climbed many steep steps, passing a variety of gods which we had to worship on our ritualistic tour of the temple. There are 3 main gods in Hindu culture, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer,all the other gods and goddesses are the reincarnation in different forms and rolls of these three. At the top we were treated to a spectacular panoramic view of the city. The biggest god was half muslim, half hindu, called Sai Baba, he was very ornate and colourful and each visitor was offered a spoonful of a sacred liquid substance which they drank and also used to dampen their hair. At the altar of each god, different coloured dyes were available to apply as a “Tikka” (similar to the “Bindi” spot applied in the middle of the forehead). For us, the most interesting experience of the temple visit was sitting down cross-legged and meditating in front on one particular god, until we were warned by a police man and asked to move on.
After the temple, we proceeded to Lake Hussain Sagar where we took a boat trip to see a huge monument of Buddha, here we took some rather interesting staged photographs.
On returning to the city, we had invites to a classical Hindu dance performance by Radha-Raja Reddy in a weekly dance festival, it was a further interesting insight into another aspect of Indian culture. The performance was very dramatic and expressive, it was based on Indian mythology.
A mexican restaurant was our choice for the evening, based purely on the hygenic outward appearance, several students even experimented with the Indian dishes on offer. On returning to campus, the students were very shocked to see that Angela had finally arrived.

Day Four

Today we made the first trip out of Hyderabad, accompanied by Sri, to Pochampally, were they specialise in Ikat textiles. We were fortunate to visit an enormous textile plant, were we have seen every single process of production from spinning of the yarn, to dying and then the weaving of the fabric. What appeared to be at first sight a highly industrial mass-manufactured product, was infact completely hand-made. Naturally, we purchased a variety of products at reasonable prices and the students invested in some hand-made Ikat which they intend to use in their design work.
After the visit to the factory, we returned to the village and visited a family home which were producing similar fabrics, using exactly the same methods but on a smaller scale. Throughout the trip, we were accompanied by the local press, at this particular visit they were delighted to photograph Sölen and Burcu dressed in traditional Indian saris. The novelty of seeing a sari on a women with pale skin and blonde hair was particular exciting for the journalists.
We purchased some additional textiles in a local store specialising in all types of traditional textiles but in particular Ikat.
On our return trip to the city, we were all starving and realised that there was no chance of making it back to an American restaurant chain. We stopped at a local indian restaurant where on close inspection, the students refused to eat but Şölen braved the local cuisine and afterwards commented that it was the best food she had eaten on the trip (non-spicy of course). We made another stop to sample coconut milk from one of the many street sellers.
When we reached to city centre, the students again dined at McDonalds, their preferred Indian cuisine.

Day Three

In the morning, Dr Şölen Kipoz made a presentation on “Contemporary Turkish Fashion Design”. Lunch was spent in a local Chinese style restaurant were the Turkish students were delighted to find some non-spicy dietary options. We returned to the campus in the afternoon and the students listened to a seminar on “Design Process” by Professor Lakshmi Reddy, the head of the accessory design deparment. Sri Pattur summed up the proceedings with a very animated and motivating speech relating to the possible research and design possibilities of such a workshop.
In the afternoon, some retail theraphy was much needed and we visited a contemporary Indian fashion outlet, selling ethical products at moderate prices. The products ranged from traditional Indian clothing such as saris and shalwar tunics, to more street-wear interpretations in more traditional Indian textiles.
McDonalds provided yet another safe option for our delicate stomachs in the evening.