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My bond with my daughter is that of a mother, but also as a business partner. She views the world, and I uphold that perception through fashion.
My love and obsession with Fashion Design were born early. As a child, I’d cut all the extra pieces of fabric around the house that I could lay my hands on.
Sewing or pasting, whatever means I could, would be adopted to create dresses for my beautiful Barbie.
Obstinately refusing to let go, I pursued my passion and forged a career from it.
I believe my daughter’s love for fashion comes from watching her parents both in this profession. After my daughter’s birth, I restarted my fashion career in a new way.
I began designing prints for T-shirts and loungewear. A shift from my earlier boutique and customization work has been challenging.
As I sat long hours before my laptop – juggling time between the kids and work, I soon realized I was being watched.
My little girl had filled her art book with curly, wiry, curvy dolls wearing colourful clothes. Different dresses were being conceptualized and drawn. It was amazing!
It felt like I was in a time machine that had taken me to the past.
I remember as a kid, I wouldn’t leave a bit of paper blank. All my books, notebooks, textbooks would be filled with sketches like these. I bought her a new art book and a box of glitter crayons.
She was ecstatic!
All little girls love wearing their mom’s heels and pretending they are strutting down the ramp. Mine is no different. Pouting her lips, hands on her waist, she sashays across the living room and poses.
We all laugh! It’s been a while now since I discovered her interest, she has since then developed it well.
My daughter keenly observes as I talk to clients and understand their requirements. When we put up a stall in the local shopping exhibitions, she loves to help.
I’ve taken ideas from her art book often, and created commercial designs from it. It was on one such day when I was stuck for a new idea when I started looking through her art book again.
A series of sketches depicting herself and her life-at school, with family, playing in the park, etc., caught my fascination. I took a page, with my daughter’s permission.
We scanned the doodle and enlarged it. Fine-tuning the lines, I added some colour to them. Then I digitally printed it on an oversized white T-shirt.
It looked great.
Working together, mother and daughter have created a file of doodles titled – my friends and I.
It’s a series of artwork depicting a little girl’s life as she plays with friends, her curiosity, her little squabbles, etc. It takes you through life from the eyes of a 7-year-old girl.
We will make a line of T-shirts for kids between the ages of 6-12. We don’t know how successful it will be. I have no idea whether it will be worth the effort. However, for now, the two of us are enjoying being “Business Partners!”
Image source: Josealbafotos via pixabay, free on CanvaPro
Hi! I'm Meeta Chablanii- an animator, illustrator a freelance fashion designer and a full time mom to two little brats. My journey of bringing them up forms the backdrop of most of my posts. read more...
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The plight of Indian women's mental health often goes unnoticed. Co-founders Vivek Satya Mitram and Pooja Priyamvada conceived the idea of the Bharat Dialogues Women & Mental Health Summit to address this.
Trigger Warning: This contains descriptions of mental health trauma and suicide, and may be triggering for survivors.
Author’s note: The language and phraseology used are not the author’s words but the terms and narrative popularly used for people living with mental illnesses, and may feel non-inclusive. It is merely for putting our point across better.
I have seen how horrifying was the treatment given to those with mental illness.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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