It makes sense that Karan Johar, one of India’s most celebrated filmmakers, would look at the Met Gala steps and see an opportunity to tell another story. “In every film I’ve made, in every frame I’ve been responsible for, the question has always been: what is this saying? What feeling is it evoking? What does it mean?”
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His final look, inspired by Raja Ravi Varma, was designed by Manish Malhotra and styled by Eka Lakhani, carries Varma’s imagery across a hand-painted ensemble, with zardozi borders, three-dimensional pillars, lotuses and swans, and a hand-painted jacket lining. “Raja Ravi Varma gave India its most enduring images of itself,” Johar says. “The artisans who built this ensemble gave those images new life. And I get to wear that. That feels very much like me, the person who has always believed that how you tell a story matters as much as the story itself.”
Every motif has been painted entirely by hand. What you see is the work of a team of artisans who spent 5,600 hours over 86 days bringing it to life. The embroidery has been treated with acrylic and oil finishes, varnished, so the textile holds the same glow as an actual painting. The borders are built on rubberised bases layered with zardozi, giving them a sculptural, raised quality like paint thickly laid onto canvas. Pillars, lotuses and swans emerge in three dimensions. Even the lining of the jacket has been hand-painted, not something most people will ever see, but as Johar notes, “it is there.”
For the filmmaker, the integrity of the craft was non-negotiable. “I was very clear from the beginning that nothing could be simulated or cut short. No print, no digital intervention, no approximation,” he says. Referencing an artist like Varma meant honouring the way he executed his craft, entirely by hand. “Every brushstroke had to be real. Every embroidered detail had to be earned. Everything else we could problem-solve. That, we could not.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: vogue.in
