AN ARTFUL MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE

New Delhi-based designer Riddhi Jain draws heavily on historic textile traditions that form the essence of her brainchild Studio Medium. Brinda Gill notes.

- Brinda Gill

“I pretty much grew up with textiles in my mother’s studio,” says designer Riddhi Jain. Having been born and brought up in Kolkata, Riddhi spent many happy hours in her mother’s studio, which was stocked with ethnic and bridal wear, surrounded by different kinds of resist-dyed textiles—particularly bandhani. “My mother was not formally educated in textiles and design but she had an intuitive designing process and a distinctive take on varied textile techniques,” Riddhi says. It was her mother’s creative outlook and the textiles that she grew up with, that led Riddhi to develop an enduring interest in naturally dyed clothes. Result: she went on to study fashion and textile design, and eventually founded a design space named Studio Medium.

STUDYING FASHION

Riddhi’s inclination towards textiles and garments organically led her to take up a course in fashion design at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). It was during the seventh semester of the course that her interest in textiles really blossomed as she studied surface design, which required her to develop interesting surfaces through plenty of techniques.