FROM EAST TO WEST

A new book by anthropologist Phyllida Jay explores fashion, textiles and visual cues to chart India's influence on the West's most iconic design houses.

- Diya Kohli

In late 18th-century France, the rigid, tailored gowns of the Ancien Régime were replaced by the lighter unstructured gowns of fine Indian muslin giving rise to a new era of fashion.

 

In the 1920s, French jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels created a series of India-inspired pieces made with gemstones and design inspiration from India. In 1996, Gianfranco Ferré, creative director for Dior, presented his couture collection called "Indian Passion" where jacquard silks, golden embroidery, zardozi work proliferated-a hat tip to his obsession with Indian karigari. Dries Van Noten's luxurious 2022 spring-summer collection drew on his impression of visiting Kolkata just after Holi, and seeing splashes of colour in unexpected places.