Link/Interlink

Seams in India's muslin garments were worked with such finesse, that the fabric sometimes left an impression of seamlessness. Fabric joints were overlaid with delicate decorative details, or were exaggerated, both to hide the panelling as well as to accentuate the form and lightness of apparel. Particularly attractive were netted, pulled thread seams, with lace-like effects found in North Indian garments.

In this exploration, Aneeth Arora turns the device of the airy, netted seam into the principal fabric itself: one composed entirely of an infinite number of such seams. The 'fabric' is conceived as a dramatic architectural enclosure that exposes as much as it sequesters, reminding us of jalis, and of the decorative tents that were once used by royal women in North India. By adding distinctive hand-detailing she otherwise employs in her own fashion practice, Arora emphasizes the fundamental idea of a tent as a garment for a finite space.

Arora develops a technique that entangles yarns via machine-stitching on fabric on a soluble sheet of paper. The base fabric is then fully degraded by using devoré paste. The soluble sheet is dissolved in plain water. As the cloth and paper substrates eventually disappear, each stitching yarn must be entangled with another to 'hold' the 'fabric' together. Removing the base leaves behind a lattice or lace-like textile held together by the abstract intertwining and interlinking of yarn.