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One of India's most celebrated designers, Manish Arora challenges familiar textile idioms while working within a traditional vocabulary of motifs and materials. In this hand-woven brocade, a kaleidoscopic pattern appears in a wildly unconventional and variable scale. Is this perhaps a mutant peacock feather? Is it a digital image of electronic trance music? Or is this a distorted human form?

The patterned fabric perfectly identifies Manish as an image-maker par excellence. It is just one aspect of his prodigal work that is known internationally for spectacular couture creations. It does place him firmly, however, within a select group of textile makers who question form and embellishment in traditional Indian textiles, and consider these as essential ingredients of contemporary fashion.