All photos courtesy of Inspired by India, Roli Books.

In Louis XIV’s France, Indian chintz and chintz were so coveted that the government was forced to ban their importation and sale. Yet French aesthetics continued to wear them indoors, personally defying the law. Fashion history is replete with similar anecdotes of Europeans’ fascination with Indian fabrics and designs. Yes.In Inspired by India, fashion researcher and journalist Phyllida Jay tells a compelling story about India’s role in global design from the 1600s to the present day. She expressed concern about colonial exploitation and cultural appropriation, which led to the popularization of many of her designs among the Indians in her early days. For example, in the late 18th century, the town of Paisley in Scotland succeeded in replicating Kashmiri shawls at low cost, and the Kashmiri pig motif has since become better known as ‘paisley’.

Rising from this complicated history, Jay envisions a hopeful vision for future collaborations. This is evidenced by the collaboration between Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Christian Louboutin. “Cultures can inform each other in respectful, productive, and mutually constructive ways, rather than exploitative ways.” Not only as an unobtrusive step in the international supply chain, or as exotic fodder for the Western imagination, but also as a workhorse of several pivotal design developments, the book aims to bolster global luxury goods. We are working on correcting the omission of Indian artistry from the story. silhouettes and decorations.

Jay writes:

Reeves Wetherell used 30 feet of embroidered Indian sari cloth and matching skirt as part of a 1948 edition of Life Magazine featuring women of the white community in various national costumes around the world. doing. Concepts that raise legitimate concerns of appropriation and cultural apathy today.