A Little,Big Story

It is their contrasting styles that made BBC bring the two artists together for a new show,Collaboration Culture. “I was looking forward to meeting Martin when BBC got in touch with me,but I did not expect our collaboration to be fun because both of us are designers and members of the fashion industry,” recollects Chavan,whose label Little Shilpa became popular soon after its ramp debut in 2008.

“I was wrong,” says the designer,whose quirky works find regular patrons in pop icon Lady Gaga and actress Sonam Kapoor.

The seven-part series,which will premiere in India on the BBC World News channel on June 30,explores the exciting conversations that take place when leading personalities from various cultural fields are paired together on an innovative project. Other creative individuals who join hands as part of the series include British artists Bob and Roberta Smith with coffin artist Paa Joe from Ghana,and German conceptual artist Christian Jankowski with curator Rami Farook from Dubai.

For the three-day project,Churba travelled to his collaborator’s home city. “We broke the ice on the evening I picked him up from the airport. The following day — first day of the project — we walked around Bandra,purchasing material,buttons,drapes and whatever we both found interesting. But we had not yet developed a concept to work on,” recalls the Indian designer,who is popular as Little Shilpa.

The second day was spent at Chavan’s home with the two exchanging notes about their individual creative processes. “Martin shoots his look books with professional models and photographers. His inspirations come from textures. I follow a rather informal route,using friends as my models and clicking my own pictures,” she points out.

It was,therefore,necessary that the two found a middle ground. Chubra found plenty in common between his country and India. “Crowds,chaos and the fact that people spend much of their lives out on the streets,he would say,is what also happens in Argentina,” explains Chavan. So Mumbai’s streets became the muse.

But both felt that the time they had was very little to “create” something new. Thus came the idea of creating a look book. On the final day of the project,the duo called the models over for lunch and had them look at some of their previous works. Their corresponding designs were then juxtaposed with each other to create looks that were slick and raw.

“For example,there was a dress by Martin,dominated by cords,that he created by putting together threads of varied fabrics. We teamed it with a headpiece using plastic and fabric that I had made. Then we used the fabrics purchased on the first day as drapes,passing through gaps in Martin’s creation to lend it the sari effect. The designs didn’t just blend in but complemented each other as well,” Shilpa adds.

They then travelled to South Mumbai with models and checked into a dingy hotel near the Grand Post Office. For the first time in many years,Martin shot pictures for his own look book,clicking reactions of people as these models waited for elevators,walked the city roads. However,Shilpa’s favourite look is the one they clicked after they lost natural light. “We had created six looks in all and one photoshoot still remained. So,we went looking for a deserted street in Colaba where we parked our car and put the headlights on,clicking the models as they stood in the glare of that light,” she says.