Journalism of Courage
Wendell Rodricks luxury linen collection will not let you get out of bed
Last week,on a work meeting,I was taken to the Presidential suite in Mumbais ITC hotel. Then I was told to get comfortable on a bed. It was a spectacular bed,with powder-pink linen and a large mosquito net canopy with embroidered butterflies on it. I lay down willingly.
Next bed: A queen-size beauty with a beauteous white self-printed sheet. And another: white sheet with an emerald tree motif on it. I wanted more.
Of course,this was an exhibit for luxury bed linen. But with the designer Wendell Rodricks on duty,it became a lesson in art and craft as well.
Regretfully,not many newspapers have written on Rodricks second collection in three years for Bombay Dyeing,but then where was his pet muse Malaika Arora luring in hacks who ironically complain of celebrity showstoppers?
Rodricks and the Bombay Dyeing team had on display at least four lines of bed linen,each one in a high thread count and in an old revived cotton-satin weave that created the most sumptuous,creamy sheets. Like my clothes,I wanted the sheets to feel as good as they looked, says Rodricks as excited as the proverbial candy-store kid.
Each line has the designers signature study of restrain. Victorian Vintage has some boudoir-esque Lucknowi chikankari. Ethnic Graphic is an eco-friendly reminder to care for our surroundings with the designers own thumbprint lending itself to motifs. White Light is my favourite: luminous white jacquard prints on white fabric. Florascent is with squiggles using a childs spirograph in fluorescent colours.
Maureen Wadia had approached him a few years ago to create an all-white collection for a company. It will take a designer to make white sheets fashionable in India,she told him. Rodricks first collection was a sell-out within a month. The new collection makes it to the stores this week,and is priced easy at Rs 3,000- Rs 3,500. (Try getting a bed sheet from Fabindia for less than Rs 2,000).
The avant-garde Wadia knew what many Europeans do: the finest furnishings come from India. In a book that Rodricks will soon publish,he takes us back to the sea route of the Portuguese and French where they took back fabric from India. Europeans adored anything that was Indian: fabric and jewels. Princess Josephine favoured the Kolkata muslin: dhakai. And Louis XVI was enchanted by the luxuries of our clothing. Provencal and British chintz,thats often seen in trendy stores such as Anthropologie and Comptoir de Famille,has its roots in Gujarats Palampore paintings. And ikat and batik dyes have all been a rage in high-end fashion since the last few years.
Very few designers have tried their hands seriously at home linen. Pallavi Jaikishan has a charming store in Alibaug,also called Paraphernalia like her Pedder Road boutique,but this ones only for organza-chikan beauties that decorate the home. (This leg of the business is managed by her able son,Yogesh.)
Ironically,its the Europeans who have beat us at this again. Francois Lesages son,Jean Francois Lesage,has built a small fortune on embroidering out of Chennai (after selling his family business to the house of Chanel in 1993) for big-ticket interior stores. Using the 100-year-old zardozi,one of five basic embroideries,Lesages workers squat like thousands of karigars in India do: bending over a wooden frame.
The Cluny Sisters are an order of French nuns in Puducherry who have a small output of embroidered tablecloth and bed linen that rival the most sophisticated Italian linen. With a few more local players in the field and some better marketing,Indian style-setters could have a winner on hand. Or on their bed.
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