Swati Kalsi: High Art Fashion

In this episode, part of our monthly brand feature series, we learn about Swati Kalsi, an artist and designer that creates luxury fashion and museum art pieces, in collaboration with Sujani master embroiders.

Joshua Williams: Each month on NewsBytes, we feature a fashion brand that approaches business differently and innovatively or operates outside of the main fashion systems and capitals. I'm with Sass Brown, an expert in ethical fashion, sustainability and craftsmanship. She is the former Dean of Art and Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the founding Dean at Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation.

Sass, I'm excited to have you back to share another brand with us this month. 

Sass Brown: Happy to be here. 

Joshua Williams: So who are you featuring this month? 

Sass Brown: Swati Kalsi, out of India. 

Ah, wonderful. She is known as both a fashion designer, but also as an artist. So, I want to start first, with her, as an artist. Can you tell us a little bit about her and her work?

Sass Brown: Well, she works predominantly with traditional Sujani embroiderers out of Bihar in India. And the Sujani has a long tradition of embroidery, mostly for home wares; often pictorial, it's often telling the community history; it's the women's tradition of embroidery. And so she uses it and works in collaboration with Sujani embroiderers for her own collection, as well as she does quite a few museum installations where she works with the embroiderers for installation work.

Joshua Williams: And can you tell us a little bit about her brand? These pieces that she's creating are very much art pieces. They don't come cheap; they're certainly luxurious in every aspect of that word. Can you describe a little bit about what the collection is? What is Swati Kalsi the brand?

Sass Brown: She's known first and foremost for these exquisite, museum quality collectors items, pieces of clothing.

So they are indeed intended to be worn, but they're so precious. In many cases, I think people end up putting them on their wall, but  personally, I'd really like to wear one, but... 

Joshua Williams: Absolutely!

Sass Brown: The workmanship that goes into them is phenomenal. So, she does workshops with as many as about 15 Sujani artisans in Bihar, where they do a collective, collaborative, creative process.

So, Swati comes to them with some initial ideas and thoughts and theming, and works with them as they free form embroider, with this tradition of Sujani, on the fabrications that she has brought in. And they're often in fairly unstructured, outer wear pieces. So, sort of like kimono-style or silvar-type over Indian over-pieces. They're not really gender specific or size specific, but the beauty of them is free flow of embroidery that they are just covered in. And they take days and days to produce them. We're talking about as many as 15 artisans work on a single piece. Hence, why they're considered museum quality and collectors items.

Joshua Williams: How involved is Swati herself in the embroidery process? Because it's not that she's just a typical fashion designer, right? Who is developing a collection and then sending it out to be produced. She really is involved in a very integral way in this collection. 

Sass Brown: Absolutely. She's there with the artisans; she's working alongside of them. I won't necessarily say guiding, but the initial thoughts come from her and it is this collaborative process. It's for her a collection ultimately. And so she's deeply involved; she's  there alongside them. These are hands-on workshops. She's working alongside the artisans as they develop the textile that is then tailored into a piece of clothing.

Joshua Williams: In addition to these really high end art pieces, she has a little bit more of a traditional line. Can you talk about that? 

Sass Brown: Similar to some other designers, she does have a more ready to wear collection, if you like. There  are only so many people that can afford these artisan intense pieces. So, it's a very particular market.

So she does a ready-to-wear collection, which does involve some artists and ship. It might be block printing. It might be hand weaving. It may be some Sujani embroidery, most of which is produced out of her studio store in Delhi, I believe it's in. So, she does have the two collections, the highly intensive work pieces. And then the more ready-to-wear collection as well.

Joshua Williams: It's probably no secret anymore that a lot of the French and Italian brands have been going to India to be able to access some of these really hyper craft driven beading, embroideries and things like that. What could we learn about a brand like Swati Kalsi, who really is luxury, but is not necessarily connected to Western luxury or that concept?

Sass Brown: I think that's where we have a massive disconnect. You have LVMH who's bought the French métiers d'art, right? To help continue those traditions of luxury craftsmanship. This is exactly the same in India. It's generally not valued as much. Yet nevertheless, those same luxury brands produce with these artisans predominantly in India.

I remember hearing the previous president of Chambre de Syndicale say that the future of luxury was India, because they retain this incredible breadth of traditional craftsmanship and artisanship that is sought after, even if it's not always paid for fairly. So, I think that we have a lot to learn about utilizing the same values, both fiscally and in terms of respect of working with artisans around the world, as we do with artisans in France or Italy and other Western locations. 

Joshua Williams: Swati Kalsi is known for  being very protective about her brand narrative and the brand experience. And I think in large part, because of the high level of artistry that goes into these pieces. How do our listeners learn more about Swati and how do they purchase goods, if they're interested?

Sass Brown: She does have a website, SwatiKalsi.com. And you can look at the pieces directly on there. The artisan-heavy pieces are not priced. So, you would have to contact her directly, but you can absolutely do that through the website. And then she does have the studio store in Delhi, as well.

Joshua Williams: Wonderful. Well, we can't wait to have you back next month for another brand feature. 

Sass Brown: Terrific. I look forward to it.