The S Studio is a one-stop boutique for unique hand-crafted sarees. The S Studio, the city’s latest saree store is a quaint and elegant boutique and is spread across over 1100 sq ft space and is tastefully designed for saree display and unstitched materials.
The current collection at The S Studio includes sarees made from Tussar Silk, Kancheepuram sarees, silk kota and matka silk, soft silks, chanderi and organza. The sarees have an individualistic personality with unique shades of ombré, aari and kantha embroidery, kalamkari, Pattachitra and abstract art.
Mrs. Subhashini Srinivasan, founder, The S-Studio, said, that, “The S Studio is an upcoming brand that aims to blend traditional crafts with contemporary patterns, colours and designs in quality fabrics. The S-Studio like other labels will have a line of designer pieces launched through the year.”
Encouraged by her family, she travels to the remotest of the places, understands both technique and art of weaving, printing and more…Her passion gave confidence to reach out to weavers and artistes across the country. Subhashini has made conscious attempts to work with handloom weavers, instead of power looms to preserve the dying handlooms in the country. She hopes to contribute in her smallest way to weavers and artistes who toil day in and day out to earn some respect for their crafts. She is a believer of sustainable clothing and tries to minimize wastage of fabric to a great extent.
‘Self-taught’ Subhashini feels that an eye for detail and her childhood experiences in painting, watching her mother while doing embroidery, and the desire to mix and match colours, anchored her confidence to change stream and explore designing. In 3 years of her saree designing career, her canvas became her sarees, where Subhashini explored her skills from blending fabrics and various art forms like Kalamkari painting, applique work with embroidery, traditional embroidery patterns to uplift traditional designs on quality fabrics.
Subhashini says it’s the artistes who keep her inspired and who draw out the best from her. She conceptualizes and designs the sarees, and works with craftsmen who execute the designs for her. She works with artistes in Kolkata who specialize in fabric paintings on sarees like they do on canvas- a lot of modern art and abstract painting on sarees. In the east, she works with artistes to reinvent “Pattachitra” painting on sarees. These paintings bring to life, scenes of rural India, snippets from the life of Krishna, which is traditional Pattachitra, yet with a modern twist of colours. She extends her reach to kalamkari artistes in Srikalahasti. She uses these art forms in fabrics that are comfortable to drape. She is an avid supporter of artistes who strive to keep their art forms alive.
Every saree from her line is woven to tell a story, be it the music season in Chennai or be it the traditional silks of kanchi, The S-Studio’s line has it all. She experiments with the fabrics that are in trend like Shibori, Organzas and silk kotas and soft silks to name a few. On the other hand, Subhashini is retaining more popular forms like warli prints, kantha work and\or Aari embroidery, that are making a come back in the fashion space. To cite a few, she has sarees with kantha and applique work that are blended to make a new pattern together. Perhaps a pastel tussar silk saree with complete kalamkari painting will suit someone else’s style or a fuchsia pink saree depicting scenes from life of Krishna, even a pastel ombré with cutwork and applique border will best suit another.
These sarees are a slice of people’s life, from the designer to the craftsmen, therefore they are more a treasure than a piece of garment, adds Subhashini. This month long process, from conceptualization to the receiving the end product, is totally worth the wait for a designer. She says she has complete confidence in her craftsmen, owing to which, she has been able to design over 300 sarees in the last few years.
