Aamod

ANAVILA | FESTIVE 2023

Aamod was the first collection led at Anavila, as the brand began exploring festive dressing while keeping its textile-led identity intact. Inspired by Rajasthan, the collection opened up space for experimenting with colour, surface and embellishment. Zari linen was tied and dyed multiple times to create pattas and danas of traditonal Leheriyas, while gota patti was explored extensively across textiles and silhouettes. The process moved between research, textile development, sampling and garment development, with ideas often having to evolve quickly from concept into production. It became an important experience in understanding how a familiar brand language can stretch into a new category without losing what makes it recognisable, and how experimentation can sit within the practical demands of developing a collection.

AAMOD | ANAVILA | FESTIVE'23 Aamod is Anavila’s first bridal collection. The word comes from Sanskrit and speaks of joy, pleasure and delight. It felt right for a collection about weddings, but also about what sits beneath them: family, memory, beauty and the beginning of a new life. In the Vedic tradition, Vivaha, or marriage, was understood as more than a union between two people. The elements, the gods, the earth and the larger rhythms of nature were invoked as part of the ceremony. Aamod looks back at this idea not to recreate the past, but to find what still feels meaningful in it. For Anavila, that meaning lies in clothes that are beautiful without being burdened by ornament. In textiles that carry the memory of the hands that made them. In a sari or lehenga that can be worn for a wedding and remembered long after the flowers have faded. This thought is closely connected to Anavila’s own journey. Since 2011, her work has been an exploration of the sari and the possibilities held within Indian textiles. Years of working with weavers and artisans across the country have brought together linen, khadi silk, batik, Khatwa, embroidery, printing and appliqué. Aamod brings many of these learnings into a bridal wardrobe. The visual world of the collection comes from the gardens and landscapes of Bundi miniature paintings. Peacocks, birds, deer, flowers and Nayikas appear across the textiles through delicate prints, embroidery, Khatwa and Lahariya. The colours move through turquoise, berry, yellow, peach and ivory, recalling the faded brilliance of old Bundi frescoes. There is ornament, but it is never allowed to take over. A linen zari kaftan lets the zari shimmer on its own. A small appliqué becomes the detail one notices only after looking twice. A delicate weave carries the beauty of the garment without asking for anything more. Nature has always offered Anavila this sense of balance. A flower can be extravagant in colour and still feel effortless. A peacock carries an astonishing palette without seeming to have tried. Perhaps this is where Aamod finds its idea of quiet luxury. Not in having less, or in having more, but in knowing what is enough. In choosing something beautifully made, understanding where it comes from and allowing it to become part of a memory. Aamod is a bridal collection, but at its heart it is simply an invitation to celebrate with joy, with beauty and with a little more ease.