Designer Nayomie Prasad in Dialogue with Attire Club

She’s been exposed to the field of design almost her whole life, her parents and a few family members, being designers and exporters, allowed her privileged insight. Also, studying in Edinburgh and Milan, and later working there for a bespoke Branding House, enhanced her already panoramic view.

In this Attire Club interview, designer Nayomie Prasad discusses her craft, the fashion industry and decoding what it takes, to be a designer for her students. She designs for a Mumbai-based brand called Kamaneya that creates high fashion accessories for women.

 

Take a look at the answers she offered exclusively for Attire Club:

 

 

Attire Club: Where do you think the fashion industry is headed? 

Nayomie Prasad: Currently, I see it as a dance-off between Luxury/Couture vs Premium/Fast Fashion vs Technologically-Integrated fashion. Unless, we’re hit by oblivion; a cataclysmic event in the near future, and life as we know it, is rendered irrelevant –

I an intrigued by how the impact of these forces will shape the industry in the future.

 

 

A.C.: What do you say to those who think the design industry has reached a point of saturation?

N.P: There have been phases when I’ve felt cynical about the industry, and while I was in Milan, I heard several PR agents and journalists refer to certain fashion shows with the term ‘A sea of same’, only when they thought no one was listening, of course. I have to say, I don’t share their cynicism. Sure, (I say this as a consumer) there is a lot of supposedly banal stuff out there, but creativity in the fashion industry has evolved to the point of being distilled and combined as if it were at a molecular level. Like a fragrance, it can be made novel with minor tweaks. One will most likely recognize the hints, but blended in an innovative manner, the sum of all the hints, in various proportions and renditions is unfamiliar, and therefore, captivating.

By my observation over the last three years, more and more designers have been exploring a single concept until they’ve reached a point of satisfaction, like Dolce & Gabbana with their Byzantine-inspired collections. They’ve explored the concept and its offshoots. I feel like in doing this, they’ve taken control of the industry, and made their perspective front and center as opposed to the industry and economics dictating which way to turn.

 

 

A.C.: Why the fashion industry – what keeps you motivated about it? 

N.P.: We all see, hear, touch and smell the same world with our two eyes, ears. fingers and a nose. We process it with our brains, and project our unique perception on every new experience based on conscious and subconscious inferences from our past. We develop a perspective that is similar to others, but not identical, and it is these differences that provoke the best inspiration and infuse ordinary things with new meaning. Expressing these differences as a designer and my admiration of how other designers articulate them is what keeps me motivated.

 

 

A.C.: What part of being a designer or being a part of this world do you find challenging or makes you anxious? 

N.P.: Anyone that goes to design school studies clothing and art history. It’s through these studies and ongoing research for the courses that I teach at Istituti Calgary in my home-town, that I realized that the industrial revolution and the proliferation of capitalism has been both a boon and a curse to aesthetically inclined industries. On the one hand, I see value in affordable, trendy, machine-made clothing and accessories for the masses, but on the other hand, I feel that this insatiable need for profit has pushed every designer between the rock that is the urge to be creative, and the very hard place that is the need to sell constantly. Of course, the bottom line is important to any designer and, as exhilarating as it is to successfully walk that tight rope, I can also imagine it is trying. While I immensely respect the big names that have stretched and expanded their brands, I fear ever getting to that place because I view it as a double edged sword.

 

 

A.C.: What according to you makes a great designer?  

N.P.: I teach my students that learning to cut and sew and string and style is important but it’s like having a driver’s license and a car with nowhere to go. It’s one’s passion and need to be somewhere and/or explore that gives one the direction in which to drive.

Based on my study and understanding of all the greats – Chanel, Balenciaga, Pucci, Issey Miyake, Paco Rabanne – allowed their passions to direct their designs, instead of being purely passionate about designing. Pucci was practically a chemist; Issey Miyake is fascinated with math, Rabanne was infatuated with astrology. I don’t dare compare myself with them, but aim to learn from their methods, and to follow in their footsteps.

 

 

A.C.: What are you then passionate about if not designing? 

N.P.: My own passions are derived from a helpless obsession with the universe and everything in it. I spend much of my time reading scientific articles on topics ranging from astrophysics and human health to the arts and social sciences, quantum mechanics and astrology – I’m also very taken with magic and spirituality. With Kamaneya, I hope to express my exploration of the human mind and the universe that surrounds us.

 

 

A.C.: Tell us a little bit about your first collection for Kamaneya? 

N.P.: My current collection is called Atoms, the entire collection has been handmade using rare embroidery techniques, right from drawing board to the finished product, with exception to raw materials. We’ve used the finest Preciosa beads from the Czech Republic and the findings have been designed in house and produced by metal smiths who usually cater to fine jewellery houses. Aesthetically, the structure of Platonic solids and the building blocks of life inspired the collection. Oddly, the building blocks of life are uncannily similar to sacred geometrical diagrams. This collection is my little way of understanding how matter is formed and how things probably look at an atomic level when atoms begin to bond with one another.

 

 

A.C.: Who is Kamaneya?

N.P.: Kamaneya, is a slight variation of ‘Kamaniya’ which is one of the thousand names, by which Goddess Tripura Sundari is known.  Her icon is the sacred geometric symbol of the ‘Sri Yantra’.  She is the goddess of beauty and ‘Shakti’ (power). Kamaneya the company is minute.

It started out as a two human show, my craftsperson and me with the occasional outsourcing. Despite growth I will endeavour to keep my operations small and efficient. I’d like to concentrate on design over the glamour – I’m not keen to be in the limelight – but acknowledge that the opportunity to express creativity is short lived unless one reconciles with the economics.

 

 

 

Kamaneya Jewelry is available for purchase at www.burlingtons.com and at www.kamaneya.com. Kamaneya currently retails at Burlington’s at The Taj Mahal Hotel at Colaba in Mumbai as well, so if you find yourself in the area, make sure you pay the store a visit.

You can also keep up with brand on their Facebook page at http://facebook.com/kamaneya