‘Uniform’ is quite an oxymoron with Aneeth as she doesn’t stick to codes of style and that’s what makes her autumn-winter 2015 line a bag of surprises from Scottish checks woven in Himachal, to enamel buttons from the Pink City
By Asmita Aggarwal
Inspiration is a much misused word in fashion, some may need the thrill of snow-clad mountains, Arizona deserts or Burning Man, while some may just be inspired by what they see around them—humble, mundane things, which they then elevate to create unabashed splendour through a language of weaves. And that’s what makes Aneeth Arora’s Pero special.
If you rewind it is what she observes and notes down in her little sketchbook that keeps her motivated, whether it is check lungis and crochet skull caps worn by Muslims outside a mosque in Lucknow; or Mary Poppins, which came with colour coded M & Ms and the quote—“In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and snap—-the job is a game”, it is a story that keeps progressing with each season.
This time she saw uniforms, lots of them and they kind of became the metaphor of her aut-winter 2015 offering, from the enamel buttons she got made from Rajasthan to the brass badges. “The wool is soft and has a Pero sensibility, with feminine undertones that you craft into a playful dress, with lace accents, which can be teamed up with a boyfriend jacket,” she smiles.
But Aneeth is not one to be fickle about love, and this love like the real one, has withstood the test of time; layering in summer is with mul-mul, and winter it changes to wool. Wool, that Aneeth will tell you is woven, along with the Scottish checks, no not from the Highlands, but Himachal Pradesh. “Weavers there don’t weave checks, so we had to make a few alterations in the looms and we got what we had envisioned,” she says. She, as always has also worked on blends, wool with silk to give it a smooth texture; without thinking about forecasts, Aneeth has generously worked with two favourites—resist indigo dyeing and Gujarat’s block printing. “I work from the heart and less from the mind, so clothes are not restricted to the hegemony of the thin, rather I have constantly tried to break that notion, which you saw this time too,” she concludes.
