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Silk root

Designer Daniel Syiem shows Meghalaya's Khasi handlooms at London Fashion Week

Syiem (left) and Janessaline Pyngrope; and a look from his London Fashion Week show last week.Premium
Syiem (left) and Janessaline Pyngrope; and a look from his London Fashion Week show last week.

Until four years ago, sociology graduate and designer Daniel Syiem ran a small boutique in Shillong that specialized in women’s Western wear. He also moonlighted as a manager at a local nightclub when a friend working with the department of sericulture and weaving in Meghalaya invited him to visit villages like Sonidan and Umden. Located in the state’s Ri Bhoi district, Umden is famous for eri silk. The 35-year-old self-taught designer says that though he had previously experimented with traditional Khasi fabrics, this interaction with native weavers prompted him to devote his design practice to promoting the organic silk handloom called ryndia (a type of eri silk).

Last week, Syiem sent out a collection fabricated exclusively from ryndia at the London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2015 as part of “Fashion International", a runway show for emerging designers.

Formalizing his commitment to work with the women weavers of Umden, Syiem formed the Daniel Syiem Ethnic Fashion House label in 2011, along with his business partner Janessaline Pyngrope, and then went on to participate in two consecutive seasons at the Lakmé Fashion Week last year. He also showed at the North East Fashion Fest in New Delhi and at fashion weeks in Hyderabad and Rajasthan, last year. More recently, he began retailing his minimalist dresses and separates—many of which are inspired from the traditional Khasi attire like the jainsem, a toga-like gown, and the apron-like wrap jainkyrshah—through lifestyle store Goodearth’s Sustain line.

Earlier this year, Syiem was invited to participate in a fashion and culture presentation by the Northeast India Academy of Performing Arts at the Couture Fashion Week in New York. That showcase, he says, opened many doors, including the London Fashion Week invitation.

Besides being organic, ryndia, an “ahimsa" silk processed from cocoons without killing the larvae inside, has thermal properties and is mostly used to make shawls and stoles. Syiem’s initial challenges included convincing weavers to supply the fabric in new dimensions, but he adds that since the fabric is dyed with vegetable dyes, it severely limits the brand’s colour palette to shades of white and natural earthy tones. To compliment the handlooms, he avoids using machine-made embellishments or fasteners and relies instead on drawstrings, knots and buttons made from natural materials.

Syiem makes a strong argument for slow fashion saying it often functions as an extension of cottage industries. That is why he chose to build an easy-to-wear Western wear brand. “It takes nearly a week to make just one metre of ryndia which costs between 1,200-1,500," he explains. “It would be careless of me if I didn’t create classic pieces that encourage buyers to use them to the fullest and even repurpose them," he adds.

At his London outing, Syiem also presented a small selection of accessories for the first time. His collection of shirt dresses, short jumpsuits, cropped tops and palazzo pants in ivory, ochre, amaranth, crimson and olive green were paired with necklaces, belts and embellished ties (for women) made with bamboo, pine cones and local beads and stones.

Though he has never struggled to find clients during his decade-long career, Syiem says he always felt the need to do something more substantial to contribute to his community. A lot has to do with his father Michael Syiem’s work for the Khasi tribe, as the leader of the former Khasi Students’ Union and the current president of the Meghalaya Association of Wine Makers. “I find myself very lucky to be able to marry my love for fashion and my passion to put ryndia and Meghalaya on the map of not just India but the world," says Syiem.

His silk roots run deep.

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Published: 20 Sep 2014, 12:16 AM IST
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