Mr. Asif Shaikh
Born: 6th March 1968, Ahmedabad, India
Mother: Zebunnisha Hazar Shaikh
Father: Hazar Yasin Shaikh
Schooling: DB High School, Ahmedabad – 1982
College: Studied Interior Design from CEPT
(Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology)
Ahmedabad – 1994
I was born in a middle class family in Ahmedabad, a city world renowned as a textile hub, home to traditional artisans and textile mills. I was fascinated by embroidery from a young age as I watched my mother embroider and transform a plain piece of cloth into an object of beauty and art.
I finished my schooling and studied Interior Design at the School of Interior Design (CEPT). My deep sense for aesthetics, detail and my thirst for understanding how things are designed and produced, to be functional and aesthetic, made me understand and explore different traditional textile techniques.
I thus developed thorough knowledge of weaving techniques, printing and dyeing, natural colours, embellishing techniques, yarns and threads, and all the different tools and apparatus that go into making and presenting a finished textile and garment.
I subsequently established my own studio 2002, embroidered myself and taught different embroidery techniques to a team of artisans. The studio has created a variety of embroidered garments embellished with fine embroidery specially aariandzardozi. In recentyears, I have specialized in miniature embroidery whose beauty is best appreciate when seen through a magnifying glass.
It is now more than 26 years that I have been experimenting and reinventing textiles and embroideries. The highlight of my journey hasbeen the redesign of thekarchobor the scroll frame in 2012. This redesigned simplified the tedious task of mounting the fabric on the frame for the best embroidery results, saves working time and energy, and is also fabric friendly. In 2015, I re-introduced realkasabgold thread embroidery.
My garments stand for the seamless coming together of natural fibres; natural colours and dyes; traditional weaving techniques; hand embroidery; hand stitching of embellishments like sequins, beads, precious stones,metal threads and other precious elements. At times I commission artisans to create special textiles such as resist-dyed or block printed textiles whose beauty is further enhanced by fine embroidery at my studio. Textile lovers have remarked that the garments are wearable works of art.
In 2013, I presented ‘resurgence’, a collection of textiles featuring different traditional Indian textile techniques, created under my guidance, by master artisans, at the IGNCA-New Delhi. The exhibition subsequently travelled to Ahmedabad, Kolkata,Santa Fe-USA, London-UK, Nantong-China,and many more cities around the world showcasing the beauty of Indian textiles that brought traders from ancient times and from across the world to India. The exhibition also conveyed India’s living heritage of textile skills and that exquisite handcrafted textiles can be crafted even today.
My endeavour has been not to copy the old pieces but to create masterpieces inspired by the past. The textiles created at the studio are contemporary pieces of beauty and prove that aesthetics, quality, techniques, craftsmanship have not been lost post industrialisation, liberalisation and production on large scale.
In 2016, I co-founded CDS Art Foundation (Craft Design Society), a not-for-profit organisation, based in Ahmedabad. It was founded with an aim to start a movement to take beautiful, handcrafted Indian textiles to the world stage to share space with the best global textile and fashion labels.
At the heart of the foundation’s endeavour are established and emerging master textile artisans who are the unnamed creators of textiles of extraordinarybeauty. Since its inception, the foundation has undertaken several initiatives to engage with artisans to encourage, inspire and commission them to create extraordinary textiles. These include workshops, talks, exhibitions and collaborations with designers to produce a line of couture garments which is presented through a fashion show with the artisan walking with the designer on the ramp.
I work with master crafts persons and help them understand what it means to create and go that extra mile and deliver the best of what they possibly can. I encourage them to extend their abilities each time they take on a project or assignment, so that they createor add little something extra, hone their skillsand the technique further. I ensure every craftsperson who I collaborate with gets his or her due. I would like to see them grow, preserve and enhance their skills, earn well so that the future generationscontinue the tradition and we together leave a legacy for the future.
Recognition on the world platform has been exhilarating and has inspired me.However, there is a lot to be done at home in India. I believe India’s textile tradition is truly unique and must be preserved and taken forward. In the time of power looms, mill made cloth, digital printing and other mechanical and technological interventions, the need of the hour to reach out to our artisans.Government and non-governmental support in our endeavour will be deeply appreciated.
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