From Granny’s Lap to Founder

Sometimes after a long day, when I close my eyes, I can still feel the soft cotton of my grandmother’s saree, as I did when I would lay my head on her lap as a child. The comforting smell of the freshly washed and pressed garment still wafts through my nose, and I can feel the tension leaving my body as the familiarity of that memory, so deeply rooted in me grounds me and comforts me even today.

Looking back now, it was those cotton sarees that I would nap on every afternoon — with their bright contrast borders — that brought me to where I stand today. The founder and creative director of AdiValka, a company that works with Indian textiles, inspired by Indic designs drawn from the rich heritage and the culture I come from.

From my grandmother’s lap to my mother’s wardrobe

My mother continued the precedent my grandmother had set in her own way. She particularly had a true passion for traditional Indian handicrafts, sarees, and jewellery. One step inside her wardrobe was as good as travelling from Mysore down in the south to Varanasi or West Bengal in the north. Running my hands over her Mysore or Benaras silks, and her Gadwal and Bengal cottons taught me about the textures and feels of different fabrics. The bright colours that stood out, but blended in, showed me aesthetic sense and colour combinations. The sheer variety rooted it all in the strength of diversity of my home culture.

Seeing my Ammamma (grandmother) and mother, I learned early on that garments were more than just pieces of clothing draped over your body — something any good designer will corroborate. Every piece of clothing that you wear, every accessory, every part of an ensemble you put together, all are stories on their own, that then come together to form a part of a new story — one you are writing.

My Inspiration

Even today, when I talk about my grandmother’s sarees and their bright colours, I only have to say ‘ammamma’s red’, ‘ammamma’s blue’, or ‘ammamma’s green’ for my sisters to know the precise shades of those colours I’m referring to. Her signature was distinct and unmistakable, and the story she told with her sarees is one we still continue to tell today, and is one that lives on in my designs, and my inspiration.

Any garment is a story in itself — every stitch, every cut, calls back to traditions, ideas, and knowledge that has been passed down for generations, and in the case of Indian drapes, millennia. When my sisters and I would drape ourselves in our mother’s Chennai, or Bengal, cotton sarees for school productions, playing characters from the treasure trove of Indian history — Rani Lakshmi Bai (Jhaansi ki Raani), Kitur Rani Chennamma — I learned more than just the words of those histories, those stories. I lived them in a way only those drapes could let me. Being given the chance to play those characters, and live those stories, I developed an innate understanding of the ways in which garments fit into, and impact our narratives.

But, Manisha, what does all this have to do with fashion?

I’m the daughter of a South Indian family that always dressed impeccably — each of us staying authentic and true to ourselves, be it my grandmother in her cotton sarees with bright contrast borders, or my mother with her love for silks and cottons from across India.

When it came to my turn, I had already had a taste of what it was to create my signature. I’d learned from the best. When it comes to my designs, that learning carries over. Throughout my career — whether it was designing ethnic wear, western wear, or fusion wear — the Indian motifs of paisleys, peacocks, temple structures, geometric and floral buttas that I saw through my childhood have always been what inspired me.

Fashion to me is the confluence of story, signature, and style. Today, when I sit down to design the products AdiValka is known for, I follow in the footsteps of what I learned laying on my grandmother’s lap, and rifling through my mother’s wardrobe all those years ago.