Latest news with #VinoSupraja
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Designer Vino Supraja is winning awards for an unusual fashion formula
'Every step in my career has been unplanned,' laughs fashion designer Vino Supraja, 45, 'but it has prepared me for exactly where I am today.' Her journey is testament to the power of serendipity, she adds. How else could a girl who 'spoke almost no English', growing up in the small temple town of Vandavasi in Tamil Nadu, end up winning a trailblazer award and delivering a speech on India's culture of sustainability, at the British House of Commons? 'I've grown to accept that when I'm willing to let go, be dismantled and reassembled, good things happen to me,' she says. Supraja started out, for instance, with a degree in architecture from Chennai. It was there that she met and fell in love with her husband 'and best friend' Deepak Renganathan, a marketing vice-president with a real-estate company. Eager to explore some of the new technology emerging in the early 2000s, she then completed a course in animation. This led to her first full-time job, as a TV presenter and radio jockey with Jaya TV. At this point, in 2011, her husband was offered a position in China, and she and their son Hriday (then six and now a medical student) moved with him. 'I spent hours browsing through courses there, trying to find something I could do,' Supraja says. That's when she stumbled upon a listing for a course in fashion design at the Shanghai outpost of the International Fashion Academy, Paris. 'This and a business course were the only two listings with websites in English, so I don't think I had much of a choice,' she says, laughing. Suddenly, it came together: her love of storytelling, her love of building, her passion for the arts. Here was a discipline where she could combine all three. Her graduate collection in 2014, inspired by the book The Kite Runner, made it to the Shanghai Fashion Week, where she won the Golden Laureate award. Her collections have since featured at the Brooklyn Fashion Week (2016), New York Fashion Week (2018), and London Fashion Week (2023), with designs increasingly rooted in Tamil culture. The instantly recognisable costumes of the ancient Tamil folk art form of Therukoothu (literally, Street Theatre) are reborn as ensembles. The iconic Bhavani jamakkalam stripes turn up in contemporary vibrancy, as accents on clutches and handbags. *** If it seems like Supraja is weaving her stories in fresh and surprising ways, it's partly because she grew up without the frames of reference of most of the urbanised world, she says. Folk lore took the place of fairy tales in her home. Her family had no TV set. Her father, the physician Dr Audikesavalu, opened up his house to patients from nearby villages that included Purisai, a hub of Therukoothu performers. The local temple hosted a range of folk artists too. 'These productions were not perfect. They were crude, raw and unpolished... which made them beautiful in their own way,' Supraja says. Her mother, Vimala Audikesavalu, ran a local school and was known for her collection of handloom saris, which she washed, starched and sun-dried every weekend, in a ritual that served as a bonding session for mother and daughter (and gave Supraja an early appreciation for and understanding of heirloom garments, traditional weaves and sustainable fashion). Syncretism was everywhere. The local church hosted Bharatnatyam classes. The Therukoothu performers let children from the neighbourhood watch and sometimes help with makeup backstage. 'My childhood was a patchwork of simple experiences but these fragments shaped me into who I am today,' she says. *** Given the opportunity to present a collection at London Fashion Week 2023, she decided to give Therukoothu 'the platform it deserves'. Her designs captured the depth and drama of the art form in flowy silhouettes. She showcased the art form itself too, through a one-minute performance by a Therukoothu artiste. Her latest collection is born of her travels to Bhavani in Erode district, to study the GI-tagged jamakkalam weave. The colourful stripes were traditionally used to make cotton rugs. She reimagines them as couture because 'if they can look like Gucci stripes, they deserve to sit alongside them too'. 'Having had my share of the limelight, I now find myself thinking: Who can I share this moment with?' Supraja says. Her eponymous label uses natural fibres and pigments. She offers to buy items back from customers after 18 months, in exchange for purchase points, and has plans to upcycle these items too. In her speech at the House of Commons, she advocated for garment workers' rights. Without the right kind of intervention, their livelihoods — which have tended to be embodiments of sustainability and yet have been tenuous and marginalised — will become even more challenging, she pointed out, 'as we encourage people to buy less'. She was awarded the Global Sustainable Fashion Trailblazer prize at the House of Commons (awarded jointly by the World Tamil Organization and the UK government) partly for her unusual approach to fashion, and for her work to promote undervalued and underestimated traditional crafts. Supraja's sustainability efforts have also yielded a self-published book (aimed at helping people navigate questions of consumerism), a podcast and a theatrical production. The designer, who now lives in Dubai, is looking forward to her next showcase at London Fashion Week, in September. And to more sustainability outreach work, particularly with children. 'Kids will ask if it's okay to buy new clothes for their birthday,' she smiles. 'They grasp the wastefulness of buying a new outfit to celebrate a friend's birthday.' Her hope is that, with enough of these conversations, they will grow into adults who treasure their heirloom garments, avoid fast fashion, and never buy into a microtrend.
Fashion Network
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Vino Supraja celebrated for sustainable fashion at British Parliament
Designer Vino Supraja was recently honoured with the Global Sustainable Fashion Trailblazer award at the House of Commons, British Parliament. The recognition marked a milestone in Supraja's journey from the small town of Vandavasi to an international platform for sustainability in fashion. "Grateful to be recognised as a Global Sustainable Fashion Trailblazer at the British Parliament," announced Supraja on Linkedin. "This award is not just a personal milestone but a testament to the power of ethical fashion and craftsmanship. Sustainability is more than a choice- it's a responsibility. This recognition fuels my commitment to creating fashion that respects people, the planet, and the artistry of our weavers. Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey." Supraja hails from the small town of Vandavasi and was educated in a government school, The Hindu reported. At the British Parliament, Supraja spoke about culture and sustainable fashion to a global audience. Now based in Dubai, the 45-year-old designer entered fashion after stints in architecture, animation and media studies, eventually enrolling in a fashion school in China, according to her Linkedin page. Supraja's graduation collection won two international awards and was showcased at the 2014 Shanghai Fashion Week. The designer has subsequently showcased designs at New York and Brooklyn fashion weeks, with collections influenced by events such as the 2018 Chennai floods. Supraja's shift to sustainable fashion began in Dubai, leading to collaborations with Chennimalai weavers and participation in London Fashion Week. Drawing inspiration from Tamil folk traditions like Therukoothu, Supraja has incorporated cultural storytelling into her shows and is now exploring new uses for the Bhavani jamakkalam, aiming to revive local crafts.
The Hindu
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Indian designer Vino Supraja named Global Sustainable Fashion Trailblazer at the British Parliament
'For somebody who is from the small town of Vandavasi; who did her schooling in a Government school; and had a lot of insecurities about speaking English; to go to the British Parliament and talk about our culture, was a surreal, happy moment,' says designer Vino Supraja. She was recently honoured with the title of Global Sustainable Fashion Trailblazer award at the House of Commons, British Parliament. The 45-year-old designer, now based in Dubai, has had a long, fragmented sojourn in the world of fashion. She says that it is not one single moment that led her here. Instead it is simply a series of things that kept shooting at her. 'I am still observing where it is going to take me,' she says. For a long time, Vino dabbled in media studies. 'I did my architecture degree in Chennai and then I learnt animation, and I joined an electronic media course in Anna University.' After a brief stint in radio, Vino shifted base to China. In China, while scouring websites for possible study or job opportunities, she chanced upon only two sites in English. The rest were all in Chinese. 'One was a business school and the other, a fashion school. I somehow associated numbers with business so I opted for the other option! That's my official entry into the world of fashion,' she recalls, laughing. Vino's graduation collection went on to receive two international awards, and made its appearance in the 2014 Shanghai Fashion Week. Then life moved to Detroit — where her collection was walked in New York Fashion Week, and then Brooklyn Fashion Week where she featured a line that came out of the Chennai floods of 2018. It was only five years in. After moving to Dubai, where she is based now, she realised 'the dark side of the fashion industry', as she calls it. 'It was a moment of realisation. I wanted my brand to adopt a sustainable path. That is when we started working with the Chennimalai weavers. That slowly led me to London Fashion Week.' The ancient Tamil folk art form of Therukoothu has always inspired Vino, especially as she hails from Purisai, one of the main, still-thriving centres of the folk form. 'When London Fashion Week came up, I decided that this is the time I should platform Therukoothu,' says Vino. 'I went to Purisai and there I met someone who I have admired from my childhood days — Purisai Kannappa Thambiran Ayya. They were very happy to collaborate. I learnt how to dress a character and do their makeup. We came to Chennai to record the audio, and showcased a one-minute presentation at the London Fashion Week before the models walked the ramp. The western world was shocked to see so many colours on one person,' recalls Vino. All these collections are available on the website. Her next visit was to Bhavani in Erode district to understand the crafting of the famed jamakkalam fabric. 'I could see that the craft was diminishing and many weaving looms were left unattended. Small businesses were suffering. This made me wonder what I can do with my brand.' Stripes, solid colours, very minimal — the jammakalam's aesthetic was decidedly global. 'The stripes of the Bhavani jamakkalam are at par with the Gucci stripes! This year we launched the J collection, with bags.' With the new, rather heavy moniker of Global Sustainable Fashion Trailblazer, the responsibilities increase. While sustainability has been a buzz word in the fashion industry for the last five years, it is now being overtaken by AI, says Vino. 'Now, the dialogue is around incorporating AI in fashion and the chatter about sustainability is taking a backseat. Ultimately, moving to sustainability should be taken as a responsibility by the big brands first.' Vino is now working on reimagining the Bhavani jamakkalam to make products other than bags. 'I want to give prompts to the world, which anyone can adopt and enhance their creativity with.' With fabrics and techniques that deserve global attention, Vino crusades to bring the world to South India, one jamakkalam at a time.
Khaleej Times
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Dubai-based Indian expat Vino Supraja's sustainable fashion Inspired by ancient art
'You can't go home again' — goes the expression popularised by American author Thomas Wolfe's eponymous novel. When we return to a place from the past it's never the same as we remember it. Things change, people move on, places evolve, and life takes a trajectory of its own so that childhood remembrances can never be relived fully. But for 45-year-old architect-turned-fashion designer and entrepreneur Vino Supraja, whose label takes her name too, the past seems to have somehow stayed suspended in time, awaiting her return, to give it a new lease on life. Retracing her memories of watching an ancient theatrical art form under the incandescent light of petromax lamps as a six-year-old in a small town in Tamil Nadu, India led to a fashion collection for connoisseurs of woven stories from as far as Japan and the UK. The story of reconnection begins where one ends. 'I originally belong to a very small town called Vandavasi in Tamil Nadu, and I am an architect by education. I worked for radio and television in Chennai, India for five years as a host, radio jockey, and a producer, and after five years of having a career in media, I had to move to China in 2011 because of my husband's job,' she recalls. As she searched for media-related information, she found herself on one side of the chasm of language. 'The only website that was open in English was a fashion school, and that's how I ended up in the fashion field,' she says. To the runway Three years later, when she moved to Detroit, Supraja showcased her collections at Shanghai Fashion Week followed by Brooklyn Fashion Week in 2017. That same year, she moved to Dubai. In the city, known as a rapidly growing fashion capital, she saw the documentary The True Cost by Andrew Morgan a couple of years later as part of another fashion course she was taking, which opened her eyes to the plight of those in workhouses, who made clothes for fashion houses from around the world. And she made the decision to make every aspect of her label, which is currently available online in the UAE, ethical as well as sustainable. 'It [the documentary] hit me really hard, because it's about how garment-making employees are being treated. I felt very bad that I belong to an industry which was causing so much damage to livelihoods and also to Earth. So, I consciously shifted my path to become a sustainable fashion designer, and I came up with my brand as a sustainable fashion brand,' she says. And so she went on a backpacking trip to India to find the right group of weavers to work with, she says, adding: 'I found one in a village in Tamil Nadu. These are the people who still weave my fabric.' But then, Covid-19 happened, and she moved back to India. However, in 2022, Dubai came calling again. And in 2023, Purisai, one of her most successful collections inspired by her childhood was born. The origins for it lay in Therukoothu, an ancient theatrical folk art that is known for its rawness and vibrant colours. 'Therukoothu is something that I have seen since my childhood, because I was raised in a very small town. For us, television came very, very late into our lives. So the entertainment we had was ...attending weddings or sitting on rugs and watching Therukoothu. And when you are a child, seeing all these colours, dramatic head gear and those mirrors... This art form is from the really ancient days when there were no electric lights, they had lamps that used fire. The light that would shine would reflect on the mirrors and all the tassels would be jumping when the character was jumping. I used to be fascinated. I wanted to make a collection out of it, because it has so many elements like the face makeup and the costume as such. And you know, it was super inspiring. I think even if I was still practicing architecture I would have built a building inspired from that,' she laughs. The artform has since become a rarer thing to witness but recently found itself in the headlines when Therukoothu performer and teacher Purisai Kannappa Sambandan, whose family is one of the few credited with saving the art form from being forgotten, was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India. Heartened by the weave's reach, Supraja has been roaming her homeland, looking for inspiration in the smallest of places, finding delicate crafts and traditions on the edge of extinction, to craft something unexpected out of the canvas that is cloth. According to the non-profit Isha Foundation, India is home to more than 136 unique weaves, and has 50 traditional folk and tribal arts. There are reams of inspiration for the wandering traveller with an observant eye. It is one such tradition that has made the Vino Supraja cut. 'The product has not been launched yet; I am planning to launch it in March this year. See, there is this little village called Bhavani, which specialises in Bhavani Jamakkalam, a type of rug. 'This type of rug was used during every occasion in Tamil Nadu,' she explains. People wouldn't like sitting on the floor during gatherings, she says, and so these rugs were used as cushioning. Nowadays nobody sits on the floor. 'So that art is literally dying, and that is a geotagged weaving technique. (When I visited) I could see that art is dying. There are, like, hundreds of looms with cobwebs, broken looms with lots of dust caking them, and you can see one old man who is 80-plus, showing all his ribs, still weaving. It is such a strong visual,' she says. Finding herself charmed by the ancient practice, she began to think long and hard about tweaking the use of the resulting cloth; why make rugs when people don't use them to sit on? Why not use the same method to craft other things — not only would it give the art form a new lease on life but also bring it to the forefront as the unique heritage of India that was almost forgotten. 'I am at the product development stage as of now. We are re-imagining that as luxury handbags, because those rugs have signature stripes which I thought can actually be placed at a par with the Gucci stripe,' she said. About her base in the Emirates, she has this to say, 'The UAE helped me because the market was open for sustainable brands, however big or small, and although Dubai is a big market where all the luxury brands play, a brand like mine also has space. The country is welcoming of homegrown brands. It offers that comfort of running a (seamless) business.' Time's dominion over space kind of guarantees that you can't go back into a memory — the path to success then lies in carrying the good times forward, in taking the old and with that cloth, weaving a new future.
