Kiran Rao to mentor city design house

Director Kiran Rao is better known for lending her vision to films, not fashion. But Aamir Khan’s wife has now turned mentor and muse for Colaba-based concept store Bungalow 8 as they make their foray into the suburbs to show a special capsule collection called B8 Handmade.

Director Kiran Rao is better known for lending her vision to films, not fashion. But Aamir Khan’s wife has now turned mentor and muse for Colaba-based concept store Bungalow 8 as they make their foray into the suburbs to show a special capsule collection called B8 Handmade. The work will be exhibited at The Yoga House, Bandra this Sunday.

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"Kiran has always supported Bungalow 8 and Matthieu (in-house designer Matthieu Leguillon)," says Maithili Ahluwalia, owner. "So we bounced a couple of ideas off her for this new venture, though she hasn’t designed or curated any part of it. We’ve also done a little interview with her, which is up on our Facebook page, where she talks about the need to have a degree of consciousness in the way we live."



The brief of the project was to focus on handmade artefacts, an idea for which celebrated jewellery designer Jamini Ahluwalia, whose work is also featured at the exhibition, turned to archives from the ’80s. "Jamini wanted to bring back some techniques that don’t even exist now," reveals Maithili, explaining. "She’s used beads made in the style of channapatna lacquered woodwork, along with clay beadwork that was once a flourishing industry in Mumbai."



Leguillon has also created two lines of clothing for the new project, for which he sourced handloom fabrics from the Northeast to match his Naga-inspired range of dresses and jumpsuits. "These fabrics are quite stiff and don’t lend themselves to modern silhouettes. So he’s worked with them in a way to infuse fluidity and softness," reveals Maithili.



B8 Handmade collection is on display at Yoga House, Bandra on February 19, 10am to 10pm.