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Eastern Sensibilities Meet Western Chic In Merh Lines


Sankar Sri Pillai

Sucheta Merh wants to be known as a revivalist who hails back to old styles to fashion new ensembles. What makes Sucheta different from the other well known revivalist designer in Kolkata – Sharbari Datta – is that she mostly for women and oriented issues.
Sucheta who runs the Rangvai boutique at 6A, Alipore Avenue and has a background in prints and dyes, had her latest lines Vaishno and Chand Tara showcased at the Incognito, Taj Bengal in front of an audience that mainly comprised members from the Taj Ladies Club as well as ladies from the Rotary Club in Kolkata

The clothes tried to fuse the best of urban and rural styles in a mish-mash of kantha, tussar, zardosi, shibori and tie-and-dye methods and mirrored embroidery, using silks, crepes, nylons and faded denims. The sequence was interspersed with audiovisual rounds in which Sucheta, with the help of slides, showed how the same ensembles would look when worn by middle-aged women. The message: the ensembles weren’t just meant for models.

Vaishno, Merh’s latest line to be introduced at Rangvai, offers clothes that sport the nine –to-nine look and is all about mix and match. Chand Tara, the second line, has a similar theme. If Vaishno lays more emphasis on Western outfits with hints of the East with chunnis in swaroski being teamed with jackets and striped trousers-, Chand Tara stresses on Eastern lines. The colors of the season for Rangvai are red, burnt orange, navy blue and the ubiquitous black

The jacquard scarves in leopard spots and stripes can be worn around the neck or wrapped around the head to offer a classy look. Quite a few of the saree ensembles sported shibori dues, an ancient Japanese dyeing method. The methi style drape was also emphasized upon. Here the pallu of the saree was removed and replaced by an odhini or, the saree could be teamed with a kurta. There was a minimum emphasis on jewellery (supplied by Dio Gold) as the clothes were enough to hold the attention of the audience. Choreographed by Ashis Bannerjee of Rampedgewith Sucheta’s fashion consultant Vinita Jabbar coordinating the sequences, the show was a success and quite a few ladies in the audience were seen making a beeline for the ensembles stacked on a corner. We can guess what happened after that.
 
 
 
LAKME INDIA FASHION WEEK / SUCHETA MERH


Strong On Tradition

Kathakali Jana


The crafts of Bengal inspire Sucheta Merh in creating a range of unusual handcrafted fabrics and styling them into rare pieces. She loves to experiment with fabrics and surface treatment, as is evident in the collection she is taking to Lakme India Fashion Week, a line of prêt sarees and other garments. “Being the daughter of a gold medallist chemist has helped,” smiles Merh who has indepth knowledge of chemicals and dyes.

“Essence of my designs lies in earthy colors,” says Merh. The deep browns, rusts, greens, purples, royal blues and beiges combined with patchwork prints, embroidery and textures weave myths of tribal art and life in their folds. Merh believes in clean silhouettes whether she is dressing up a woman in a saree or kurtas, kurtis, shirts, tops, skirts or trousers in a collection that she will be showing at LIFW, Merh has chosen her prêt collection as well as sarees. “The same design philosophy of romancing the antique and the traditional pervades the whole range of outfits designed by me,” she says.

Her creations find expression in cottons, georgettes, silks, chiffons and other pure fabrics on which Merh use her signature printing techniques. There is also a lot of hand painting to go with this, highlighted by embellishments in beads and kasab. Touches of embroidery with colored threads revive old techniques, often giving her attires a quaint antique look.

Merh started her printing and dyeing unit nine years ago with a dream of creating unusual handcrafted fabrics and to style them into sensuous outfits for the modern woman. “I loved to paint as a young girl and I’ve carried a passion into adult life,” says Merh. She incorporates a lot of painting techniques in her designs, working also in mixed media, as though her fabric were a canvas. A rich imagination and a creative instinct make her one of Kolkata’s leading designers.

 

 
The Colours Of Spring - HT City
 
HT City Correspondent

It’s a vibrant collection that Sucheta Merh of Earthy Myths has unveiled this spring with the launch of her range of sarees and kurtas on Thursday.

“Colors like purple, orange, whites and blues have been used because they are the colors of the season in ethnic wear,” feels Sucheta. While the sarees in georgettes and kotas make up the range as also tissue-organzas, hand embroidery supplies the design element.

Prices start from Rs. 3,200 and end at Rs. 13,600 for the sarees. The short kurtas offer more options, however, with crepes, georgettes and cottons playing up in the range.
Parallels come in for the lowers with prices starting at Rs. 990 and going up to Rs. 17,200. The crepe and georgette kurtas start at Rs. 3,200 and go on to Rs. 13,600 while the cottons, in which whites predominate, start Rs. 1350 and gone up to Rs. 12,900.
 
 
Fair - y tale – The Economic Times

FASHION FRILLS

There was a time when fission reaction ruled the world, but soon it was superseded by the controlled energy of fusion. So much so that the fusion revolution began influencing every aspect of our lives. Be it music, food, art & culture or fashion, fusion has come to be the latest buzzword. And it was fusion of two creative minds that saw its expression in Fusion Look, a fashion show with a difference. And guess what was so different about the display. The clothes were highly wearable. The Taj hosted Fusion Look for Ladies Club on December10. the Fusion Look showcased creations of Rangvai designed by Sucheta Merh and her fusion counselor Vinita Jabbar. The show had five sequences, each of which highlight a particular role of a woman, be it as a single woman, wife, mother, daughter or working woman who embodies All facets of a woman in her journey through life. The eclectic collection had clothes essentially for the contemporary woman who has not given up on traditions, with two new labels – Vashno and Chand Tara.
Vashno, the new Indo-western label introduced in Rangvai’s prêt line has been inspired by the cross-cultural ethnicity. This is a range of clothes, which gives the 9-to-9 look, moves from informal to formal, to evening wear. This line emphasizes on accentuating silhouettes and versatility of the clothes. The color palette comprises colors of the season –n plum, burnt brick orange, deep purple, indigo blue, burgundy red. In formals and semiformal, there are silk, crepes and georgette kurtas in varying lengths teamed with slim pants in earth tones and bright hues, under the Mudra range. Here, the embroidery is kept at a premium and the styling conservative. There are sarees with different styles of draping, pleated lehenga using basic heavy hand embroidery in colors like pink, lavender, purple and turquoise. In Sucheta’s hands the saree morphs into a sensuous outfit teamed with embroidered blouses, sexy cholis, sequined bustiers, halter style or just mere crochet dyed to go with the saree. These are mostly In tussar with wax colors and natural dyes. To accessorize the saree, Sucheta has sequined shawls and antique kundan style jewellery in precious and semiprecious stones.
For a trendy evening look, Sucheta has Shaam Sunhera and Chand Tara. The former, a collection of drapes of shimmer batik, crepe shirts with fine detailed embroidery in kasab. The shirts can also be worn with sarees and trousers or churidars, while the latter has various sequined saree drapes over slim cut petticoats. And if all these while you have been regretting having missed an opportunity, don’t worry. You can still take your pick of Sucheta’s at Zenon or at her very own Rangvai. So, what are you waiting for?
Address: 6A Alipore Avenue, Kolkata-27

Rajeshwari Sharma
 
 

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