Eid-ul-Fitr with Aranya

Aranya is more than a fashion Fair Trade label; it is a way of life that emphasises natural, sustainable living as well as the preservation of Bangladeshi culture. Aranya is based on natural beauty and ethical behaviour. Aranya has a distinct colour palette that is derived directly from the earth's surface. colours derived from leaves, flowers, and trees are vibrant and evocative of nature, and reflect a genuine commitment to the continuation of traditional techniques.

Aranya spent the past 3 decades empowering local craftsmen to preserve ancient weaving and dying techniques so that our  khadi, Jamdani, and Nakshikantha are never forgotten in Bangladesh. Aranya is also one of Bangladesh's first members of the World Crafts Council and WFTO. Aranya's  vision is to develop a green value chain within the fashion and craft  sector which offers better livelihood programs for marginalised women and introduce clean environmental practices in production process.

A much anticipated revival

The fashion brand that is renowned for its naturally dyed, exquisitely handmade clothes for men, women and children had taken a designing hiatus, relying on their inventory and capsule collections to weather the economic storm brought on by Covid-19. But patrons will be delighted to know that for this Eid-ul-Fitr Aranya has revived their production to bring a fresh line-up of eclectically designed outfits.

Nawshin Khair, Managing  and Creative Director of Aranya shared with The Business Standard the excitement that prevailed around reviving their production, saying, "Everyone was so happy - starting from our block makers, dyers, to our Nakshikantha artisans - we were all waiting for this moment."

As the wave of creative inspiration washed over Aranya awakening the spirit of innovation, the craftsmen began spinning capsule collections. For the first time, the fashion brand has unveiled a blouse collection that was the crown jewel of fashion shows, and a brand new expansion of Aranya's product category. Their Eid-ul-Fitr customers can look forward to fabrics like muslin, soft silk and half-silk to drape over themselves. 

Photo: Courtesy

Expanding the colour palette 

Aranya uses original natural colours made from fresh components such as madder, indigo, and cutch. They also use leftovers from other industries like the sawdust of certain woods from the furniture sector. Alongside they inject modern values like developing skills in the craft sector, and perfecting the science behind their signature colour palette.

In the pursuit of adding more colours to their existing palette, Khair used a combination of around three or four dyeing materials to create the colour black – which is not an easy feat. She was motivated to do this during Aranya's involvement  in a project with Bengal Foundation and National Crafts Council of Bangladesh , to revive 200-count and 300-count jamdani.

Traditional jamdanis come in white bodies with red or black Paar  and Achol. All the archive pieces she studied at Victoria and Albert Museum reaffirmed such trend in the 18th century Jamdani pieces. So when she was given the task to revive few of the V&A archive pieces , naturally it meant she will need to do R&D to revive black dyestuff. However, creating the colour black from natural dye was uncharted territory for the designer. Khair rolled up her sleeves and started researching to find out the possible ways the colour black can be derived using natural means. Each country has their own way of producing natural dyes from the natural resources available to them, and the plants they grow. In Bangladesh the number of plants available to make natural dyes is around thirty.

Khair shares, "when I started my research and found out how they used to create the colour black in ancient Burma, I learned that the materials found in Burma to make the black dyestuff were available in Bangladesh too and that was the Eureka moment for us!"

She continues "and I finally have been able to introduce black palette into our collection. I was able to create the dyestuff from raw materials that are harvested in Bangladesh through a combination of two or three ingredients." Aranya was successful in recreating the ancient Jamdani designs during  the jamdani festival and unveiled the shade on silk where it appears pitch-black, and on cotton where the colour appears to have a coal grey finish.

Photo: Courtesy

Hark back to nature 

Aranya's earthy tones, such as greens, browns, and natural hues, are well-known. Aranya, a veteran of the Bangladeshi fashion business, is widely regarded as the only design brand that embraces earth tones in the most literal sense. At Aranya, every piece of clothing transmits the energy of leaves, blossoms, fruits and plants, connecting us to nature and a sense of natural abundance. This Eid collection will also host their signature brand of earthy tones with colours like orange, black and purple making a big splash.

Khair remarks, "You will see orange this year too! We haven't worked with rust-orange for a while. So we have introduced a small  capsule collection with the rust palette. Our Eid focus was more on black, purple and orange." She continues, "We have worked with mango leaves and the colour we derived was very satisfying. The colour scheme came out vibrant and beautiful. Even the orange we did this time, we were able to bring out the rust-like appearance which hasn't been done before."

Aranya's Eid Collection 2022 presents a new combination of natural dyes on the soft and airy canvas of cotton, silk, half-silk and muslin. With the sweltering and unrelenting heat, this Eid-ul-Fitr stay cool and fashion yourself in a vibrant and breezy outfit from Aranya's transeasonal collection.