'Bandhani' Trompe L'oeil Shirt

This piece references the laborious and meditative Rajasthani craft of Bandhej (Bandhani), one of the oldest tie-dye traditions in the world, dating back to the Indus Valley civilization 5000 years ago.

Featuring a trompe l’oeil effect of Bandhani, this piece aims to serve as satire of the heavy industrialisation process that replicates this craft as prints through digital technologies. 

By changing the process of achieving the Bandhani effect, the hand-crafted practice has been altered to recreate the idea through a separate, yet similarly laborious process of the Aari embroidery technique.

The careful placement of colour variation has been achieved by studying numerous clusters of custom dyed Bandhani to recreate the effect as closely as possible.