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Ancy K Sunny
Ancy K Sunny

MOVIES

Beauty and the Beast has an Indian connect

beauty-trailer

One of the costumes worn by Belle, played by Emma Watson, flaunts embroidery crafted by artisans from Gujarat

Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson is capturing hearts across the globe. Besides the joy of watching one of our all-time favourite childhood tales come to life on screen, the costumes worn by the characters is also a feast to the eyes. What's interesting is that the movie's costume design has a slight Indian touch as well. One of the costumes worn by Belle, played by Watson, flaunts embroidery crafted by artisans from Gujarat.

belle-dress via Instagram

The film's costume designer, Jacqueline Durran is said to have got artisan brothers Kasam and Juma from Bhuj to carefully embroider by hand the delicate flower motifs on the bodice of an off-white dress Watson wears in the movie. The assistant costume director of the movie, Sinéad O’Sullivan, took to Instagram to reveal this interesting bit of information and more details about the making of the dress. Posting a close-up photograph of the dress, and an image of the brothers holding the embroidered fabric, Sullivan wrote: "They used a technique called Aari work which is a very fine chain stitch traditional to the Kutch area of Gujarat." Using the technique, the bothers painstakingly stitched the floral embroidery which is an 18th century French design selected by Durran.

The Aari, an intrinsic work of beads and coloured silk thread, is done using a needle which resembles a crochet needle. Considered one of the toughest forms of embroidery, this is believed to have emerged during the 12th century in India. Floral motifs, and traditional designs fascinated the Mughal emperors and the art soon picked up, especially among Muslim artisans. Sometimes, artisans also stitch in sequins, stones and other embellishments between the thread work which add to the grandeur of the fabric. 

Sullivan also wrote that as a team of almost 100 people under Durran, they tried to source ethical, fair-trade and sustainable fabrics for the costumes. For Belle's famous red cape look which required 12 different fabrics, they took up the challenge to go completely organic and used natural dyes, and hand-woven Scottish wool. The rest of the fabrics, she wrote, were sourced from fair-trade cooperatives in India and Nepal.

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Topics : #Hollywood

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