Saree boutique Kankatala to organise pop-up in Chennai

CHENNAI: Kankatala, a luxury saree boutique based in Vishakapatnam, is organising an exhibition displaying some of their exclusive wedding collections on February 16 and 17 at Folly Hall, Amethyst. Having received huge success for their previous pop-up, the brand is back in the city with another special curation.

Speaking to DT Next Anirudh Kankatala, the director of the boutique, says, “For the pop-up show we will be displaying a carefully curated collection. As a part of our regular collection, we focus on special weaves that are popular across India. However, for this particular pop-up, we are doing a special series on different kinds of embroideries and handlooms.”

Anirudh Kankatala

The exhibition will display special embroidery and weave designs like- a petit point on Kanjeevaram, par sitara on Pochampally and Kanchipuram, chikankari on Kanchipuram and lots more. Anirudh says Kankatala has tried to make the wedding collection as unique as possible. “It’s not bridal because it would require for us to change the traditional design of Kanjeevaram, since Kanjeevaram is a wedding saree. So, instead, these sarees can be worn to weddings or festivities.”

He says it took the team 8 months to work on the collection. He further states some of the petit points took 2 months to embroider and there were 10 people working on them at the same time. Talking about his artisans he says, “We work with karigars all over India and ensure that the style and make is authentic. If we are working on chikankari, we send it to our weaver in Lucknow and get it done.”

The exhibition will feature stunning pieces including natural-dyed weaves and the Patan Patola range with the Asawali weave, each of which takes almost a year to produce, as well as other hand-crafted designer pieces like paithanis, banarasis, khadis, kotas, linens, organzas, gadwals, uppadas, and ikats.