dhokara
leather / fabric
terracotta
jute
leather
> garments
wood inlay
wooden gift items
simple tools - student work

Akara means 'form' in Sanskrit, and here it is a collection of 'Wearable Art' - hand painted and hand embroidered garments. Based on the simple fact that no two people are identical, we set out to create this range of garments, which reflect the various shades, patterns, and rhythms of life around and within us.

Each garment here has an identity, which will find an echo in the person wearing it. This individuality of each dress allows you to relate personally to it on an emotional level while physically your body gives it form, movement and life. Thus the garment truly becomes an expression of your self.

AKARA's garment making unit was started in 1993 and was then the first of it's kind, where women who were totally inexperienced, have been trained to produce something they had no preconceived idea about. Hand painting and kantha embroidery (which is the simple run stitch used in West Bengal to make quilts out of old cloth), both being entirely spontaneous forms of expression blend here to give the end product an entirely new dimension.