In November 2024, The Social Studio was approached with an offer of 100 donated saris from women in Melbourne’s Indian and Sri Lankan communities, via local arts organisation Kahini. Many of the saris were in pristine condition, made of cotton and silk, some hand-loomed and embroidered - all of them holding cultural significance and meaning for the donors.
What began as a project to upcycle donated fabric quickly evolved into a much bigger idea. What if we could meet the women who so generously donated their saris to us? And what if we could bring them together with The Social Studio’s own community of talented students and alumni to learn from one another? The result is The Sari Project, a year-long exploration into migrant experience, creative inspiration and the culture and stories surrounding sari-wearing.
The project began with a statement from one of the "mashis" (aunties) who had donated her saris to us:
"The sari is love".
This theme of love, the migration experiences of the mashis, the culture around sari-wearing and the beauty of the fabric itself were our guiding principles throughout this project.
Project lead Seren Paing catalogued the 100-sari archive according to recurring motifs, fabric types and colours, and worked with our design and production team to create a capsule collection of garments. This was launched at Melbourne Fashion Week's Music X showcase in October, with bharatanatyam dance performance by our community collaborator Piyali Somaia embodying the project themes.
Meanwhile, our students and alumni were also hard at work. For them, The Sari Project involved 4 months of design skills and making workshops, creating with their own selections of fabric from the sari archive.
In November 2024, the exhibition 'Unfolding our stories' was staged at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne featuring seven designs by students and alumni of The Social Studio which merged the rich histories of the fabrics with the group's own personal stories and heritages. Alongside these pieces were portraits and images of the mashis, reflecting on their migration experiences to Australia and relationship to sari.
Thank you to our funder Creative Australia, and our supporters Pressroom Philanthropy and the Phil Taylor Foundation for helping bring this project and associated publications to life. Thanks to Jamie Lewis for guiding our students through creating their artist bios and Mandeep Masi, Manjari Singh and Naina Jain for sharing their textile knowledge. Thank you especially to our community partner Kahini, and Piyali Somaia, for being our conduit to these stories and culture.
Most of all, thank you to our aunties/mashis, for sharing such important parts of themselves with all of us.