Paris Fashion Week: Indian Artist Shakuntala Kulkarni Designs Dior Show's Backdrop With A Message

The Paris Fashion Week commenced on February 26. The recently held Dior show as part of the gala fashion event, featured an unmissable India connect. The backdrop for the show was designed by Indian artist Shakuntala Kulkarni, inspired by her vision of the modern, empowered woman.

Shakuntala Kulkarni makes India proud at Paris Fashion Week

The backdrop for Paris Fashion Week's Dior show was designed by Indian artist Shakuntala Kulkarni. Scant sculptures built from cane, guarded the sleek runway as models walked in ensembles created as a homage to modernising designer March Bohan. Going back to Kulkarni's sculptures, they were a dead ringer for the armour aesthetic with with perceptually flowing can-hems also reminiscent of the ball gown silhouette.

The series was titled 'Of Bodies, Armours and Cages' and was a visual representation of what the evolving idea of a woman, stands for - strength, courage, resilience, generosity, and dignity. The metaphor the series attempted to highlight was the idea of the woman evolving through different eras with armour standing as a literal and metaphorical protector of tradition.

More on Shakuntala Kulkarni's groundbreaking work at the Dior show

Not just the installation, Kulkarni also featured moments from her 2016 film Juloos, printed on canvas. Dior's official website, explains the segment as follows,  "(It) examines feminine subjectivity, not only in light of the body’s social and political vulnerability but also, and more importantly, its power within the urban space and social system in which we evolve."

Kulkarni's work for the Dior show is right in line with what her whimsically beautiful work attempts to achieve as part of the larger picture. Having trained under Somnath Hore, particularly in mural painting, Kulkarni has repeatedly captured the essence of what it means to be a modern woman in a patriarchal world - her work striking a realistically tipping balance between the formidability and unsurety of the same.