Visakhapatnam:

At a time when the who’s who among Indian designers are returning to the grassroots and trying to revive traditional weaves and ancient weaving techniques, a youngster from the city is working hard to promote Andhra and Telangana weaves and put Visakhapatnam on the fashion map.
Aaron Borthwick (18) designs clothes using local weaves, using material from villages such as Bobbili, Mangalagiri, Chirala and others.

Some of his designs have been used by actors in the film industry of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Aaron, with his own team of traditional weavers, is trying to infuse a contemporary charm to the traditional designs.

Son of a merchant navy officer Captain Richard Borthwick and mother Supraja, who works for the terminally-ill patients at St Joseph’s Hospice, Aaron competed his schooling from Visakha Valley School last year and aspires to pursue fashion designing.

But Aaron did not set out to be a designer. He said, “It was not a planned career move. I was supposed to pursue International Business in Barcelona. With a few months to go, I started designing clothes using the local weaves from Bobbili, Uppada, Mangalagiri, Narayanpet, Pochampally and Chirala. My interest in travelling took me to villages where I started picking up handloom material for my clothing brand. I try to bring a contemporary charm to traditional handloom material. I find it encouraging to be able to take the traditional weaves to exhibitions in other states,” said Aaron.

It was during one such exhibition in Chennai in December 2017, when Tamil actor Aathmika, notices Aaron’s work and shared it with other actors on social media. Now, Aaron’s designs are worn by the likes of Manjima Mohan, Janani Iyer, Aahana Krishnan, Mehreen Kaur from Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil film industries.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Visakhapatnam News / by Sulogna Mehta / May 15th, 2018