Vijaya Bhargav
It’s always a pleasure talking to Vijaya (Vijaya aunty, as I fondly call her). She’s Partner and Co-Founder at Ostraca, a renowned Bangalore-based architecture and interior design firm. With over seventeen years of practice, she is known for blending creativity with precision and for championing Indian traditional craft in her spaces. She has been a Dhi muse from the very beginning: a collector of art, a deep researcher of Indian textiles and someone whose eye for detail has often influenced how I think about design.
Of the many Dhi pieces she’s picked up, the two very close to my heart are the Tara and the Red-earth Sarees, which could not have found a better home. What draws her to a piece is never just the surface. When she talks about her Dhi sarees, she says: "God is in the details." To her - the way the fall of a saree becomes both an aesthetic and a functional element, the graphic patterns, the use of block-print and weaves in a contemporary composition - are signs of a deep love for design. Every piece she owns has been handpicked and each for its own reason.
Her sarees, she says, have always started conversations across age groups and genders. Every one has a story. But perhaps, my favourite is when her sarees are part of her wholesome morning coffee ritual on @watz_brewing. When asked what it feels like to wear something that exists nowhere else in the world, she smiled: "Obviously, you feel special and privileged. There is something wonderful about knowing that what you are wearing doesn’t exist anywhere in exactly the same way."
She has always moved between the world of space and the world of cloth, and to her, they are not so different. "Fabric and space are both free-flowing," she says. "The definition of both ultimately lies with the designer." It is a philosophy that shows up in everything she does, and in everything she wears - functionality over trends, natural over artificial, craft over commonality. "I am a purist at heart so anything artificial is a bit of a put-off."
She has thought deeply about what it means to keep a tradition alive and brings it to her spaces. "To me, it is about retaining the essence of a tradition while reinterpreting it in a contemporary context. That is when tradition remains truly alive and relevant." It’s something Dhi is built on too.
She’s heard it all when Dhi Earth was just a conversation. "The spark I saw when Indira spoke about her new venture said it all. When talent and passion come together, what emerges is sheer magic. That is what Dhi is to me." On what it means that a piece like this can one day return to the earth safely: "I believe that is the true responsibility of each one of us. To be conscious of what we consume and what we leave behind."
The Tara Saree is a black chanderi saree, hand-block printed with plant resin pigments at Tharangini Studio. It features an architectural temple border and a rich geometric pallu printed in grey and white. The Red-earth Saree is naturally dyed with sappan wood and indigo, its colour is drawn entirely from the earth. It is indigenous cotton handspun and handwoven at Yaana A Weaving House.
