Etro’s creative director of accessories, Jacopo Etro, decided it was high time to give paisley some love. “Paisley is the DNA of our brand, and we wondered how it would look through the eyes of contemporary artists. Given that the pattern’s historical roots are Indian, it was logical to team up with Indian artists—they obviously grew up and were surrounded by the print, so I was intrigued to see how they saw it in a modern sense.”
Etro sought out duo Thukral & Tagra—cult artists who he has long admired—and invited them to collaborate on a capsule of collection of accessories, which go on sale today in the Bond Street store and online. A series of bags in jewel-toned blue, green, and a deep mahogany brown get the full Thukral & Tagra treatment, which is based on surrealistic, fantastical notions. “I asked the artists to go through the archives, and before you knew it, they were on the computer making up these prints and almost obsessively creating these repeat patterns in a numeric fashion,” said Etro.
The Thukral & Tagra prints are actually renderings of houses festooned with lights and surrounded by gardens. “That was the artists’ little tongue-in-cheek poke at the burgeoning nouveau riche in India. The two gentlemen thought that this moment in Indian history had to be recorded.” An event will be held tomorrow night at the brand’s Bond Street shop to celebrate the launch, and Etro will further endorse his admiration of the artists by exhibiting ten of their works. “Of course, since this is Frieze week, I thought it was a good idea to give these incredible artists a little bit more global exposure.”
—Afsun Qureshi
Photo: Courtesy of Etro
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