Shades of feminism
Sari designer Sharmila Nair’s campaign ‘18 Shades of Black’ has 18 women talk about the gender discrimination women often face in their daily lives. Now, an international organisation has approached her to make the campaign global
The ‘18 Shades of Black’, a fashion campaign which has gone viral by Kochi-based sari aficionado Sharmila Nair — is a take on the 18 steps of the Sabarimala Temple, which has been in the eye of a storm — as women can now pay obeisance to the famed deity wearing “black”. Looking at the number of women from 8 to 80-year-olds, who came out to protest, Nair, wanted to focus her new campaign on women fighting for rights, beyond right to pray. It could be anything from patriarchy to unseen restrictions and day-to-day struggle. She hoped to begin a conversation.
“I studied literature from Christ University, Bangalore and was an avid sari wearer, even when I was part of the union. Then I joined my father’s business being the only child. After marriage, I decided to do what made my heart yearned for and that was weaves. So I launched Red Lotus. We specialise in customised Kanjeevarams and handloom cotton. We have eight to ten looms running in Baneras,” explains Nair whose first campaign on transgenders was also a hit three years ago.
In Shades, each woman’s story is relatable. Though Nair had requested almost 100 women, only 18 “warriors” agreed to face the camera and speak openly. Some of their revelations have led to havoc in their homes like in the case of Indu Jayaram, whose 90-yearold mom-in-law was quite miffed with her. Jayaram had faced mental trauma from her traditional Brahmin family, specially her mother-in-law, as she was dark and her husband fair, so she developed hyper skin pigmentation, caused by the stress. In her 35 years of marriage this was the first time, she ever spoke about it on camera.
“I feel so relieved that I can vent, it was as if everything was bottled up for so long,” says Jayaram. But it is not just women, men too have come forward and told Nair, girls judge them when they come with marriage proposals based on their skin colour, so this discrimination is not gender-specific.
“Many women when I approached them for 18 Shades, told me that Sabarimala was a sensitive issue and I shouldn’t mix religion with fashion as it is a deadly combo. I was expecting a backlash,
but the stories are so powerful that now people have created a hashtag #18 shades. They are narrating what they have gone through on social media. My idea was to start a dialogue, but it opened up floodgates.
“Many women told me that Sabarimala was a sensitive issue and I shouldn’t mix religion with fashion. I was expecting a backlash, but the stories are so powerful that now people have created a #18 shades. They are narrating what they have gone through on social media. My idea was to start a dialogue, but it opened up floodgates.” — SHARMILA NAIR Each woman’s story is relatable. Though Nair had requested almost 100 women, only these 18 “warriors” agreed to face the camera and speak openly. The 18 women include actresses, doctors, lawyers, writers and also two women who protested openly against the Sabarimala issue