Ashdeen Lilaowala brings his peonies to Amethyst

The designer uses Chennai landmarks like Egmore Museum for the campaign of his new collection, Paradise Crafted, and has a lineup of Parsi gara saris, jackets and skirts at the city pop-up

The peonies are lovely this year. They are scattered on yards of green, blue and yellow — of organza, georgette and crepe. The motif is central to Ashdeen Lilaowala’s Paradise Crafted, the latest collection of Parsi gara saris, jackets and skirts. As is the lotus, and the designer’s signatures such as the crane and the butterfly. But on a quick morning call, he waxes eloquent about the peonies. “We have worked the blossom in great detail,” he says. “The shading [with multiple colours], the rendering, it’s very realistic. The petals are curled, you can see the foreground and the background, making it very dynamic.”

For close to two decades, Lilaowala has been researching the legacy of the Parsis’ intricate hand embroidery. He’s brought back key motifs — like the quirkily-named Cheena Cheeni (Chinese man and woman) — and rooted the storied craft in a contemporary vocabulary (iterations of slim pants, jackets, kaftans and tops are now trousseau essentials). And now, with every collection, he hones these connections.