Chennai designer Neesha Amrish’s handmade stoles are now at the Van Gogh museum store in Amsterdam

Designer Neesha Amrish’s handmade stoles are now at the Van Gogh Museum store in Amsterdam

The Van Gogh Museum shop in Amsterdam is awash with colours synonymous with the painter’s works. The shelves and nooks are brimming with collectibles, clothes, toys, ceramics and a plethora of artefacts primarily in teal and yellow. And if you look closer, among them you will find stoles with a name from India — Aeshaane by Neesha Amrish. The Chennai-based designer, who launched her label in 2008, recently created a line of Ahimsa silk stoles for the museum. “Two years back, the Van Gogh Museum wrote to me commissioning these stoles. They wanted me to take one of Van Gogh’s paintings and make it my own, give it my touch,” she says. 

She chose Almond Blossom. The painting depicts the flowering branches of an almond tree and it is known to signify hope and new life. “The leaves fall and it’s a rebirth of sorts. It resonates with the story of artisans who have daily challenges and it’s almost like they shed their leaves and get back on their feet,” she says. But the process of recreating the Almond Blossom was not easy. 

There was a lot of back and forth, and signing of documents. Then came creative challenges. It is labour-intensive, she says. Her artisan first drew the motif with chalk, then painted the flowers and stalks inside, followed by a bit of layering to add depth to motifs like in the original and then finally he painted the blue around it.

“The museum wanted every scarf to be identical. Every bark, every stroke had to be identical,” she says. With hand painting, it was impossible to get them to look identical. So, Neesha and her team had to create hand blocks to make the scarf. 

“People normally write down recipes for food. We have a recipe for the blue that we used. We stick to that formula as the colours have to match. It’s a lot like cooking,” she laughs, adding, that it is bucket-dyed and handmade. As a result, it took two years to create the prototype.

“In the original work, the design is intricate and my design is more bold,” says Neesha of her signature style. There are big off-white and light ochre flowers and moss-green leaves on a background of teal blue.

Now, it takes her team 15 days to make one stole which measures 27 inches by 80 inches. “For the first batch we sent 30 pieces. These are not mass produced,” she adds.