Conception

The stage which starts with conceiving ideas, grouping them into clusters, arriving at multiple concepts and finally zeroing in on one all-encompassing concept is conception. The designer analyses all the information gathered and methodically lists out his observations and perceptions of the issues involved and the causes behind them. The design insights thus arrived form the basis for the design intervention.

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Taking a few points from the checklist at a time, we arrived at the following cluster of ideas:

a. Based on ease of wearing

1) Pants & pleats pre-stitched in a saree

2) Skirt & pleats pre-stitched in a saree

b. Based on ease of washing & hang drying

1) Choosing more opaque fabric to reduce saree's length

2) Using light fabrics

c. Based on season adaptability

(All ideas occurring to us significantly changed the look of the saree & turned it into modern indie wear hence we didn't proceed with it.)

d. Based on ease of storage & maintenance

1) Using a fabric that doesn't wrinkle

(This idea lead to fabrics that conflicted with the ones from section b & we deemed the latter more relevant to the users)

2) Check if your design can be folded easily into some standard shape.

We use the ideas above & try to find the best possible combination. For our final concept, we look at two different products and ideas.

1) Pants integrated into pre-stitched saree design with a light fabric:

This concept is inspired by a traditional way of draping saree in Maharashtra called Nauvari. It is similar to how a Maharashtrian Dhoti is worn. Many varieties of pre-stitched nauvari’s are also available in the market. The video below gives a brief about the design and inspiration around this concept.

2) Long Skirt integrated into pre-stitched saree design with a light fabric:

This design is inspired by the traditional chaniya choli from Gujarat. Chaniya choli has a skirt and blouse and a long dupatta which is wrapped around in a pattern similar to the Gujarati pallu traditional Gujarati women wear on sarees. The video below gives a small brief about our inspiration and the final idea of the concept.

In the end, we finalized the second concept to move forward as it was more comfortable and not all women were comfortable with the pants-like design. The pants were also more difficult to put on than the skirt. We also tried advancing this design during crafting such that a person will not have to bend to wear the skirt.