Sickinaikkenpet and Mondrian paintings

As with many textiles, my first introduction to Sickinaikkenpet fabric was when I was digging through my mother’s closet and found a stunning sari in bold shades of red, turmeric, orange and black. I was around ten. I didn’t notice that it was handpainted back then- I just loved the simple geometrical shapes. They stand out from almost every other Indian textile craft in that the shapes are so modern and so simple, and every Sickinaikkenpet painting is just a different take on squares, rectangles and colours (all picked from the same palette of red, turmeric, orange and black). After college I asked my mother to get a cushion cover stretched across a wooden frame so I could hang it like a painting in my apartment in New York. I stupidly gave it away when I was packing to move back to Chennai- I didn’t realize how hard it would be to come across Sickinaikkenpet paintings again.

Today a google search for Sichinaikkenpet gives you hits for kalamkari and other crafts from the area, but not the hand-painted fabric shown on my mother's sari below.


A few years ago when I started reading books on the history of fashion, I read about Piet Mondrian: a Dutch painter whose work was famous for its grids on a white ground, with primary colours filled into some of the grid squares and rectangles. Mondrian paintings are pretty well known among anyone who has studied Art History and also Fashion, because Mondrian- inspired fabric was used for a famous Yyes saint Laurent dress. How crazy is it that two artforms evolved independently in different parts of the world and yet look so similar?

(Image Credit: Tate Gallery image on the Piet Mondrian Wikipedia page)

Just like Sickinaikkenpet paintings, Mondrian paintings also vary only in the placement of grids and coloured squared/rectangles. Take a look here to see more of Mondrian's works and art inspired by Mondrian paintings.

An Yves saint Laurent dress from Mondrian-esque fabric.
(Image source: The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art)

Recently I ordered ikat fabric that was Mondrian- inspired, and although I do love the look of the fabric, I’m now on a hunt for Sickinaikkenpet painted fabric. I'm meeting a supplier tomorrow who claims he knows Sickinaikkenpet painters and he can get fabric painted for me. I'm trying not to be skeptical (why isn't this gorgeous fabric everywhere if it's accessible?) and hopefully I'll have some of that fabric for my Winter 2011 collection.

Mondrian-inspired cotton Ikat.