'Small Wonder', Bushra Waqas Khan for Vogue India

This article was originally published in Vogue India , April 2022. Cover image: ‘Untitled’ by Bushra Waqas Khan, exhibited at Victoria & Albert Museum, UK.

It’s not often that monotonous, function-specific state documents such as affidavit stamp papers, circulated among busy courtrooms, are repurposed to create fluid, sculptured gowns that are majestic and vitrine-ready. But Bushra Waqas Khan, a skilled printmaker and dressmaker based in Pakistan, has been designing miniature dresses in her atelier that are loaded with political symbolism. This year, her exquisite and painstakingly hand-stitched couture pieces are all set for their debut at the India Art Fair. With their luxuriously flared skirts and cinched waistlines, each gown is emblematic of the discourse surrounding the female body and colonialism.

Although Khan fashioned her first miniature dress in 2019, she already has a few noteworthy exhibition credentials up her sleeve—including one at the famous Grosvenor Gallery in London. Last year, in 2021, she became a Jameel Prize finalist. Organised by London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in partnership with Art Jameel, the prize is a coveted recognition in the field of contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. One of Khan’s pieces—a gorgeous, 20-inch hybrid gown, boasting European gigot-sleeves and a pleated Mughal jama with a salmon-pink hem—was recently exhibited at the V&A Museum. The ingenious pattern that graces the dress was borrowed from the humble stamp paper: motifs laboriously hand-cut and collaged on a large pad to form new arrangements were then printed onto a fabric using heat-transfer paper. The modules of fabric were craftily sewn together by a team of expert seamsters under Khan’s hawk-eyed supervision.

*‘The White Tulip’ by Bushra Waqas Khan.*

To say the dresses are sublime and luxe would be an understatement. Queen B is an 18-inch tall, ivory gown made using Charmeuse silk and net with a flourish of delicate hexagonal details. The White Tulip is a 17-inch stunner with a tasteful trail, which has asymmetrical patterns embroidered on the organza. Then there are dresses that are voluminous and theatrical: like the multi-layered Ball Gown with a strapless corset and a crisp, oversized bow gracing its back, or Sub Rosa, a deftly structured garment with dramatic contours and a fitted waist. It is decorated with 554 hand-cut roses, where each bud is a crystal-studded Swarovski. “Sub Rosa was so heavy that even as an eight-inch piece, it decided its own silhouette,” says Khan, who is represented by Anant Art Gallery in New Delhi.

Years ago, while pursuing printmaking at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Khan chanced upon multiple copies of the affidavit stamp paper cached in her father’s locker shelf. She was mesmerised by the intricate motifs—including the five-tipped star cocooned within the crescent moon—that were printed on the paper. At the same time, she was shocked to discover that “that piece of paper held more value than who you are in Pakistan,” she explains via a video call from her house in Lahore. “It’s a proof of possession and our lives are all linked to it somehow.”

The affidavit stamp paper, among many things, signifies one’s ownership of land and property. “While mothers bequeath their heirloom jewellery and clothes to their daughters, fathers give this piece of paper to their male heir,” says Khan. Having been brought up in a conservative family herself, Khan wanted to critique the skewed gender differences relating to inheritance rampant in South Asian familial structures through her dresses.

The garments’ designs, shapes and silhouettes are centred on an imperial past, serving as a strong reminder of the impact colonialism had on Pakistan. “If you look at the motifs on the stamp paper, they do not seem to be from this region. Remove the star and the crescent emblems, remove the ‘Pakistan’ text written on it, and everything else is Western,” she says. “Similarly, the garments are a fusion of cultures. They represent a blend of who we are.”

A feminist and an aesthete, Khan has also been working on a collection called the ‘Leftovers’, where she repurposes unused swathes of fabric from other garments that would otherwise be discarded. A Well-Loved Slice of Leftovers, which is a silk and organza gown stitched using fabric salvaged from her earlier works, is very close to her heart. “I have felt leftover so many times, in terms of being a woman,” she confides. “It’s a feeling many women face, since they are often the last ones to be thought of.” The collection, therefore, is a nod to sisterhood, reflecting how “beautiful, leftover pieces can come together to create something magical and grand,” she says.

Each one-of-its-kind garment takes Khan and her team of skilled craftspeople at least two-and-a-half months to construct. On the day we speak, she has just finished making a Lilliputian coat that resembles a sherwani, with its clean, stiff lines evoking memories of an ancient cloth-armour worn in 13th-century Europe. “You’re the first one to see this,” she smiles, as she pirouettes the long-sleeved frock-coat on a traveller’s maquette. Titled The Leftover Gambeson, it has been crafted using a patchwork of spare printed fabric, and is slated to be exhibited at the India Art Fair later this month.

*The Leftover Gambeson by Bushra Waqas Khan.*

Two dresses that will also be on display at the fair are Barcode and Medallion. Barcode, a high-neck gown carrying a dizzying burst of frills on its skirt, has been made solely using barcode snippets picked from the affidavit stamp paper. “The strips of barcode encode information such as ownership and identification,” says Khan. She therefore uses the barcode to underscore the significance of embracing individuality in society. The Medallion, on the other hand, is an elegant princess gown that carries a sprinkle of the crescent-star oval signifier. Khan, who is busy shaping a strong oeuvre at the moment, is looking forward to IAF 2022. “This is going to be my first art fair—that too in India,” she says. “I’m really excited about it.”

The 13th edition of India Art Fair will run from 28th April to 1st May at NSIC Exhibition Grounds in New Delhi.