Sanah Sharma talks to Jasmine Jerald about her new innovative pattern cutting technique, Planar Flux
One of her best childhood memories is hand-stitching dresses for her dolls, cut from her own clothes. Years later, 23-year-old Sanah Sharma’s passion for fashion remains unchanged. And that’s not all! She’s developed a new hybrid pattern cutting technique that is not just sustainable, but is based on a mathematical concept.
“I opted for the science stream in school with fashion as my sixth subject and I did pretty well in my Boards. I was awarded the gold medal for being a topper in Fashion Designing. So, when it was time to pursue my undergraduate degree, it was a no-brainer that I chose Fashion Designing,” says the Chennaiite.
Except, it was tougher than it looked from the outside. “Design school is quite a competitive environment. It isn’t all glitz and glamour like some fancy event. It doesn’t end with just a sketch. The entire process of an idea for a garment needs to be well thought out and you would be required to prepare a mini-thesis for your project. Once I got over the initial shock, I began to enjoy the process and developed a new-found appreciation for it,” adds the Pearl Academy alum.
Did you know that the 3000 trillion-dollar fashion industry is the world’s second contributor to environmental distress? This revelation pushed Sanah into doing research on sustainable designing during her final year. “I was introduced to Julian Roberts and his ‘Subtraction Cutting’ technique at this time. It’s an interesting approach to pattern cutting and I was instantly hooked. So, for my final year project in 2015,
I developed a unique technique that uses a mathematical concept called Möbius strip to interpret Professor Roberts’ method. I called it Planar Flux as it involves patterning from another dimension,” she explains before adding, “To put it in layman’s terms, this technique will result in using only half the material one would ideally use for a garment. And it creates an illusion of having two sides when it’s actually just one; at the same time making it look aesthetically engaging.”
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