MANDALI MENDRILLA ATELIER™ sculptural couture designs are meditations.
The Earth friendly, award-winning Mandali Mendrilla Atelier™ specializes in handcrafting one of a kind garments, custom designed for one person only, from mood board, to sketch, to meticulous tailoring.
Each Atelier garment is designed and handled by Mandali herself.
In 2014, Mandali has introduced the Yantra Couture™ intuitive custom designing method. Ancient sciences are applied to sculptural garments in a complex design process practiced only at and unique to Atelier Mendrilla™.
You are cordially invited to imagine a bespoke object that Atelier Mendrilla could create according to your wishes.
Kindly inquire about your desired object at least one year in advance.
Contact the Atelier:
‘Space’ 3D digital sculptural couture collection, Atelier Mendrilla’s latest project, was first presented at the 2020 Helsinki Fashion Week Digital Village event:
As the ‘in real life’ versions of the digital looks are completed, the ‘Space’ collection is presented as one of a kind Atelier Mendrilla sculptural garments.
The Sculptor, Look I in the ‘Space’ collection, was displayed as a sculptural garment in January 2022 on the label’s Instagram page:
Thus, Mandali Mendrilla is ‘exploring phygital future’ in collaboration with Digital Village and Helsinki Fashion Week.
‘Time’ runway presentation at the 2019. Helsinki Fashion Week:
Padma II, eco friendly textile ink on up-cycled silk and cotton, up-cycled temple embroidery, 2017. – Yantra Couture™
Discover a body of work in Mendrilla’s sculptural couture series, in the ‘Moon’ part of the ‘Fairytale of the Sun and Moon’ runway presentation at Fashion Week Zagreb, by clicking here.
Mandala of Desires (Blue Lotus Wish Tree), eco friendly textile ink on peace silk, 2015. – Yantra Couture™
Click here to view the Mandala of Desires on Exhibit.
Click here to view the mood board that inspired the dress.
Kamadhenu, eco friendly textile ink on peace silk, 2016. – Yantra Couture™
Click here to view images of the dress on exhibit and the mood board that inspired the dress.
Srngar Couture™
Srngar (1) Couture™ is a part of Yantra Couture™. Srngar Couture™ at Mandali Mendrilla Atelier is inspired by Mendrilla’s studies of Indian temple art and deity worship under tutelage of Kenneth R. Valpey, Phd, Oxford University, author of “Attending Krishna’s Image”.
A Srngar Couture™ garment tailored for human customers is created according to a yantra diagram. This yantra diagram is inspired by a mood board containing impressions of a sacred garment that was previously worn by or is currently belonging to a temple deity.
The sacred garment may be incorporated into the design, as in the gown displayed below.
Another possibility in Srngar Couture™ is designing with the temple deity’s garment in mind.
The practice of wearing garments previously worn by temple deities is an ancient Eastern tradition.
Mandali Mendrilla Atelier’s Srngar Couture™ service is also available to temples and individual customers who wish to create unique garments and ornaments made for the pleasure of and inspired by the form and pastime stories of their temple or personal deities.
Such ‘srngar’ is tailored to the exact measurements of the deity’s form. These measurements are collected by Mandali Mendrilla herself, or under her guidance. The ‘srngar’, consisting of garments, backdrops and other ornaments, is designed with a mood board in mind, containing impressions of a particular pastime related to the occasion at which the garment is offered.
The crafting of such ‘srngar’ items at Mandali Mendrilla Atelier is executed while respecting standards of cleanliness prescribed for temples that follow ‘Pancaratrika-vidhi’.
(1) The term ‘srngar’ is generally used to refer to the “decoration” of the body of the god and of his temple environment. – C. Packert, “The Art of Loving Krishna: Ornamentation and Devotion”, Indiana University Press, 2010.