What makes for a spectacle? When the curtains fall and the music fades away, what leaves the audience in a trance? When they leave the room, is it only the mudra that they remember? Is it only the movement and the rhythm that bring a performance to life? Sandhya Raman, an award-winning costume designer, curator, and textile activist, is of the belief that it is costumes that immortalise a show. 

In 1990, Raman, then a design student and performing arts enthusiast, met American choreographer Jonathan Hollander at NID. The next year, she’d be working on “Moonbeam,” an Indo-American collaboration, where she dressed distinguished Indian classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai in a white Bengal cotton robe to make for a truly alluring sight. She reminisces about the sheer, textured fabric while speaking to mid-day about her costume showcase, To Stitch or Knot, at the Dilip Piramal Art Gallery, NCPA, as a part of their Mudra Dance Festival.