Steel, you thought, was just a beefy metal, ready to be moulded into mundane pots and pans or humungous trusses for sky scraping structures. And thread, you assumed, was, well, just a natty yarn meant for ordinary chores. Not, however, for Gunjan Arora, a reticent, pony-tailed NIFT alumnus and Rahul Jain, an MBA, who has crunched numbers as a white-collared banker. This designer duo at Sirali turn clumps of thread into sexy sheaths and arty stoles and weave silk with rolls of thin, pliable steel wires into stunning jackets and bandgalas.

One day in his workshop in Okhla, New Delhi, Arora saw some tufts of thread strewn about. He picked them only to arrange them artistically and an idea was born. Actually, a wonder fabric that is neither woven on looms nor spun on machines, it is created by hand-sewing clumps of thread. Arora, who holds a patent to the technology, calls this fabric Mesh; a fabric so supple and durable that you could wriggle into it without fearing a tear. For Arora would convince you that it is stronger than chiffon or georgette and can be easily hand-washed at home. Not just jackets and Nehrus, there are exquisite skirts that look like pieces of art deserving a frame in a museum and saris with intricate pallus.

If you think this is a twisted yarn in a tale, think again. Or ask Hollywood star, Sean Connery. For the world’s sexiest man’s summer home in Barcelona, Spain, Arora and Jain, poured over their drawing boards to make Mesh wall panels, cushion covers and throws. Everything in the colours of autumn, exactly the way Bond, James Bond, wanted. He is not the only one, though. For a charity ball organised for the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, Hollywood star Nicole Kidman made a fashion statement in her Mesh jacket. The Sirali duo have lost count of how many thread ‘art works’ (that is what Arora loves calling his creations) have been picked up by the hip and the happening worldwide – they sell in 30 stores across the globe.

Having perfected this, the duo were raring to do something new because they subsist on innovation. And this time their invention would wait for a meeting – with Deepika Jindal of Jindal Steel, who was keen on changing how people perceived steel. With Art d’inox she had already turned steel into head-turning artifacts. Now, it was the turn of thin, pliable steel wires. “I looked at the wires and I knew this was it, this was the ‘new thing’ that I was looking for,” says Arora.

Turning steel into an outfit that would cover curves required determination of, what else, a steely kind. Steel can be hard and Arora had to think of an alloy, so to say. He chose silk. He wove silk yarn with steel wires to create jackets, which have a thick layer of silk as lining, topped with steel which is further enhanced with a diaphanous layer of silk. No, it is not heavy as you might imagine. Arora says it is probably lighter than a leather jacket and does not bruise the skin. The latest fabric called Steel Silk was recently unveiled in New Delhi and for now, Arora and Jain are putting all the steel together for buyers in the US; but Sirali jackets will soon line shelves on Indian stores.

Now, wait till you have pine, birch and oak on your back. A wooden fabric. That is what is scheduled to roll out of the Sirali sewing machines. If the swatch is anything to go by, I am ready to get swathed in maple!

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