INDIA, 5th May 2026, at this year’s MET Gala, themed “Fashion is Art”, where global fashion converged with deeper cultural expression, Diya Mehta Jatia walked the red carpet in a custom couture creation by Mayyur Girotra. Known for her intuitive alignment with design, craft, and contemporary culture, she embodied the spirit of the evening, wearing a piece that brought renewed attention to Shola, one of India’s most fragile and rapidly vanishing art forms.
Native to the marshlands of West Bengal, Shola is a rare, milky-white plant, ethereal in appearance and featherlight in form. Often referred to as “vegetable ivory,” it has for centuries been hand-carved into ceremonial artefacts, from intricate bridal headgear to sacred adornments for Durga idols. Today, however, the craft stands on the brink of disappearance, sustained by only a handful of fourth and fifth-generation artisan families as patronage declines and fewer younger practitioners enter the fold.
Moved by both its fragility and its cultural weight, Mayyur Girotra undertook an immersive journey to Kolkata, working closely with master artisans to understand not just the technique, but the memory embedded within the material.
“Shola has always existed as art, just in spaces the world hasn’t paused to look at closely. For the MET, where fashion is framed as art, I wanted to bring that quiet mastery into focus. The challenge wasn’t to replicate the material, but to honour its language, its lightness, its impermanence, and translate it into something that could endure beyond the moment.” – Mayyur Girotra
Given the delicacy of the material, Shola itself could not be used at couture scale. Instead, the atelier developed an innovative medium using recycled industrial waste and raw compounds to reinterpret its visual language. Sculptural forms echoing its softness and intricacy were layered onto a dramatic silhouette inspired by Baroque and French architectural detailing, while a handwoven Kanjivaram textile from Kanchipuram, interlaced with gold and silver, anchored the piece, bringing together distinct craft traditions in a single narrative.
More than a red carpet moment, the ensemble becomes a dialogue between regions, materials, and eras. Documented from artisan clusters in Bengal to the couture atelier, the journey offers rare visibility into a fading practice, positioning the creation as both tribute and intervention, and reimagining the place of Shola within the future of global couture.
