Karuna Balloo: The floral lady

A fashion designer, Karuna specialises in horticultural textile, a field that she invented in France. She has been in the limelight of different fashion magazines. The talented lady makes us discover the intertwining of horticulture and fabrics.

Karuna Balloo left Mauritius for France along with her family when she was only three years old. After her university studies, she was just one of the numerous designers in the fashion industry dominated by the French touch. “After having completed my studies in fashion at the Higher Institute of Applied Art in Paris, I spent the following ten years working as designer for different enterprises before eventually creating my own line of fashion. During my work, I also learned embroidery,” she shares. She even exposed her designs in a museum in Lyon in 2010. 

Since 2010, she has been creating floral motifs and silk flowers. “I have always been in love with Japanese culture and ancient other ancient cultures. I started collecting vintage pieces and often set off searching for rare flowers and creating unique things. I am also very passionate about origami textiles,” she says. The eye-opener was a trip she undertook to Japan. “I let my imagination and my experience take the lead. Since childhood, I understood the power of flowers and their abilities to seduce,” she says.

Her passion for textiles and flowers made her create a unique personal style and design. In the beginning, she created flowers just for herself and her mother who used the flowers in her traditional dresses. “My mother is a source of inspiration. I have also obtained inspiration from Hollywood and Bollywood movies of 1960s. I take around two hours for each creation. Each petal must be carefully folded by hand.”

Karuna Balloo can create all kinds of flowers depending on her research and seasons but due to lack of time, she cannot create them all. However, in the years to come, she intends to create large varieties of flowers. “Each piece I make bears the name of a song or depicts a moment or story. For example, One Night in Bangkok is red. All my flowers are handmade. They are rare because the fabrics are available in limited quantity. My favourite material is organza silk, but I also like organdie (fine and steep cotton), and also some old silk brocades that give spectacular results. I choose a new palette of colours for each season, inspired by current trends and my own discoveries and memories. I don’t necessarily pick dark colours for the winter or light colours for the summer. And since I don’t find the colours I am looking for on the market, I dye the fabric myself in small batches in a sort of cauldron until I get the right shade.”

Moreover, Karuna Balloo also makes hair clips, brooches, headbands and belts. “I always wear flowers in my hair as I do not like too much jewellery. For me, flowers enhance the femininity of a girl. I much prefer the inter-war period when women could wear flowers in the hollow of their shoulder or in the well-groomed hair,” she states. 

Commenting on the various challenges, she met during her career; she says: “We are living in a consumption frenzy era whereby products are outdated before the end of any season. My clients have been following me from the beginning and they are aware of my ability to bring something unique and rare. I do my work passionately and this is something of a luxury today.”