Weaving the Workday: A Convertible Design Framework for Chanderi Motifs in Modern A-line Silhouettes for Office-to-Evening Wear

Chanderi, the sheer, lustrous handloom of Madhya Pradesh, is still sold largely as a ceremonial sari and dupatta fabric. Its motifs are admired, but they are rarely engineered for the working woman who moves between office, social and evening settings in a single day. This paper proposes the Dual-Register Motif Framework (DRMF), a practice-based design method in which Chanderi motifs are deliberately placed, scaled and spaced so that one garment can be read as quiet and professional in the day and as expressive in the evening. The framework is demonstrated through a final design: a modern A-line dress in blue Chanderi with a square neckline, short puff sleeves and a below-knee hem, with motif density increasing from bodice to hemline. The paper analyses motif selection, silhouette, colour and fabric behaviour, and sets out a styling matrix by which the same dress converts into office wear, casual wear and party wear through layering, accessories and proportion alone, without changing the garment itself. The study argues that convertibility is a design property that can be built into a heritage textile at the pattern stage, and that doing so extends the wearing life of a handloom garment, which is a sustainability gain as well as a commercial one.