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Heading West
It has taken Nandita and Hemant, who specialise in Western outfits inspired
by Indian culture and art, a decade of remarkable resilience to make inroads
into the United States market. The duo’s newly created loose shirts, tunics and
capes with an imprint of India written over them will finally get the pride of
place on the creamy shelves of stores of Neiman Marcus, a revered American
retail chain, across the United States. Come September, the duo, who were batch
mates at NIFT, and share similar sensibilities, will be rubbing shoulders with
designers like the likes of Michael Kors, Valentino and Carolina Herrera.
So finally long hours of working along with artisans and travelling to exotic
locations to create a unique design has paid off. “There cannot be two opinions
that hard work pays off. But we have a bigger dream. This is one of the feathers
in our cap. It is not just two or three months of slogging but ten years of
building a brand. We share the same sensibilities of portraying Indian
aesthetics. Anyone who buys our outfits in the American cities or website will
be able to relate to the Indian culture – the colours, embroidery have
unmistaken identity of our roots,” says Nandita, who handles the design
part.
They have used embroidery in a way that the attire looks aesthetic. The
tricky part was ensuring the blend of the East and the West looked gaudy. In
their trip to Gulmarg they scouted for weavers specialising in intricate aari
embroidery. “For this collection we have taken inspiration from intricate
aesthetic of aari. We saw the work of craftsperson, working in aari embroidery
on shawls for nearly two years. It was done with such detailing that we felt
that this work needs to be shown to a wider audience. They demonstrated finesse
and tenacity while working on Pashmina. After returning to Delhi we gave our
touch in the outfits. Embroidery has been done nicely on each attire,” says
Hemant.
Explaining aari work, he says, “The use of thread is there but it is done in
a manner that the end product gets the look of a chain. This embroidery will be
a pleasant surprise for the clientele at stores of Neiman Marcus, which has
little or no Indian presence.”
Interestingly, the duo were not trained in this type of embroidery while
undertaking their course in designing but learnt the intricate processing on the
job. Dresses made to match the taste of today’s generation. “We keep in touch
with forecast and taste of the people. Indian designers are at an advantage vis
a vis designers from abroad as they are exposed to traditional elements. Like if
my or Hemant’s parents wear outfits which have intricate, rich hand work then we
keep them with us in our archive and then seeking inspiration from that make our
dresses,” says Nandita.
Coming back to drawing inspiration from multiple sources, Nandita says she
recently took fancy of a sofa cover and decided to give her interpretation on
clothes which were presented in a recent fashion week. “It all depends on the
mood you are in on a particular day. Like Madras checks have been there for a
long time but then there comes a day when they appeal to such an extent that you
get motivated to do something on a large scale.”
