AFFLUENZA
Making the cut
HINDOL SENGUPTA
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Based on creativity, brand strength and ideas for the future, here are the top ten names to watch out for in Indian fashion…
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I do this because there is so much rubbish nowadays that passes as Indian fashion that it has become, of late, pertinent to understand who are the truly enlightened and why.
Photos: Shanker Chakravarty, R.V. Moorthy
Stars in their own right: Ritu Kumar.
Every season without fail, I am asked who are the best fashion designers in India.
I have never answered, partly because it seems vacuous, and rather futile, to rank creativity. But this season, now that the circus has gone to sleep for six months, I shall try to answer this. I do this because there is so much rubbish nowadays that passes as Indian fashion that it has become, of late, pertinent to understand who are the truly enlightened and why.
I have used a tri barometer to chart this list — creativity, brand strength and ideas for the future.
1. J.J. Valaya
One of the first Indian designers to understand the lure of the maharajas in luxury and therefore brand his work as “modern maharaja” and now “the kingdom of Valaya”. (The other Indian designer who pitches the royal theme is Jodhpur’s Raghavendra Rathore, but, unlike Valaya, he is a prince from the erstwhile ruling family). Also Valaya, with his brother TJ, was one of the first to understand the power of a stylish brand name — his original name is Jagsharan Jit Singh Ahluwalia — which became Valaya. I put him right at the top because he built a super powerful wedding market selling luxe lehengas and then diversified the brand into furnishings, Indian and Western ready to wear and even designer flowers! This brand diversification makes Valaya one of the most astute Indian designers readying for different buyers at different levels. So it doesn’t matter if you cannot, or will not, buy his lehengas, maybe you will pick up a nice printed dress.
2.Rohit Bal and Manish Arora: This is a bit of a tie between the two men who lay claim to the enfant terrible tag of Indian fashion.
Rohit Bal has perhaps one of the best brand recall in the Indian subcontinent. He has become his brand. Once (in-?) famous for his wild parties and swinging blonde lock bare-it-all merriment, Bal has always been talked of as the man who has never exploited the full extent of his talent. That seems to be changing as he unveiled plans to me to release a perfume line, clothing and accessories at almost every price point. Even the perfume line has two price ranges — an exclusive pour homme and a deodorant which will be in collaboration with V-Day major Archies. One long standing promise I would like to see fulfilled is a kid’s line called Bal Bacche.
Manish Arora: The former assistant of Rohit Bal has arguably dwarfed, at least in international fame, his mentor. The only designer in India who was once derided by a leading magazine who put him on the cover with the words “Who Wears These Clothes?”, Arora’s trajectory tells the story of maturity in the Indian fashion market. Initially widely misunderstood, Arora has since been celebrated for his uniqueness of vision and dexterity of application on everything from Reebok sneakers to Swatches. Here’s one designer who creates for and sells much more around the world than in India.
3. Tarun Tahiliani
It is controversial, in the tiny world of fashion, to put TT after JJ, Rohit Bal and Manish Arora but I do so applying a simple equation. Sensual and lilting as his work his, powerful as his brand is, my argument in this ranking is that his brand is coveted by rich and famous but it has not done enough to spread to the aspiring classes who fuel fashion. TT has remained lofty, aloof and wonderfully, sometimes touchingly beautiful. But is the fuelling, the expansion of new customers, integration with new ideas happening? I am not sure.
4. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Anamika Khanna and Kiran Uttam Ghosh
The Kolkata trio have solid talent and between them — a Bengali, a Marwari and a Sindhi — they have almost as much business acumen as the rest of the fashion industry. Sabyasachi Mukherjee has proved that his early success was no fluke and has, in myriad ways, including giving the trousseau a vintage twist, reinvented many traditional ideas of Indian fashion. Anamika Khanna, also an out-of-the-box talent with layers of springboard designs, was the first to find angel investment and launch an international label. Kiran, perhaps the least risk-taking of the three, is, I always think, the sell-out secret of Indian fashion with an unwavering eye on consumer taste and demand. But the biggest risk that the Kolkata three face is that unless their oeuvre takes new flights of fantasy, there are too many copies and too many quick-climb-the-ladder-ristas who want to assembly-line the City of Joy clichés and look-books.
J.J. Valaya.
5. Rajesh Pratap Singh
Yes, you most likely haven’t heard of him. That, to me, is worrying. As sharply talented as this designer from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan is, his reticence is perhaps not helping the brand building process. The cuts and fits are super sharp, the surface work Zen-like but in the age of the mass infiltration of the market, brand development will be a critical challenge. Perhaps Raju, as he is often called, will be happy selling to a range of niche stores around the world. My question is — as wonderfully dexterous as his white shirts are, will they be enough to leapfrog the brand in a future inundated by foreign labels competition at home and moneyed marketing driven brands overseas?
6. Suneet Varma and Raghavendra Rathore
In some ways, Suneet and Raghu are the two extremes of Indian fashion. The former is the gliding, sexy, pirouetting splash of runway colour, revelling in the bosom, recreating the corset each season with, if I may, seasonal flourish, and showing dresses and saris with all the peacock-ian style of the true dandy. Suneet started one of the most peppy pret lines called Le Spice, while Raghu, all measured restraint, sometimes to the extent of being repetitive, recreates the sense of regal Rajasthan with the woodsy band galas and jodhpurs, sending down slightly tweaked versions season after season in an effort to stamp in a sense of innate logo-driven style. One of the first to brand expand with dark chocolate and mass associations with retail chains, Raghu has attempted brand differentiation — he admires the quiet luxury of Hermes — though not always successfully.
7. Ritu Kumar
Some would say it’s blasphemy to put Ritu Kumar, the doyenne of Indian fashion, so low on the list but I am very clear that history is both India’s strength and sinus. Yes, it is true that Ritu Kumar has one of the most successful businesses in fashion in the subcontinent; yes, she has been unwavering in her commitment to the traditional crafts and she has been focused in the market and the clientele she wants to cater to. But I am not sure how much new energy the brand has, now that it is run for her son and while every Indian bride would be happy to wed in a Ritu Kumar, I am not sure how far the pret line Label will carry in the 21st century progress of the brand.
8. Manish Malhotra
In Manish Malhotra’s case, the low ranking is not to be taken as an absolute because he has only recently broken out as a fashion designer rather than a Bollywood super stylist. He has had some good shows and there is all the possibility of his stardust brand power carrying from under the arc-lights to the glow of high street. As the lure of Bollywood grows impossibly and ever so strong, the battle of high street charm is Manish’s to lose.
9. Ashish Soni
Surely one of the most innovative and enterprising designers in India, as urbane as he is eclectic, Ashish Soni also has one of the most cash-rich business plans I have seen in a long, long time. I like the fact that he turns conventional wisdom on its head, arguing with me that multiple verticals is not what he needs, he would rather focus on expanding his main Ashish N Soni label. This acuteness might take him further than is usually expected.
10. Gauri and Nainika Karan
Did you expect to see this name here? Two years ago, I would not have put it. But fashion is ever evolutionary and the Delhi sisters have a Rolodex that has names like might-be-Mrs. John Abraham and Mrs. Abhishek Bachchan. In a world of multi-million dollar annual Indian silhouette industry, their dresses and gowns have found everyone who wants to be at the Oscars. Slumdog bites woman kind of sums it up.
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