Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

The style guru speaks

Czar of design Suneet Varma

There was a time when things were well done, then came a time when things were badly done. Now, we live in times when bad things are well done.” Being so outspoken, style guru Suneet Varma belongs to a minority in the fashion fraternity.

“I feel things were much better in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. At that time, we used to have debates on design. I remember Co-optex called me to work with the master weavers of Varanasi. Fashion is not just about dressing. It reflects social mores…. how people did their hair, what they wore and how they behaved. Today we move from one collection to another,” says the Delhi-ite, who is deeply interested in costume history and sociology.

He says the 1930s were the best years when the likes of Amrita Shergill sparkled in muslin saris. “It was an era when subtlety ruled; the focus was on textiles and instant gratification hadn’t touched our lives.” The worst years, he continues, were the 1970s when polyester was in its prime and safari suits and the cut-piece culture hit the country. “They were hideous and, perhaps, that’s the reason glamour girls Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi kept their clothing to a bare minimum!” Suneet calls the ’80s a revivalist period when people like Pupul Jayakar and Rajiv Sethi took Indian craft to the world stage.

A keen follower of cinema and music, Suneet feels that with sense returning to Hindi cinema, more and more filmmakers are willing to move beyond clichéd costume designers to fashion designers and stylists. He is working with Rakesh Roshan on his project Kites directed by Anurag Basu. “For long, there was no sync between what we were doing and what Bollywood was offering to the masses in terms of fashion. Now, a chemistry is emerging, thanks to actors like Hrithik Roshan. If I suggest that he wear fancy boots, he refuses as they don’t match his character in the film. I assume this was not the case earlier. Anurag is so precise that he got the look of Hrithik and Kangana (Ranaut) ready a couple of months in advance. Now I am going to Los Angeles to design for Barbara Mori (she plays an important role in Kites).”

Known to keep his designs functional, Suneet says he is among those whose designs are most vulnerable to piracy. “I have come across owners of sari stores, congratulating me for their business. I ask them, ‘Where is my royalty!’ ” He insists that what keeps his creations young is his 150-odd team. “The oldest is 31 and the youngest, 21.”

This takes us to his youth. Suneet recalls how his parents allowed him to take the less-travelled path. “My father was a textile consultant. He was open to discussing everything but there was zero tolerance when it came to indiscipline and morals. He wanted me to pursue a course in the arts. I was interested in sculpture and went to London.”

Suneet did a foundation course in sculpture and painting but his interest slowly veered towards dressing up those sculptures and he ended up graduating from the London School of Fashion in costume history.

Morals, however, didn’t come in the way despite his proximity to people from the fraternity, where personal preferences are varied. “All were welcome in my home. Yes, the female body fascinates me but, I believe sex is the outcome of true love. I don’t attach the word sexy to a female form. To me, a smile or a dish could be sexy as well.”

Back to the present, Suneet was recently offered the presidency of the Fashion Design Council of India, but he refused. “I don’t want to get into a muddle. I am a founding member of the FDCI but I’ve never been on the Board. I may not even participate this year, as I have two big shows coming up around the same time.”

The need of the hour, he sums up, is to revive the debate on design. “In Japan, they have the Metropolitan Museum, where the entire costume history of the country is preserved. There is nothing like it here. Till date, only the sari and Indian motifs have been able to make an impact on the world. It is for the media, which seems obsessed with Bollywood, and designers to work together and rekindle the design debate.”

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

---

---