let’s PARTY

16 designers raise a toast to their FASHION ANNIVERSARIES, and BAZAAR’S THIRD BIRTHDAY

irthdays have a knack of making us think back and introspect. So when we at got thinking about our third anniversary, we found that many of our designer friends were also marking significant notches in their careers. This year holds an important place in Indian fashion, because so many labels are coming of age in their own way. And we felt this needed to be celebrated in a grand way. So we got together 16 designers (we tried to get more), some 20 models, over 20 bottles of champagne (all of which we drank; in photographic evidence here), and put down unnumbered sandwiches, pastas, salads, cookies, cola, chocolates; all the while feeling like we were part of a mad, happy family. Our Grand Anniversary was now under way.

25 years: Breaking Out “It seems like yesterday. I still feel like a student; I want to discover more,” says Suneet Varma, who is celebrating his silver jubilee. Anju Modi, who also turns a fashionable 25, talks about how she would trudge to villages like Venkatgiri, Salem, and Kanchipuram in local buses when she began her career in Bengalaru. “Today, when I look back at all the hardship I went through then, the hand-to-mouth struggle, it seems like a blessing in disguise. It brought me closer to the reality of business, of textiles and design in the Indian context,” she says. “And in today’s fast-paced madness of fashion and its seasons, I can still relive those days.” Both Suneet and Anju have, in similar ways, grown out of their comfort zones today. He, into retail with his Armani Kids project; she, into her first couture showing and a full-fledged store at the DLF Emporio.

20 years: Striking the Balance David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore recall a time when ‘the industry’, as we call it, didn’t exist. Ashish N Soni (who threw a fabulous 20th anniversary party at The Aman New Delhi with a retrospective that lasted all February) says that “young designers today have a greater chance of getting noticed and ‘making it’, owing to various platforms like magazines, fashion blogs, television shows, newspapers, and the Internet”. David is also happy with the pace fashion has picked up. “When we started, there was really no structure to the business as such, but today, we see new designers emerging every year.” Ashish, though, is quick to add that “hard work is key”. And that’s experience speaking. Both labels today enjoy great commercial success, while keeping their unique signatures alive with consummate élan.

15 years: High Spirits

Bazaar “Fashion has always motivated us,” says Rahul Khanna of Cue by Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna. “Over the last 15 years, the workplace has become a home, and our colleagues are like family to us. We’ve had loads of fun; good times and bad; even times when we felt like giving up. But we never did.” For Ranna Gill, making clothes was just a way to earn extra money when she started off. “Today, I look back and laugh. Now, when we have a business plan and a commercial goal, I think about how I just created and sold clothes so that I could buy all the bags and shoes I wanted!” Today, she and her contemporaries Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna of Cue, and Manish Arora, are nationally recognised names. She is the queen of resort; they are the bad boys with slickly cut clothes, and the last is…well, he has put India on the fashion map and is today the creative head at Paco Rabanne.

10 years: Testing the Waters As part of this category, Siddartha Tytler is poised in between the big ones and the newcomers. And in his space, has probably experienced both the unplanned let’s-make-fashion phase of, say, Ranna Gill, as well as the let’s-plan-it-out-and-go-easy-for-the-first-five-years caution of Ankur and Priyanka Modi (who also turn 10). “About five years ago, I decided to do something that would make people sit up and take notice (the Harajuku collection followed). At the same time, there was a realisation that a plan was needed,” he says.

And that’s something that Ankur and Priyanka had already learned from fashion veteran (and Ankur’s mother) Anju Modi. “It comes down to the sustainability of business,” says Priyanka. Husband Ankur agrees. “We knew we needed to take the time to understand the market. We planned our business in phases.” Abhishek Gupta and Nandita Basu also took a somewhat similar approach. But that’s not to say that planning is a sure-fire way to success, and neither does it show that going the way of mad artists yields fantastic results. The answer lies in balancing the two. After all, this is a ‘creative’ business. “The only thing you can do is to go into it with an open mind and heart,” says Nandita.

5 years: Dues Paid Youngsters Raakesh Agarvwal and Nachiket Barve might take a leaf or two out of Nandita’s book here. Both are completing their first five years in the industry. And both have had their fair share of struggles. For Nachiket, it was the time he spent settling into a scene far removed from his days interning in Paris under Michael Kors at Céline. For Raakesh, it was the fires (four within the space of two years) that almost destroyed his factories and stock, and a runaway assistant who sold his designs behind his back. These are the realities both have come through, and are all the stronger for it. “If you have a point of view that’s relevant, it will be accepted,” says Barve. And Bollywood darling Agarvwal concurs. “At one time, we were almost bankrupt, but we stuck to our guns.” And both see the next five years as a challenge they will take on head-first.

The Absentees Ritu Kumar’s Label line, Gauri and Nainika, and Anand Kabra all complete 10 years; Rajesh Pratap Singh hits 15 years, and JJ Valaya just celebrated his 20 years with his grand finale show at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi last month. Ravi Bajaj turns 25, and Adarsh Gill, the grande dame, completes 40 years in fashion this year. Our heartiest congratulations. Each one of you is sorely missed in these spreads.

A Toast The mind works in two ways. You never so much as relive the past as experience a tangible future at the same time. As we wrapped up the shoot after two days of hectic work and even more hectic fun, the coincidence could barely be concealed. This year marks a significant anniversary for so many. And while each one looks back with mixed feelings, the future, to all and each, is as bright as the flash that’s captured them on these pages for you. So here’s to the next 5/10/15/20/25 years; to growing businesses; to hard work; and most of all, to fashion.

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