“TRAVEL FEEDS MY DESIGN SENSIBILITY, SUB-CONSCIOUSLY”
RUCHIKA SACHDEVA, 30, Founder, Bodice, New Delhi
As a student of womenswear design at the London College of Fashion, UK, Ruchika Sachdeva would often play and experiment with clothes. With a strong penchant for shaping and reshaping outfits, like turning a shirt into a dress, she always had an eye for detail. Interning under Vivienne Westwood only sharpened her design sensibilities. On her return to India, she launched her own label Bodice, which stands for strong silhouettes, sustainable design and fabrics. Awarded the International Woolmark Prize for Womenswear in January 2018, Sachdeva talks about her inspiration and the strong connect between art, culture and fashion.
What inspires you in your designs, and how are they different?
I’m inspired by many different things, but I suppose you could say they all share a common ground of harmony, balance and truth. I am a millennial and grew up in India where global influences were a part and parcel of my formative experience. Strength and individuality comes from being able to harness all those local and global influences and say something new. I think design should reflect that.
How do you define your design style?
The Bodice silhouette is clean and plays with proportions and layers to create a balance and individual style. It uses indigenous textiles and techniques such as kantha stitch to create texture.
Why is art and culture important and intrinsic to fashion design?
Art and fashion design share many points of reference in cultural, contemporary history. I don’t deliberately set out to try and incorporate art in my designs. But sometimes the things I’m drawn to have also fascinated artists, and here I find enormous resonance and inspiration in their translation of these universal concerns. For instance, Tyeb Mehta used colour to communicate aspects of the human condition. I drew on both Mehta’s philosophical approach to colour as well as the palette of one of his paintings, for the collection in my Woolmark collection. The difference of course with fashion is that the inspiration must be translated in a way that creates a garment for a living, breathing person.
What does fashion mean to you?
Culture, history, artisanship, landscape, and personal expression.