Tetseo sisters | péro ss13

Kuku, Lulu, & Mercy in péro ss13.

Photographed before péro aw13 show at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi in March 2013. 

péro ss 13 | backstage

Backstage photos from péro spring summer 2013. First two images are screenshots from the video I filmed backstage. STILL working on putting it all together.

Backstage+Runway+Street | Paromita Banerjee

You mentioned you are always trying to bring normalcy in fashion through your clothes which you don’t see a lot. Why do you think you need this normalcy? This struck me in NID. We are always in this struggle to go back to the past, go back to the roots, go back to being “normal” and ordinary and rooted. We live in these plush houses and we end up going to resorts to walk barefoot. What I am trying to stress upon each and every season is just because one is making clothes that cost a hell lot of money they don’t have to be made of chiffon and look expensive. As a brand we get queries from stores and personal clients abroad, appreciating our brand and what we do; but frankly we have not always been able to “click” with the audience here in India. Sometimes I do have a dilemma as to whether I wish to be niche or whether I wish to be niche-but-still-reach-out to a wider group. We retail at select 12 boutiques across the country, but at times I have been asked to make slightly more “ornate and rich looking” clothes by our buyers just because sometimes our clothes end up looking “normal” and not “value-for-money.” But hey, if I were to tell you the Dhakai Jamdani handloom cotton fabrics that we used in one of our past collections cost us Rs 875/metre just because each motif was hand-woven painstakingly, would you believe me? (while silk costs Rs 350/metre)

Fashion doesn’t have to be glamorous all the time. I can’t seem to understand what it is with fashion that is always about the “glam” and the short and the tight! Why do fashion magazines need to have girls in pouty lips posing for you. Why can’t we shoot in villages and document the beautiful landscapes or their karigari, something like what Steve McCurry did in that Desert Storm image with the women huddled up in a group. It blows my mind. (Taking a drift…it is bizarre that it is always the westerners that capture the real essence of things, in this case, India, and portray it so very beautifully.)

What are you looking forward to?
Showing at Wills. I feel LFW is losing its essence. It’s too glamorous for me. And I really wish there were more critics. I don’t want to know who show stopped for who or who showed up at which after-party in what clothes & media running behind actors. It’s good if it works for others but I don’t like it. I hope Wills doesn’t have all that. I don’t want to know who is sitting in my front row as long as there are the right kind of people.

Who are the right kind of people? 
Somebody who understands what is going on with the clothes. Someone who can appreciate your work and give constructive criticism and is not just there to talk about front row, runway celebrities, and after parties.

Best thing about what you do.
It is a high to create things out of scratch. And at the end of each collection, once I see the girls walking down the ramp (no matter how modest I am usually), I feel this great sense of achievement. That, hey-you-know-what the clothes you just saw on the ramp, whether you liked them or not, were made from scratch by our weavers and our karigars and our printers and dyers; and yes, I am the designer behind it.

Excerpts from an old talk I had with Paromita Banerjee at LFW about a year ago. Runway photos from her old shows at LFW and recent AW 13 show at WIFW. Outdoor: Carol Humtsoe in Paromita Banerjee AW 13, photographed during WIFW at Pragati Maidan in Delhi.

Expressionist N by Javed Khan

Expressionist N SS 13 by Javed Khan. 

You were not too happy with the styling of your clothes on the runway this time. Yes. I didn’t like the layering so much because each individual piece was very strong, there was a lot happening with each piece..once it got layered, it lost its appeal, and looked a little too much.

What does your work involve at Madura?
I work as a design manager for Louis Phillipe. I have a team of designers and merchandisers working under me. I supervise a bit. My work involves international & domestic market surveys, market research, looking at what sold well and what did not sell well…then taking everything into account and preparing/designing for each season.

Javed made this collection in about 15 days while doing a serious full time job. It was his 2nd time at LFW. Check his debut collection here(first 6 images), his favourite piece from this collection, and some great stuff on his tumblr(minus the runway photos from his recent show).

Images: Expressionist N stall at LFW. Expressionist SS 13 runway, LFW. Pranav Misra in Expressionist N SS 13 shirt & Huemn pants.

क श by Karishma Shahani

All clothes by क श(ka sha)|Karishma Shahani. Look them up here.

Women: Arshia Ahuja. Tanvi Singla. Ria Kamat. Photographed in Bombay during Lakme Fashion Week August ’12 and March ’13.

Purva Rana | Frou Frou

Clothes: Archana‘s label Frou Frou(read more here).

Model: Purva Rana, 23, from Dharamsala. Photographed in March 2013 during Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai.

Women | LFW

Archana Rao, Designer. Likes Oren Lavie, exploring paper, is fascinated with buildings and structures, lives in Hyderabad..

What did you do today? I was just working on completing a project for most of the day, met up with a couple of friends over coffee and cheese cake, wrapped up the day by watching Paris, je’taime in bed.

Karishma Sanghvi. 20. FD student at Sophia College.

Alisha Netalkar. Possesses deafening screaming abilities.

Diva Dhawan. My blog was the subject for one of her college projects.

Pallavi Singh. In between shows.

Suhani Pittie. Accessory designer. 

Shruti Bheda. BLUR girl.

Karishma Shahani. Fashion & textile designer. Also sews, embroiders, cuts patterns. Likes Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Asif Avidan, Manish Arora, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Fun. Read more about her here.

If not a fashion designer, what do you think you’d be?
An anthropologist.

Shweta Dolli. 23. Miss India South ’11. Studied Math at college.

Rachel Bayros. Best person around.

Arshia Ahuja. If she was a kitchen utensil, she’d be a cheese grater.

Preeti Dhata. Radiohead.

Miss Universe India 2010.

Steven Wilson lover in Periwinkle glasses.

Tamara Moss in Rohit Bal. I really liked this show.

Bollywood.

Socialites.

Krishna Mukhi.  Works for Harper’s Bazaar. Hates florals.
———

Women who work in fashion, interested in fashion, or just hanging out to have a good time.

Photographs taken over the last two years (2011-13) at Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai.

Ria Kamat

Ria Kamat. 22. Jr. Fashion Stylist with Marie Claire. Works on the fashion pages of the magazine but is happiest at a shoot. Lives in Bombay. Studied at LCF. Large chunk of her childhood went in trying to dress like Spice Girls followed by Kate Winslet from Titanic phase(keyword:stockings). Admires Caroline Issa’s style. Has over watched Juno. Is listening to Bloom & Get Lucky over and over, one after another. Likes Huemn, Bodice, Shift, The Lumineers, Passion Pit, singing along to ABBA, Palace of Illusions, vodka…

Childhood
I was born in Mumbai. I am one of those people who has very distinct memories of my childhood right from the age of 4. Snippets of meaningless conversations, dreams, the way I felt about things…I remember majority of it. As all the kids in my building were boys, growing up around them had a strong influence on me. I was definitely not a girly girl and always dreamt of being a teenage mutant ninja turtle (the red one). I feel like a lot of my real ‘growing up’ took place when I moved to a boarding Sahyadri school which was essentially on a hill in the middle of no where. There was no encouragement of competition…education was everything that happened outside the classroom, friends were family, and teachers were friends. Technology was a foreign term, so every weekend I would write letters to my parents on inland letters. Life was like a little bubble with no connection to reality. I owe everything that I am to that time of my not so long life (so far).

How long were you in London for, what did you study, and where did you work?

I moved to london right after I turned 18. I lived there for 4 years. In my first year I did a diploma course that gave me the opportunity to understand all the different aspects of the fashion industry. I then did my BA degree in Fashion Styling and Photography where I majored in Styling.

While in London I did anything and everything I could and didn’t get a penny for it. I interned at Vogue india in both their London and Mumbai offices. I also worked on a film for Lilly Allen’s vintage store that she opened with her sister Sarah. I assisted the creative director of the film so my job was to build the sets, like physically build them. So I helped source all the material for the sets and then build it…from tiling a floor to building walls. I assisted a lot of freelance stylists in London on commissioned shoots that they were doing for magazines. I did apply for a job as a sales girl at Miss Sixty and I even got it. I worked there for a day and then fractured my foot so that was pretty much the end of my sales career.

What do you miss the most about London?
The parks! I love a good picnic at the park.

Where do you hangout in Bombay?
Uhhh currently at the Marie Claire office. I don’t really have one place. I enjoy eating out at places where the space is as important as the food. I like The Pantry, Kala Ghoda Cafe, Cafe Zoe, The Barking Deer.

Do you find any similarities between London & Bombay?
Yes. Everyone is trying to be someone. In Bombay there are so many young people who are trying to find their calling and achieve their goals. It’s the same in London. And all these people are young…really young.