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.

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.
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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.

Photoshoot|bhane.

Pronounced as bha-nay. Means sunrise in Gurmukhi. I did a ‘street style inspired’ shoot for them sometime in October 2012. We shot on the streets of Delhi(mostly south)…with old & urban structures as backdrops, in bylanes & back lanes, in parks & markets…

Delhi is beautiful; well, some of it. 15 years ago while growing up in Delhi I thought I’d never be able to leave the place. It was greener, and there were lesser cars and lesser people. It’s changed quite a bit now – there are more malls, many more flyovers, traffic jams are longer, & everything looks too clean like the entire city is trying to hide something. Some places look like they are about to explode..

However, it’s still amazing in winters, its back alleys have great character, and some areas still look the same as they did 15 years ago…

Models: Kaka. Aditi. Odette. Carol. Pranav. Richa. Arshia. Shoot styled by Tania Fadte.

bhane clothes are simple and nice. Look them up here +credits(stuff used in the shoot). Read more about them here & here.

Pranav Misra

Pranav Kirti Misra, 28(much older in his head). Designer at Huemn, models occasionally, writes poetry. Originally from Lucknow, lives & works in Delhi. Likes Marilyn Manson, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Dastik, Gareth Pugh, Ricardo Tisci, Like A Flower In The Rain by Bukowski, Ghalib. Would like to date Adele. Can have conversations with himself for days…

So..is it weird, talking to yourself?
Not at all.

It was a Sunday yesterday. What did you do?
I did not go to the gym.

Other than making clothes and modelling, is there anything else you’d like to do?
Yes. I want to fly. I want to act in theatre. I want to hold seminars in schools and colleges and talk about random subjects for hours. I want to write, sing, entertain people, make people laugh…

How often do you go back to Lucknow and how is it like?
Once a year. In Lucknow, life is simple, there is more air to breathe, and more time to think. But in Delhi, you miss on a lot in just a blink.

Photographed at Hyatt, Bombay during Lakme Fashion Week in August last year.

Stephen Lotha

Stephen Lotha. 29. Fashion stylist for Cosmopolitan India. Belongs to the Lotha tribe. Grew up in Dimapur. Lives in Delhi. Likes Guo Pei, Kris Van Assche, Sonia Rykiel, The Way we Wore, ACNE, Lana Del Rey, Keane, As Good As It Gets, Jessica Chastain…

Are you an optimist? Very much. I could’ve been a good pessimist but then I wouldn’t be happy.

How important is fashion to you?
I enjoy fashion. It makes me happy. I don’t mind people forming opinions about me because of what I wear. I care a lot about what I put on my back. I feel naked in denim and t-shirts alone. I feel the world is my prom and I need to dress up.

You studied English Literature at Loyola. How was it? And how did you get into fashion?
It made me speak better English. My feminist professor adored me. Nice people…that city. However, studying there was just to make my mom happy with a college degree. Fresh out of college I wanted to be independent so I took a job at a call center. Worked there for 3 years. Then one day Carol wanted me to style her portfolio. I helped her. A make-up artist called Chandni Singh liked my work and helped in spreading the word. It moved from there.

What’s the best and worst thing about Dimapur?
I like the fact that alcohol is cheap there. Also, the fashion for sure…the flea markets, and the quality pork. Worst: Well the roads are only meant for cows.

How often do you go back? Any favourite hangouts?  I go back once in a year or two. Hang out mostly at cousins’ places or occasionally at some bars. I love Dimapur but I could live without going back ever.

What do you think of fashion in Dimapur?
Fashion is ‘the all’ for Dimapurians. We thrive on it. Ask anyone. It’s fashion before food and air. I used to love it before people became richer. Now it’s a little vulgar with everybody acting too uptight and dropping brand names.

You told me you grew up dreaming about making clothes..
Yes. Since I was 9ish. I used to sketch gowns and shoes all over my books and mom used to thrash me. Once mom collected all my sketches in a huge bag and handed it to my principal. I got 10 blows on my back. My grades were not too good either. She wanted me to do/become something else.

How was your childhood like?
Adventurous, really. I saw things that I wasn’t supposed to see. It wasn’t all gas balloons and butterflies, and hence it made me search for wonderful things beyond. The television was a box of magic and it made me giddy(not that we owned one). Back then I felt I should be on tv and make people love me.

Things like?
Mom and I used to live in a house made for poultry. Two years. We would lie in bed and see the stars from the holes in the roof. It was fascinating..but not during the rains.
I stayed in an orphanage for a year. Mom was poor. The place gave me free food and stay but made all of us work like crazy. I used to pull a cart carrying pig feed up to like 5 kilometres in Dimapur. I was 9. I know what is embarrassment, shame, what it feels like to be hungry, broke, and hopeless.

Any happy memories?
Well maybe the sundays when we were served meat for dinner. And mom visiting me once in a while. I used to cry when she’d leave.

What keeps you going?
Comic books. Strawberry ice-cream. My dreams of living in an Andy Warhol inspired house one day and a lot of money to buy good stuff pushes me. And on a trying day, a sincere prayer.

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Photographed in Delhi & Dimapur.