It has taken Nandita and Hemant, who specialise in Western outfits inspired by Indian culture and art, a decade of remarkable resilience to make inroads into the United States market. The duo’s newly created loose shirts, tunics and capes with an imprint of India written over them will finally get the pride of place on the creamy shelves of stores of Neiman Marcus, a revered American retail chain, across the United States. Come September, the duo, who were batch mates at NIFT, and share similar sensibilities, will be rubbing shoulders with designers like the likes of Michael Kors, Valentino and Carolina Herrera.
So finally long hours of working along with artisans and travelling to exotic locations to create a unique design has paid off. “There cannot be two opinions that hard work pays off. But we have a bigger dream. This is one of the feathers in our cap. It is not just two or three months of slogging but ten years of building a brand. We share the same sensibilities of portraying Indian aesthetics. Anyone who buys our outfits in the American cities or website will be able to relate to the Indian culture – the colours, embroidery have unmistaken identity of our roots,” says Nandita, who handles the design part.
They have used embroidery in a way that the attire looks aesthetic. The tricky part was ensuring the blend of the East and the West looked gaudy. In their trip to Gulmarg they scouted for weavers specialising in intricate aari embroidery. “For this collection we have taken inspiration from intricate aesthetic of aari . We saw the work of craftsperson, working in aari embroidery on shawls for nearly two years. It was done with such detailing that we felt that this work needs to be shown to a wider audience. They demonstrated finesse and tenacity while working on Pashmina. After returning to Delhi we gave our touch in the outfits. Embroidery has been done nicely on each attire,” says Hemant.
Explaining aari work, he says, “The use of thread is there but it is done in a manner that the end product gets the look of a chain. This embroidery will be a pleasant surprise for the clientele at stores of Neiman Marcus, which has little or no Indian presence.”
Interestingly, the duo were not trained in this type of embroidery while undertaking their course in designing but learnt the intricate processing on the job. Dresses made to match the taste of today’s generation. “We keep in touch with forecast and taste of the people. Indian designers are at an advantage vis a vis designers from abroad as they are exposed to traditional elements. Like if my or Hemant’s parents wear outfits which have intricate, rich hand work then we keep them with us in our archive and then seeking inspiration from that make our dresses,” says Nandita.
Coming back to drawing inspiration from multiple sources, Nandita says she recently took fancy of a sofa cover and decided to give her interpretation on clothes which were presented in a recent fashion week. “It all depends on the mood you are in on a particular day. Like Madras checks have been there for a long time but then there comes a day when they appeal to such an extent that you get motivated to do something on a large scale.”
