Fashion Designing is a very organized industry, though it sounds very glamorous . When we are doing shows even internationally on one side we have buyers and on other side we have media so by June itself we finish showcasing the next years collection so that buyers can place the order and designer can supply the store’s well in advance.
1.Tell us about your background and journey.
I started when I was 18 or 19. That time we didn’t have any institute in India, there was only one NIFT in Delhi, I never heard of fashion designing as a career, but my mom was an artist and she kind of used to sketch and also did clothes for Miss India a long back and her sketches used to lie down and I got into sketching and I sketched a lot.
What happened was I got a coach from Bangalore for
cutting and stitching , a lady from Thailand coached me for one year, Then I came back from Bangalore and color plus “ the brand” was just opposite my
house so I approached them to work with them so I started working with them and I
was merchandizing with them for about 3 years.
I was there in factory from 8
in the morning to 4 in the evening and from 4 to 7 I did my economics. I was
planning to do MBA which I still haven’t done. Working with Color Plus was a
whole different experience because they were just starting their brand and they
were starting setting up stores in
different parts of country and I got to travel a lot with them where ever they
went to set up stores and it was a great experience.
Through Color Plus I met Asrani
sisters who were setting up first multi designer store in Chennai, they had seen
my sketches and work for color plus, so they asked me to do a line for them and that is how I started my own line and made a collection for a store. I used to
do western line , I am still known for my western designs.
So after sometime I
approached my family friend and I asked her if she need clothes for films and she said that it was a
completely different game so why don’t you assist me so that’s how I got into
films .So far about 3 years I have assisted her and worked for a lot of movies and
then I met Rajeev Menon and Gautam Vasudev Menon . Then I quitted and stopped doing
movies and started working on my own. So one side I had my own fashion line and
other side I was doing costumes for movies. I am in this industry for 25 years I guess.
Most of my career in film I had to dress real people, but designing for fictional character is completely different ball game because it is not only your ideas that you have to put down , You are dealing with Directors vison, you have cinematographer and also choreographer, actor / actress if you are dealing with song sequence so everybody’s input is coming .When it is real people like we do fashion week it is 100% own creativity.
Well there are a lots of challenges, first of all if you are in the wrong city for fashion , if you are not in Bombay or Delhi it becomes very difficult to market yourself in a big way, Chennai still comes in a good place in terms of their spending.
There is also challenge of copies
so if client is not aware of fabric and knows about the quality we are
delivering it becomes difficult, it is nice market and very competitive ,you are
competing with established fashion houses and designers and you also have this
parallel line of copies that you have to deal with.
It
is a very tough field. Also, In fashion you have to always remain relevant
because fashion changes every six months so you need to upgrade your skills. When I used to showcase for Lakmé , we used to showcase one season ahead ,so I f we
are doing show in September we would have already finished showcasing summer 2021.
It is a very organized industry,
though it sounds very glamorous . When we are doing shows even internationally
on one side we have buyers and on other side we have media so by June itself we finish showcasing the next years collection so that buyers can place the order
and designer can supply the store’s well in advance.
3. What are the challenges you face and how do you overcome it?
Yes we always have a bad experience. Even right now with pandemic it has been very tough as we have no income coming in for 6 months so we have to deal with financial losses.
Yes we always have a bad experience. Even right now with pandemic it has been very tough as we have no income coming in for 6 months so we have to deal with financial losses.
There are lot of
challenges so you need to be strong and be smart about it , even for fashion
week we were spending far more then what we were getting when we started.
It is difficult to manage when you have to balance both
business side and creative side .You learn a lot of lessons along the journey .
It is tough industry to build your name or brand.
4. Do you think the lockdown has brought
changes in the fashion industry?
I hope so , but we in India have an advantage over others. Internationally there are lot of seasons like spring summer , fall winter, they do resort etc , so what was happening there was,
overproduction fashion was heading towards a more festive side and in India for
us wedding season is our main season and Diwali and most designer never tended to manufacture
too much they used to be conservative in production because what happens is even
In international brands there is a lot of dead stock, which they put in
landfills instead of selling them at discount to maintain the luxury of the
brand, luckily here we have don’t that , we have this second hand culture
that’s one good thing.
5. Who do you look up to for inspiration?
Indian designer Tarun Tahiliani is one of my favorite designer because he is the master of Drape garments and Internationally Alexander McQueen for he is amazing in both cut construction and fashion shows and his shows are simply great.
Well , I always say my next . But I have couple of favorites , there was one garment which was shot in Vogue. That was one of my favorite and then of course Nayanthara for whom I styled a couple of garment’s for the film 'Thani Oruvan'
Chaitanya Rao
Instagram id - @chaitanyarao_official
Interviewed by - Ananie Borgia
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