The Changing Face of Indian Fashion

Ritu Kumar, best known as one of India's first designers, on how far the Indian fashion industry has come over the last 45 years. And how far it has yet to go

Ritu Kumar is no stranger to pushing boundaries. When she first got involved in the fashion scene in India, there was no industry to speak of. That was back in the 1970s. The country was gradually recovering from its colonial history and, as she puts it, 'there was a vacuum all over'.
"You wouldn't be able to find a button or a zip easily," she reminisces, during a quiet chat in her hotel room. "There were no stores or retail spaces, except for government subsidised ones. Women wore saris, but no one took it to the next step by getting it shaped by designers. I remember doing a show in the 70s, and everybody had to have a coffee break when the models went to change. It was so simple - there were no choreographers and no media, as no one really knew what a fashion show was about! In my day, we were like barefoot doctors going out into villages."

If there's anything we know, it's to take her at her word. After all, Ritu Kumar, who was in the UAE for the launch of her new store in Dubai Festival City Mall, has been in the fashion industry for a staggering 45 years. She's not only seen India's fashion scene grow, she's been at the forefront of its evolution. Which is why it's hard to believe the pragmatic designer when she says she got into the field, all those years go, 'rather by accident'.
"There wasn't any burning desire to be a designer," she confides. "I was studying art history in America, and, during that time, I suddenly realised that I actually knew very little about Indian art. That made me feel so bad! When I came back to India, I got married and settled down, and then joined a museology course which is the closest they had to Indian art.
"My college used to take us to many places around Calcutta and that's where I discovered a little village that did hand block printing. Obviously, they weren't doing it like they used to - 150 years of colonialism had almost killed the craft. I found it impoverished, but so very promising. And my story started there."
Ritu started mobilising the talented villagers, and got them to start printing on a larger scale, even drawing out patterns for them. That led to the printing of hand block saris. As their creations got more and more popular, it wasn't long before Ritu started receiving orders, both inside the country and out. And that, in turn, led her to becoming one of the first Indian designers to be recognised on an international level. For this humble designer though, it was all part of a string of accidents.
"When I was doing hand block printing, some trade action group from Australia came in and ordered 500 scarves. I said I couldn't make that in a year - we had such a small team. But my husband was a businessman and he got involved with it. So I would do the designing, and export started. One thing simply led to another."
Today, Ritu is as close to fashion royalty as it gets. When the late Princess Diana visited Lahore in the 1990s, she chose to wear a blue Ritu Kumar salwar kameez for the occasion. Her designs have been seen on celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra, Madhuri Dixit and Kalki Koechlin, among others, and her bridal collection is a favourite among the who's who of Bollywood.
While fashion is clearly her forte, Ritu confesses that her first love will always be to revive India's arts and crafts. "Countries such as India and China have a rich and distinguished history in textiles - India, in particular, because we used to grow cotton and pattern it with vegetable dyes. I go back to India's origins, and that's where my inspiration comes from. I don't get inspired by polka dots! What would I do with them?"
She's not the only one looking to the past. Decades ago, most Indian designers sought to mimic styles and patterns from the West, but today, younger designers entering the industry are choosing to go back to their Indian roots. Traditional patterns, textiles and outfits are being celebrated, while materials such as khaadi have made a comeback, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make In India' initiative, launched in 2014. And Ritu is quite pleased by these developments.
"I think we grew up with this colonial baggage on our backs," she says thoughtfully. "Our parents were seriously inundated with some sort of an inferiority complex over the fact that we were ruled by the British. But today's India seems to have gotten rid of this baggage! They've seen a new world, and there's so much creativity moving to the fore. This is partly due to the advent of institutes of fashion and the number of fashion platforms (such as the Fashion Weeks). Designers today are celebrating everything produced in the country, and that is a lovely thing."
That is not to say people in India will always choose traditional clothing over high street fashion, she adds. Instead, people in India are gradually embracing the best of both worlds - blending traditional with western outfits; wearing khaadi kurtis over jeans. And for Ritu, this development is nothing short of phenomenal.
"There's a resurgence," she says. "And there's some wild, fun stuff happening. It is at an experimental level but it is nice. There's a very strong loungewear feeling, a lot of palazzos, crinkled skirts, asymmetrical kurtas and chunnis (dupattas) draped like capes. So you have some really new things happening. I've seen saris with bicycle prints and kite prints all over them! There is this young feel to clothes, and they're coming out with a very strong Indian identity."
As the years go by, Ritu predicts more 'blurring of the lines' between Indian fashion and that found in the rest of the world. "Modern women - from any part of the world - have the same priorities," she explains. "They work and need mobility. And now they have a wide range, from within India, to choose from."
As Indian designs slowly become more international, it's only natural that Ritu set her sights on Dubai. Her flagship Dubai boutique opened in BurJuman Centre in 2014, and her newly launched store in Dubai Festival City Mall will be the second to supply Dubai's fashion-conscious with cutting-edge designs made from rich textiles.  
"When my son (Amrish Kumar) got involved in the company, he came in with the thought that we have to create a strong Indian 'handwriting', but in an international way," says Ritu. "We were looking for countries that had an understanding of our values, and the UAE is definitely one of them. It's a place for everyone, a truly cosmopolitan country."
And it's obvious there is a great demand for her designs too. While that might be because of her eye for detail and intricate embroidery, Ritu is convinced that it goes beyond that.
"In a way, the world is beginning to see that our future lies in being natural. Synthetics and other man-made materials are not that cool anymore. That's where India's strength lies. And I think we are working on that strength."
janice@khaleejtimes.com