Anand Jon’s sibling, Sanjana Jon, makes her design debut in India, this year.

When Nupur Mahajan Sinh met designer Anand Jon’s sister and new designer, Sanjana Jon, at a hurried lunch in Mumbai she realised, in retrospect, that the hurry was intrinsic. Sanjana is a lady in a rush.... She made a debut internationally at the Cannes film fest in ’04, and she’s been already awarded the International Rising Star ’06 at the Vancouver Fashion Week. Right this minute, she’s charting a strategy to briskly carve a niche in the Indian market where she debuts this November – a high end fashion show, a charitable cause and getting down the reigning Miss Universe. Never mind the hurry...

Aren’t you the late bloomer in the family?

Not really. I started designing while I was doing my credits at Parsons. I’ve been behind the scenes, co-designing with Anand and that was like a training. We started co-designing the men’s line. It got us a great response from rock stars like Prince, Backstreet Boys. I also co-design his jewellery line, Adornment. This background has helped me create designs that aren’t just for the runway. Taking the time also helped me in understanding what I wanted to do and creating classic pieces that are not seasonal.

Does being Anand Jon’s sister help open doors?

Absolutely. He’s been called the brand ambassador of haute couture! Being Sanjana Jon there is that instant brand recognition. Also, he’s backing all my projects so their associating Sanjana Jon with him is not quite off the mark.

Sibling rivalry?

No way! I dress him. I pick what he has to wear and he styles me. He always says that I am his muse and otherwise, I am almost always his date! Yeah, but now with my collection out we will have a little bit of a ‘am I going to wear SJ or AJ’ kind of thing! Poor mom, always gets cornered and now she’ll have a tougher time! But really, we look at each other’s work and it helps as there’s constructive criticism. He is the creative director in Sanjana Jon.

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