The Gods must be crazy. If they happen to be Manish Arora’s Gods, that is. His latest pop-art inspired collection features Indian deities and apsaras sporting funky florescent shades, sequins and sparkling crystals. Some have eyes that roll. Sharing wall space with them at the designer’s Noida factory are embroidered multicoloured snakes inspired by the game of saamp-sidi, Amar Chitra Katha characters and every imaginable form of desi kitsch.

My senses are still reeling from the assault of colour when a bizarre shape suggestive of an explosion on a hanger catches the eye. The creation from his latest collection, to be showcased at Paris Fashion Week, is a personal favourite of Arora’s. It’s a jacket inspired by a bomb blast, created using the Origami paper-folding technique. The panel in front will have fireworks made in Swarovski, he tells me – the unique Manish Arora touch. The designer laughs and assures me there’s nothing violent about his bomb blast. “It’s just that my clothes have a sense of humour. After all, it’s fashion. It can’t be taken so seriously.”

The Origami bomb-blast jacket comes from the same fervid imagination that recently transformed the female body into an Edenic forest teeming with flamboyant flowers, exotic butterflies and riotously coloured Toucan birds. Titled ‘Life is Beautiful,’ the Spring Summer 2007 collection also flaunted ensembles in prints inspired by cows, turtles, fish, dogs and the human anatomy. Easier on colour, though conceptually edgier was the Winter-Autumn 07-08 Collection themed around space, with a futuristic accent on metallics, geometrics and optical illusion. The current collection for Paris is Arora’s version of Indian pop art with a focus on venyl and plastic elements.

The wealth of references the designer uses and the enormous surprise (or shock) value of his creations – watch parts, microchips, lizards and human skulls – make the designer a Rorschach Test analyst’s delight. What makes that mind tick? Where does he find inspiration? How does he translate his bizarre ideas into sure-shot ramp sizzlers?

My journalistic imperative to find a ‘story’, a pattern and a rationale in Arora’s life is predictably at odds with the free spirit’s instinct to defy ordering and labels. “People have called me too many names. I see my work as individualistic and something that is not easy for others to achieve. I don’t think what I make is crazy. It’s just that it’s not for everybody. It’s for people who want to stand out. People who wear my clothes are very confident when they go out. That’s how I’d explain my style,” says he.

An admirer of Jean Paul Gaultier’s work, Arora does not glorify his profession and treats fashion merely as a medium to express what’s in his mind. “If I had not done fashion, it would have been movies or art.” Interestingly, the commerce graduate got into fashion quite by chance when he happened to apply to National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). It’s hard to imagine the first time he ever created anything was at NIFT.

The designer says the only common element running through his body of work is his connectedness to Indian culture. “Even my collections that don’t have an Indian theme always have Indian elements and embroideries. Like the Autumn-Winter 07-08 reminds you of a space station but the embroideries are zardozi, phulkari and banarasi.” Famed for his exquisite silk jackets, Arora loves brocade from Benaras. “No one in the world can make fabric like that anywhere else in the world. The Chinese can do everything but they can’t make brocade like us. And they can’t do embroideries like us, so we must understand and exploit the advantages we have.”

The theme he chooses for a collection could be anything that fascinates him at a given point. The maverick enjoys exploring new ground. His current interest in the 70s and pop art is reflected in the artifacts and books on his desk – Paco Rabanne, comic books and Andy Warhol’s pop art. The work process testifies to a method in the madness. “I have a lot of images researched and like to have an information overload. I keep looking at things and thinking of silhouettes. At some point whatever is in my mind gets all mixed up. And somehow some strange concoction made in my own style comes out. If you know too much about something, there is nothing left to explore. Then you can’t have your own take on it. The idea is not to know enough. Then you will have your version to it. And you have to be confident enough to show your version to people.”

Currently in an intense phase of growth, Arora shows no signs of slowing down. Besides his four stores in India, Arora’s creations are stocked at 75 premium stores worldwide including Maria Luisa in Paris, Harrods and Dover Street in London, Saks in Dubai, Bloomingdales in NY, Gio Morretti in Milan and Villa Moda in Kuwait. Fish Fry is his cheaper line of clothing and also the name he uses for the psychedelic shoes he designs for Reebok. His first concept store, Fish Fry for Reebok, opened in Garden of Five Senses in Delhi earlier this year. Besides his collaboration with Reebok and Swarovski, he has tied up with make-up giant MAC and an international watch brand he’s cagey to name yet.

Since his debut at the London Fashion Week in September 2005, Arora has been showing at London Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Weeks every year. “My eyes have opened up a lot after doing international fashion weeks. The way the system works is very different from here. The quality of shows, the clothes. You learn so much. All that put together helps you in the process of making your collection,” he says of his international stint.

How are Indian designers perceived in the international fashion arena? “At an individual level, a couple of designers are getting recognition. But overall you can’t say Indian fashion is being noticed by people worldwide in a big way. Still, we have a lot of good work happening, there is recognition. I give a lot of credit to FDCI and India Fashion Week for the work they are doing.” His own base of international clients is growing. Recently his clothes were taken for a shoot for Bjork in France by her stylist. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith also dons his clothes. “He called me personally to say how much he loves my designs”, gushes the Tyler fan.

After being voted India’s best designer by experts in a poll for news weekly Outlook last year, Arora has the rare distinction of being the first Indian designer to be invited to showcase his work at Victoria Albert Museum. “My show is called ‘Fashion in Motion’. It’s the most prestigious thing I’ve done till now. To be showcased on the same platform as Christian Lacroix, Issey Miyake and John Galliano is a real honour.” He was also recently invited by the Mayor of London to be the ambassador of Indian fashion at the India festival.

The ambassador role is growing on Arora who says he is making a conscious effort to be more involved with the Indian fashion industry. “I want to promote India in a bigger way. Indian fashion must be recognised as something that is not frivolous. It should be understood, appreciated and accepted because there is something more serious to our technique and vision.” Arora wishes to be known as a complete designer at par with his international counterparts, with his own line of perfumes selling at airports. Eventually, he aspires to be the creative director of a big international design house, although that is still “a long time away.”

As our time together comes to an end, I conclude Arora is an intriguing study in contrasts. The manner is down to earth but the ambition is soaring. The imagination runs wild and unfettered but there is complete mastery over form and structure. The references are eclectic and multicultural yet the rootedness to Indian culture shines through in every fantastic creation. The elements are kitsch and low-brow, but the interpretations are chic, witty and intelligent. Even the lurid colours have a language and an inherent creative logic of their own.

A British critic recently described Arora’s work as “a little bit nuts”. She wasn’t entirely off the mark.
Only this is no ordinary madness.