Gauri Bajoria: A Modern Twist
Label: Gauri Bajoria
Gauri Bajoria learned, and then unlearned, and then slowly learned again. After acquiring three years of fashion education and degrees in design and pattern-cutting at the prestigious London College of Fashion, Bajoria returned to her home, Kolkata, and was in for a ‘culture shock’. Her confidence was slightly shaken as she realised the vast difference between her schooling-ground and her work-sphere. “I was lost as I did not have any knowledge of my target buyer,” she explains. “The city seemed conservative and not very experimental from where I was seeing it at that point of time.”

Bajoria is not the first person to speak of the unwillingness of Kolkata to move on from clinging to the past. However, adaptation is a two-way process and Bajoria realised that the first step was to be hers. A study of consumer habits and the city lifestyle honed her unique mix of education and instinct and she slowly found comfort in a blend of the England and Bengal brands of romanticism — both nostalgic about the rosy days of The Raj. “My colour palette is very English and soft, but Kolkata influences me with different mediums such as block and screen printing, dyeing and hand embroidery.”

With ethnic techniques and western treatments, Bajoria’s intricate textures are layered with beads, thread-work, sequins, antique zari and pleated ribbons, dyed with a painterly touch. She avoids the common tendency to fill up all available space with embroidery. “There is always a focal point of emphasis on the garment…giving it a very modern, chic look.” She aims her sensibilities at the contemporary young woman, with designs which are “very trendy and young but at the same time, feminine”, with a “modern twist...for all occasions”. Her Spring/ Summer 2008 collection, which she showcased at the Wills India Fashion Week, in 2007, comprised pleated, light summer dresses, blouses and skirts in chiffon, georgette and fine jersey — almost fragrant with their flower-like quality.

Bajoria aims to diversify with the exploration of textile prints “inspired by pop art and the psychedelic culture… in bright and bold colours”, keeping her target young consumer in mind. Five years after first establishing her brand, Bajoria seems relaxed and secure in the city which first caused her many apprehensions. “Experience has changed my understanding,” she says of the city. “I believe we are way ahead of most cities nationally in terms of our sensibilities. I am glad to be based out of here.”

Kallol Datta: Beyond Conventional Parameters
Label: Kallol Datta 1955
Kolkata has been keeping an eye on Kallol Datta ever since his design-school days. Observations about ‘that guy with the nose ring’ have now evolved to ‘that guy with the nose ring, wearing patiala shalwars, with coloured hair extensions, who designs great stuff!’ Datta’s personal style is as unconventionally impactful as his creations and certainly entertaining.

Behind the entertainment, however, lies a solid fashion background, with back-to-back degrees from NIFT Kolkata and Central Saint Martin’s, London. Datta does not confine himself to the safety of his sound basics and technicals, but rather, uses them as leverage to push design beyond conventional parameters. He experiments through manipulated drapes, shapes, pattern-cutting, seam placements and detailing. “The way to step forward is to innovate,” he says, joking about Benson Lights and Organic Merlot being his catalysts.

Humour is strong in his ‘morbid or diabetically sweet concepts’. His debut collection at October 2007’s Lakme Fashion Week, Mumbai, about ‘a classical concert pianist’s recurring nightmares of turning into a circus freak’, used the circle as his main pattern shape, adapting a menswear size 42 pattern to womenswear size 12 garments. While the collection brought him to the notice of the national fashion circuit, it was his Autumn Winter 2008-09 collection at March 2008’s Lakme Fashion Week that brought critical acclaim. Entitled ‘The Body Farm’ and inspired by embalming, preservation and restoration techniques of the dead, against putrefaction, the collection showcased dislocated shoulders, suture-like seams, interlinings as design features and a somber, icy colour palette. Datta is also exploring with pigment and foil textile prints and tie-dye techniques. Defying categorisation, he states, “I hate terms like ‘Indian ethos in western clothes’ and so on. I create womenswear — for the time being — and I am an Indian Designer.”

The ‘pseudo-intellectual Kolkata designer’ tag does not bother Datta. “Of late, we have seen an emergence of the Kolkata and Ahmedabad schools of fashion — more thought-provoking, less gimmicky. I’ve been lucky. Kolkata is used to only denote my operative location. People would be hard-pressed to slot me into a so-called ‘Sabya-Syndrome’ category,” he smiles. “I just do my work and hope that word gets along, that someone’s creating something real good!”