1) A new generation of talented Indian fashion designers is emerging who are successfully blending European and Indian styles. 2) Leather has become a popular material for these young designers as it represents luxury and ties into India's long tradition of leathercraft. 3) Designer Rohit Nagpal was inspired by an insect documentary to create insect-inspired leather footwear for his collection.

1. Leather
appeals
to the
new
talent
A
new generation of fashion designers
is on the rise in India. Stellar talents
such as Manish Arora are
successfully spanning the east-west divide,
bringing European sophistication to Pune
and Mumbai and Indian spice to Paris and
Milan.
Shalini Sud, a designer in her own right, a
graduate of the London School of Fashion,
and an associate professor at the National
Institute of Fashion Technology in Delhi, has
worked with many of the new leading lights
and insists that leather holds a powerful
appeal for them. “Leather has suddenly
become a really fashionable material,” she
says. “There is a new confidence among our
designers, and this is tying in well with the
centuries of traditional expertise that there is
in leather right across India.”
Ironically, though, travelling to other lands
and coming into contact with the forces of
globalisation has undoubtedly helped
designers such as Shahrukh Zaidi at AV
Thomas and the team that founded Delhi-
based luxury leather accessories brand Krith.
The Krith team clocked up experience
at Levi’s, Benetton, H & M and Liz Claiborne
before launching on its own. This
broadening of young people’s design
horizons may even have made it easier for
them to get in touch with their own leather ➤
Manish Arora has already shown that Indian
designers can make a huge impression on
the wider world of fashion.
CREDIT: MANISH ARORA.
WORLD LEATHER FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008 41

2. Design student Rohit Nagpal (below) used
leather to create insect-inspired footwear.
The idea came to him after watching a
programme on the Discovery Channel.
CREDIT: Rohit Nagpal, National Institute
of Fashion Technology, Chennai.
LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD
Still preparing for a career in design at
the National Institute for Fashion
Technology, this time at its centre in
Chennai, Rohit Nagpal is refreshingly
frank about his sources of inspiration.
For a recent footwear collection, he
decided to base his work on “dandy
chic fantasy”. He describes it as
“sophisticated, yet weird” and “trendy,
but full of sarcasm”.
He decided to design a pair of
shoes for a Japanese girl of between
20 and 22 years of age, “someone who
likes fantasy”. The leather on the shoe
alternates between a stamp with a
black and bluebottle blue effect and
patches of flesh-coloured leather
decorated with glass beads. At the
instep and the heel, the components
are joined together by loops made from
guitar strings and the lace is made from
the fuel injection pipe from an old car.
He wanted the shoes to resemble
insects as much as possible. And the
source of the idea? A programme he
saw one night in 2006 on Discovery
Channel Showcase.
WORLD LEATHER FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008
42

3. heritage. One of Krith’s founders, Sudeep
Rawat, is a former pupil of Shalini Sud’s while
his partner, Amit Sinha, is an award-winning
graduate of the National Institute of Design in
Ahmedabad.
“Our goal,” Mr Rawat explains, “has been
to design and develop products that are in
synch with global fashion trends. But yes, it’s
true; we also take a particular interest in
applying the right heritage of Indian design
and materials to products that will excite the
global consumer.”
What will offer this excitement to global
consumers? According to Sudeep Rawat,
the answer is a fusion of complex motifs and
designs from around the world and it was
precisely because of their desire to carry out
this task that he and his partner decided to
set up their own brand so early in their
careers. They see this as the best way to
develop an identity that represents their
particular vision of fashion trends.
Leather will continue to be the main
medium they use to express this vision. Mr
Rawat says: “We prefer working in leather as
India's centuries of tanning tradition mean
it allows us to convey the feel of luxury that
leather is an important material for the crop
our brand represents. Even the word ‘leather’ of talented young fashion designers the
conjures images and impressions of country is now producing.
richness, elegance, fashion and durability.”
using special finishes, coatings and foil
Ms Sud, for one, thinks it is no
effects to bring similar printing techniques to
coincidence that her former pupils have
leather. It’s all part of what she calls “giving
been able to enhance their appreciation of
an international feel” to traditional Indian
Indian traditions by looking towards the
strengths in materials and techniques.
outside world. She explains: “We know
“Designers have to translate all the
globalisation creates a pluralistic society, that
information they can get into their products,”
identities are mixing and that global citizens
she says, “reminding themselves all along of
are affected by lots of cultures at once.
the function the product should perform and
Fashion, in this context, is a canvas for art,
never losing sight of who it is they are
except that in some cases people connect
designing for. It can take years of hard work
more easily to fashion than to art. All of this is
and discipline to be able to achieve that.”
visible in the designs we are producing
Her firm belief is that this is a good time for
now.”
Indian designers—in apparel, in footwear
Within this, though, she insists that India is
and in accessories. If they have travelled and
completely in tune with global fashion trends.
seen other cultures and other approaches to
The vibrant colours that have brightened up
fashion, they can incorporate what they have
the catwalks of the world feature as
learned into their own collections now, and
prominently in the collections of Indian
be confident that the overall result will be
designers as they do anywhere, which is
worth offering to the wider world. She says:
why Manish Arora made such a splash in
“It’s time for India to stop looking with envy at
Paris last autumn with his bird-of-paradise
the rest of the world and believe in itself. We
dresses, tops, torero or bull-fighter jackets
Wallets and belts by Krith. One of the have the talent, and those designers have
and headgear.
founders, Sudeep Rawat, insists that leather
confidence in themselves and also the right
Ms Sud knows of young Indian designers
is the right medium for him to express his
entrepreneurial spirit. It has to happen.”
who, like Egyptian-born Karim Rashid, are
particular fashion vision.
WORLD LEATHER FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008 43