Resplendent Heritage

She embarked upon a quest for the revivalism of Indian textiles and crafts verging upon 50 years now, a prima donna of Indian fashion and an aesthete of all arts, fashion designer Ritu Kumar's journey cannot be summed up easily.

After attending Briarcliff College, New York, and later, studying museology in Kolkata, Ritu came across some exquisite handloom work put together by local women in a village near the same city and was absolutely struck by both the richness and enormous beauty of it. Soon afterwards, she along with her husband started a cottage industry with the village women.

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As our conversation deepened Ritu profoundly reminisced, the beginning of her work with four hand block printers and two tables. "India at that time, had no retail spaces, but we needed to push and sell, for that I went ahead to open a small store in Kolkata for my crafts people to sell and added one more in Delhi, since the design craft was already popular in the former region, most of the people now had an easy access to purchase," shares Ritu.

She further goes on to say "We had a great colonial influence in the way of dressing back then, for women a wide variety of unrivalled chiffon saris from France had homogenised fashion across this land and men, of course, preferred formal suits like British. What you saw on silver screen or say Vogue, were these saris with Benarasi borders stitched upon them to induce the Indian aesthetics. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, was the one driving force behind the renaissance of Indian crafts and handloom. She actively influenced an era of unsettled crafts people in the aftermath of independence and we all joined the movement together focused on maintaining the ingenuity of Indian textiles and handicrafts."

We stepped into her world of design to get a deeper insight of her thoughts, foresight and the legacy that she has created over the years. Edited excerpts...

Once you stepped into the realm of design, how difficult was it for you to define your design sense and forte?

The design language is defined in two ways, one, of course, is the design language of the craft you are working with which has always been a very strong one in India and, Indian textile is perhaps the strongest in the world. During the period of colonisation of over 200 years, our design language and ethos had almost been lost. Herein, the first thing that I did was try and revive it and soot revival I understood that language in a deeper way. And afterwards I began working towards contemporising it for a modern India.

People reference you as the design ambassador of our country. How does this weigh on you?

This responsibility didn’t weigh on me at all, rather it just kept evolving. The more I went with the feet the more the richness of textile kept coming out, it was a collaborative event. It is not something that brought in myself. I was one of the foot soldiers, who went out into the field to also enable some parts of the crafts to come up. I still believe, there is a lot more this country has to offer, I am nowhere near done. I may spend a lifetime working upon unearthing organic fashion based on indigenous skills and there would always be more to explore.

With a career spanning 5 decades, you have made a mark for yourself through your fine creations. Do you look at the fashion industry with optimism?

Yes, I do and the fact that we have a fashion industry in India which we can call our own is in itself a miracle. I would say all other countries have lost their identity to mass market entangled in the European net; where we always talk about fashion which is coming out of Paris, Milan or New York.

It's only in India when we talk about the new design identity that is coming out of Mumbai or Delhi; it's not that we don't use the aesthetic sensibilities of our Parisian counterparts but our wardrobes are perhaps the richest in the world, as we have a bit of both.

Now countries like Mexico, Thailand, China all with rich heritages, do not have any living testament but are only kept in museums. But India is one such nation that truly celebrates its own clothing, enjoys it and also supports a huge textile industry in handlooms and crafts.

As a pioneer of the “Organised and Boutique-cultured Fashion Industry in India, with three Labels – Ritu Kumar, Ri and LABEL Ritu Kumar”. How easy or difficult is it to stay relevant in an ever-changing design space?

This is something that I have learnt from the history of Indian textiles, we have always been a country which has evolved with whatever has happened because we were one of the largest exporters of textiles around the world; be it America, Europe, South Africa to the West Indies to Japan.

And there had always been a streak for u to be able to customise accordingly for every different market. Similarly, I think today the market is of young millennials, and to make something appealing to them, there has to be a balance between aesthetic, classism and shape and style because they do not wear the trend of clothes that the older generation used to wear. Also, the industry has been evolving rather relentlessly, the fashion styling concepts have been taken over with asymmetrical silhouettes, all kind of embroideries, adaptation of western influence on traditional wear, resulting in a fast-paced demand for ‘occasional clothing’. I have witnessed a change in fashion landscape each decade.

What are your views on the concept of Empowerment in Fashion?

I can only quote to you what I have experienced when I had initially entered the field to understand embroideries and revive craft of zardozi embroidery. I remember, there were miles and miles of areas in Indian villages with little huts where the men used to do embroidery as it was a multi-dimensional craft. The women herein, weren't skilled; if anything, they only helped in the process, of putting up the yarn or needling and thread. Over the years, I have noticed to find that the men are looking for jobs in a more accruent India and women have taken over the embroideries, as well as the weaving responsibilities.

In Andhra Pradesh, where a 100 per cent of all the weaving used to be done by the men, now in every home there is a room where the women are weaving saris. In Kutch (Gujarat), for instance, women are doing all the embroidery, and are independent enough to have their own bank accounts. I have to say that this craft area in India has empowered the women from the class where they most needed it and that is empowerment to me. I don’t think fashion in itself is an empowerment except that you are a consumer you are empowering the women to continue with their work and be more self-sufficient.

Your designs have been worn by style divas such as - Late Princess Diana, Jemima Khan, Aditi Rao Hydari, and many more. Who would you pick as your next muse?

I would pick you (laughs), and that’s a reality. You pick what is going to happen in the future for fashion. There is actually no comparison between Aditi and Princess Diana, they both come from different backgrounds, tastes, clothes, and definitely one is as beautiful as the other. But for my muse, I would pick you, because you are the person who is going to be the future of this country.

What are your future goals and are there any new projects you are currently working on?

I am writing a book of my travels in this country, on textiles and fashion. So I am looking forward to that coming out soon. As far as my upcoming collection is concerned, we are working on the RK collection for the Bombay Fashion Week and the new bridal collection which is much lighter and much more fun.