The year 1994 was when fashion, clothes, who wore what was discussed among the masses and was all over popular media as Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai won their Miss Universe and Miss World titles. That was the event that highlighted how wardrobes for these girls were designed and organised, before that no one spoke about fashion. I was asked to be on the jury for the beauty pageant and when there was a tie between Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai, I asked the tiebreaker question: ‘What do you know about the textile history of this country?’ Sushmita had some idea about khadi, but apart from her, nobody else was aware. Today there is so much awareness.
It was also the year that NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) had a full-fledged campus, so fashion was not an organised space, or as big as it is today. I think I was one of the first few to start doing fashion shoots. We did one with Sushmita after she won the crown and the whole team went to Agra and we did a shoot at Taj Mahal. We did a shoot with Aishwarya in front of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Ramp shows were not on the horizon, if they were, it was at a very small scale.
Sushmita Sen’s answer to Ritu Kumar’s question landed her the Miss Universe crown in 1994, while Aishwarya became Miss World
‘I DID THE FIRST BRIDAL LEHENGAS’
Back then, I was doing my revival work in hand blockprinting, in embroidery. There were very small stores for bridal wear and nothing like what you see today. Brides had no idea what they wanted, I did the first-ever bridal lehengas. That was the time when brides would just go to the market and buy a sari. What they wore on the wedding day was basically tradition bound, what the community wore. Most brides took the fabric, gave it to local tailors for blouses. Having fancy blouses was unheard of, weddings were very formal and traditional affairs, there was no such thing as a destination wedding.
I was doing a lot of work and designs for exports. There were no fashion events or gatherings so hanging out would mean hosting a meal at home.
