Black. Deep, intense, dangerous. The colour of darkness. Of mystery. Of mourning. But it is also synonymous with elegance. With class. With sophistication. And timelessness. Remember Coco Chanel’s little black dress that continues to hold its own nearly a century after she conceptualized it.
Fashion designer Rocky S admits to simply loving the colour, “It is a strong colour and a classic one. Everyone looks good in black. If you go to my wardrobe, 90 per cent of it will be black.”
In the city to showcase his collection, a recreation of the medieval age of fashion (and yes, the clothes in this range are in varying shades of black), at the Blender’s Pride Fashion Tour 2013, the designer appears extremely optimistic about the state of the Indian fashion industry. “It has changed a lot in the passing years and is beginning to boom. So many international brands are coming, the average Indian’s sense of fashion has improved and the awareness is so much better than it used to be.”
Brand Rocky S is certainly a clearly defined one, “I design for today’s woman. She is feminine, strong, and confident. She works, she has kids, and she takes care of her family but she is also very fashion forward. She likes to go out in the night, she likes to dress up and she likes to stand out in the crowd,” he says adding that in his opinion, fashion-designer, model and singer Victoria Beckham is the embodiment of all that the brand stands for, “She is the kind of woman Rocky S would like to dress.”
The designer who has dressed John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Shilpa Shetty, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, even Beyoncé Knowles and Paris Hilton admits that his advent into the industry happened despite familial resistance to it. “I come from a conservative Marwari family. My brothers and father were chartered accountants and were all into business. When I told them I wanted to this they were not very pleased. They thought it was a glorified tailor’s job or something.”
Yet he chose to follow his heart. He joined the JD Institute of Fashion Design and then clinched a job at Roopam with whom he worked for three years. It was his stint in Roopam that catapulted him into the glitzy world of Bollywood, “I met a lot of actors through Roopam. My first actor was Manisha Koirala—she loved my clothes and asked me to style for her movie. I started doing that and through her I met a host of other stars and there was no looking back.”
Rocky who has done 350 movies so far, says he is taking a hiatus from styling and is now planning to get into movie production itself. “I have just launched a new company called E-Sense Motion Pictures and we will release our first film by next year. I’ve asked Mushtaq Sheik to write the screenplay.”
He admits that the film will be a feel-good, commercial film but smilingly refuses to confirm who will acting in it. “The script is still getting ready,” he says, “Once its ready, we will know who fits in. And of course, it is going to be very stylish.”
Talking about his signature wedding planning company Vilasa, Rocky says, “It is a one-stop solution for wedding needs. We help create the perfect wedding by consulting with the couple on all aspects — destination, food, theme, clothes. We also direct them to the right people for execution.”
Rocky has evolved through the years and is constantly diversifying and upgrading himself. In addition to his movies and his businesses, he is also the creative director of the Indian Resort Fashion Week and India Glamour and Fashion Week.
Innovative and experimental though he is, Rocky strongly believes in the inherent exquisiteness of traditional Indian fabrics, “I travelled and sourced fabric from all over the country including Benares, Kerala and Gujarat. It made me realize how much we have in our own country and how it can be explored in fashion. We need to hold on to our traditions because that is what we are good at.
“I think more and more Indian designers will do tradition-inspired clothes. Of course it will have influences from the West but I think we will continue to hold on to our fabrics, colours and designs to create our own style.”
