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Wearable fashion

Photo: Mahesh Harilal

DIVERSE OPTIONS Designer Sanjana Jon is targeting the middle class

“I do not want only people with money to wear my clothes. The clothes that fashion designers come up with have to be wearable and affordable. We have to be careful while dressing. Our dress should be conservative and acceptable to the elders of the family.”

These are the words of fashion designer Sanjana Jon, who was in the eye of a storm following her show at the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week recently. She came in for a lot of criticism from fellow designers but Sanjana maintains her calm stating, “One should not play dirty, I have never made negative comments.” Sanjana Jon is making news for her conservative approach to fashion. She has worked with six Miss Universe title holders like Natalie Glebova, Jennifer Hawkins, Zuleyka Rivera and has also designed the bridal wear for Saudi and Spanish princesses.

She says: “Fashion has to be wearable and culture specific. It baffles me whether the designs here are for India or for the western world. What I am trying to do is to adapt western clothes to Indian sensibility. We Indians preserve our culture and our dresses are more traditional and elegant.”

Sanjana’s spring-summer collection is for the lifestyle-conscious, offering diverse options to women. Her pret line consists of daily wear for the teenaged girls to the 30-plus women, the diffusion line includes office wear for women and her platinum line introduces custom-made high-end bridal wear. She has used the Italian silk and French lace extensively in her collection. Sanjana is targeting the middle class now with dresses starting from Rs.10,000. “My dresses are for the real women showing the colours of India. Next year, I am also planning to launch lingerie collection in different categories to complement the dresses, specially the bridal ones.” Sanjana wants to close the chapter of the fashion week and build India as her base for the future. “I feel isolated in the U.S. India is my home turf and it’s also a booming market. As far as other designers are concerned all I can say is that darkness can be fought with light, not by sticks and stones.”

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