She’s a stylist to the stars. So, naturally, Kalyani Desai has an eye for fashion. Kalyani, stylist to celebrities such as Dulquer Salmaan, Nagarjuna Akkineni, Mammootty and Prithviraj, to name a few, under the label Not Just Black by Kalyani Desai, has added another feather to her cap by turning fashion designer. She has launched her fashion label Not Just Black, ‘a classic menswear luxury brand offering stylised Indian attire at affordable prices.’
“For nearly two years now, along with styling actors, I have also been a personal shopper for various industrialists. This means I do a complete styling consultation based on their requirements, body types, design sensibilities and customise looks for them. Heartened by how well this was received, I began working on creating Not Just Black,” says Kalyani, in an email interview. Her design aesthetics/philosophy, she says, is based on the idea that one should be able to wear an outfit on more than one occasion and style it with different pieces from their own wardrobe.
“I like keeping my designs clean and classy and something that may work even 10 years down the line,” adds 24-year-old, who is based in Mumbai.
The stylist-designer’s trendy debut collection, ‘Harmony in Chaos,’ is an ode to modern lifestyles. “Working in any industry/business today is chaotic; life in general seems to move at such a fast pace. That said I find peace in even the smallest things around me. And that for me brings harmony within chaos. This artistically chaotic collection has been designed depicting the beautiful chaos that resides within each and every one of us,” explains Kalyani, who is inspired by designers Tom Ford and Raghavendra Rathore.
The collection features a line of Indo-Western wear, specifically Bandhgala suits, Nehru jackets, kurta sets, shirts and trousers and pocket squares, with an accent on Indian elements. The contemporary look of the collection is further accented with pops of very English pinks and blues, greens and yellows, in fabrics clearly chosen with an eye on comfort. She’s used cotton satin, linen, cotton and also hundred per cent Italian fabrics for some of her Nehru jackets.
It can’t be easy being a woman designer in the male-dominated realm of menswear design in India - that there are barely a handful of women menswear designers in the country. But Kalyani chooses not to think of it as an attempt to break the glass ceiling. “I think more than seeing it as a woman designing menswear, it’s important to be able to understand the market and consumer behaviour. I have always been inclined towards menswear and it is something that comes rather naturally to me. Having said that, I have also trained and specialised in understanding the structure of different body types, what works, what doesn’t work and that research is probably what works in my favour,” explains Kalyani.
The stylist-designer plans to introduce suits to Not Just Black in a couple months.
Kalyani’s designs are currently available on the e-commerce portal, notjustblack.in
