It's the hottest of hot summer afternoons when we trundle to designer Gaurav Gupta's studio in dusty Noida. Inside his office, a grey wave-shaped suede leather couch dominates, the gentle lull of the AC threatening to put you to sleep. After Gupta arrives, it's commotion for a while. Offering you a cold drink, he's out again to sort out some order-related issues. He's back soon. Craftsmen who walk in with stencils of a complicated embroidery motif that needs to be transferred to a dress are told they'll have to redo it because it wouldn't fit with the dress' silhouette. “ Samajh mein aa gaya, ya dobara shuru se bolna padega ?” he asks. The guys nod in the affirmative and leave. Assistants are asked to make multiple calls and a slight hesitation meets with a “Can't you guys do two things simultaneously?” The rest of the interview, he practises what he preaches — answering each question at length, while browsing through his Autumn/ Winter 2011-12 catalogue and tagging it with Post-its.
Gaurav Gupta set up his eponymous label in 2006. In five years he's managed to establish a strong signature that draws from innovative draping and digital prints. It's easy to make out a Gaurav Gupta garment. Retail-wise, besides selling from prominent multi-label boutiques in the country (Ensemble, Ogaan, White, Kimaya, Bombay Electric, to name a few) and abroad (L'eclaireur, H. Lorenzo, Anastasia), a significant landmark was setting up a flagship store at Emporio in the Capital last year, mannequins suspended from the ceiling. In the pipeline is a store in Mumbai.
Gupta grew up in Delhi; schooling was at Springdales. After passing out from NIFT (Delhi) in 2000 and dabbling with a few freelance projects, he decided to expand his skill set with a B.A.(Hons.) at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, highlights being a project with Stella McCartney and an internship with Hussein Chalayan. The road back to India in 2004 was via other freelance projects on art, fashion and jewellery in the U.K. and Italy. That was when the idea of his own label germinated. “Actually I set up a small thing with two tailors, and it was very illusionary for me,” Gupta recalls. However, a job in Turkey beckoned and he returned only in 2006. Things took off from there.
His first studio was in Said-ul-ajaib, a fraction of his present space in Noida. “But we're looking at expanding now, so this is not enough for us,” he adds.
Gupta describes the evolution of his label as being more “market-friendly” now. “At the same time I've evolved my signature look, which is very fluid, drape-oriented... Even if you design a pair of Jodhpurs or straight-cut trousers, it needs to have something more special to it. There is deconstruction, there are zippers. There's a grunge element to our design as well. But at the same time it's very sophisticated.”
He also admits to being a more open label now in terms of range and sizes. “We have dresses that will fit a really small size and we have things that would work on a larger person as well. So we cater to a bigger market scenario. And we've expanded a lot on our Indian wear,” he adds.
Indian wear, especially, is a segment where they've been able to twist and tweak things to a large extent. Keeping the very basic silhouette intact, he has been able to strip the sari and lehenga of traditional embellishment, paring down the volume in the former and adding to the latter, be it tulle, lace, crystal elements or, of course, heavy-duty drapes. Lehengas more ball-gowny than they usually are.
“The kind of change we've done to Indian wear we cannot make in western wear, because everyone in the world is doing western wear.”
His Autumn/ Winter 2011 collection that showcased at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week last month drew inspiration from movement — the flow of fabric, fish moving in water, the flight of clouds. Before that he's had a checks phase, incorporating Scottish plaid and maths checks in two separate collections.
The designer who lists Comme des Garcons, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Savio Jon, Anamika Khanna and Morphe by Amit Aggarwal as favourites says, timing-wise too, things worked out perfectly for his label.
“I think we've helped in changing the way people look at fashion and clothes in India over the past three years. It was already due for a huge change — the influx of many brands at many different levels, Internet, exposure, people travelling everywhere... All this was yet to happen and we came in right before that.”
The Gaurav Gupta label, he says, played a role. “We were almost like the pioneers in opening up people's minds, saying ‘No, you can wear draped dresses. You can wear jersey; it's not just a hosiery material. It's not necessary to wear tight-fitted clothes to look thin.' Just many, many things people were stuck with culturally and traditionally. That energy was missing. There were people doing it in their own pockets, but they were either so radical so as to be completely non-wearable, or they were too simplistic and contemporary India. What we brought out was a new language to fashion,” Gupta says.
On the side, he's trying to help out a customer with her choice, an indigo chiffon anti-fit tunic. “Looking very cool and flattering. But what are you going to wear underneath? Tights? Instead of tights why don't you get some trousers made… straight-ish.”
