It was when three college girls walked into a Masaba store and decided to buy a sari between themselves that designer Masaba Gupta realised that she had a younger audience too. “When we understood that they were pooling their pocket money together to buy a Masaba sari they wanted to share, we realised we had a following among college girls,” says Masaba. “I’ve often had teenage girls tell me that they love my prints and since most Indian designers don’t cater to this group, we decided to do something for them with Masaba Lite,” says the designer.
The youngest designer to showcase at Will Lifestyle India Fashion Week in 2010, Masaba has an edge over India’s crop of fashion designers. She has a following among young fashion lovers and older fashionistas. Her saris from House of Masaba are popular with women in their mid-40s and 50s and the younger brigade love her classic Masaba print dresses and tunics. “With Masaba Lite, the endeavour is to reach out to girls in the 12 and 19 age group. We want them to be able to afford aMasaba Lite piece. The collection is print heavy and offers pieces that girls can wear to college.”
Masaba has collaborated with a fashion house, an online fashion retailer and even Chetan Bhagat! The designer’s two-year collaboration as Fashion Director for Satya Paul ended recently. She collaborated with Chetan Bhagat for a line of accessories for his novel,
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The collection, titled Masaba Lite for Chetan Bhagat, is young, peppy and pocket-friendly and features saris with the author’s signature.
The designer collaborated with ITC Fiama di Wills to create a signature series of luxury bath products that was followed by a ready-to-wear collection, showcased at Wills India Fashion Week in October. “Fiama di Wills approached me six months back and we developed a line of bath products around a theme of gem stones. Three gemstones – ruby, aquamarine and diamond – played a starring role and the effort was to match the scent of the product with the energy of the gemstone,” says Masaba.
As for the ready-to-wear collection, Masaba had to push out of her comfort zone to include embellishments in her designs. “I am not known for heavy embellishments, but since the theme was gemstones, the designs include embroidery and embellishments on sheer fabrics. The collection has my characteristic style too. We’ve tried to bring together zodiac signs and gemstones in the collection and the outcome has been quite kitschy. For example, the Capricorn sign has been depicted with a goat attached to a parachute and we’ve played on the feisty nature of Leo with patakas. It’s a fun collection,” says the designer.
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