Nachiket Barve, award-winning fashion & costume designer
Many people inquire about my sources of inspiration as a creative individual. I have consistently held the belief that it’s not what you see but how you see it that matters and makes a difference.
All of us in this room, right here at the Taj, in our own ways, tap into and buy into Indian craftsmanship. However, we also take it for granted, whether it’s a Jamdani sari or a woven upholstered carpet. These treasures are all around us, yet we often fail to recognise their true value. Consider, for instance, the intricate embroidery on a garment, which may demand up to 3000 hours of work. To put this into perspective, when French international brands proudly announce that crafting a hand-made bag in their Atelier takes 30 hours, they shout it from the rooftops. We have to believe in ourselves, realise the time and effort invested in creating something within our own country and place a higher value on it.
I think I always had a mind of my own and knew what I wanted. I was inspired by the difference clothes can make. Admittedly, in the 80s, my identity was defined by polyester shirts with bold stripes, but fortunately, my style has evolved since then.
I studied in Vile Parle East, Parle Tilak Vidyalaya, the same school my father attended. In the late 90s and early 2000s, I had the chance to live in New Zealand for some time. There, I worked at Burger King, where my responsibilities ranged from cleaning restrooms to washing dishes and even earning an award for preparing the fastest burger. This taught me the importance of the dignity of labour and the importance of standing on your own feet, and, that no job should be considered as big or small.
About four years ago, I had the opportunity to revisit Auckland, and reconnect with a former coworker from my time there. It was emotional to see someone I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. The sketches I created during my mid-teens in New Zealand reflect my early fascination with fashion. Despite my clear vision of the type of clothing I wanted to design, I initially pursued a B. Com degree, which presented its own set of challenges.
Upon completing my undergraduate studies, I had the chance to attend the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad. There, a teacher told me that you do your best work when it’s like meditation when there is a sense of stillness, calmness and alignment where everything falls into place harmoniously. My family’s middle-class Maharashtrian background was far removed from the world of fashion. They did not know the F of fashion, they didn’t buy it, they still don’t buy it… it’s a struggle to get my dad to wear one kurta set for Diwali. He is the OG fashion rebel. That taught me that design isn’t just about adding decorative elements or colour to a garment; it’s about adding value and problem-solving. Whether it’s linking crafts people to markets or choosing a colour that makes your skin glow or something that slims us down… design relates to disparate elements put together.
I was fortunate to receive a scholarship from the French Government enabling me to study in Paris in 2003-04. It was a bit like Emily in Paris. Within two months, you had to pick up enough French to study in a French school and work in a French office – I interned at Céline, which was part of the LVMH group at the time when Michael Kors was the creative director. This hands-on experience in the global fashion industry, at a time when fashion hadn’t fully arrived in India, learning how to do things the right way or a certain way… I credit this experience with my ability to communicate effectively in the fashion industry.
A key moment during my time in Paris was during a roundtable brainstorming at the Céline studio. Michael Kors and the others were reminiscing about their grandparents’ fashion choices in the 50s, like the chic Madras checks that they wore to the beach. In contrast, I realised that my grandmother never wore anything other than sarees and my mother also wears sarees. That thread of continuity was not something which one could just ignore and continue to ape the west. It was about amalgamating the culture I was coming from and where I wanted to go, representing a new wave of India on its own feet. I had to do something that celebrated Indian craftsmanship but in a way that was more palatable to the world.
For my first collection, each dress was exquisitely handcrafted, and each took maybe hundreds of hours of craftsmanship. Those pieces were timeless, with silhouettes that are you can wear even today. Those are things that have held me in good stead. It’s always been about luxury or craftsmanship that stands the test of time and something that you can wear now and wear later. My wife Surabhi who is in the audience still wears clothes from this collection which were designed even before we met.
Another aspect I felt was worth covering is that you know today we live in a world where there is excess of everything: too many clothes, hotels, books, too much of everything. So, what are you really trying to do as a creative person? The answer that seemed right to me was tell stories. You want something that makes you dream, aspire to something better. In this context, a few collections:
There is ‘Chiaroscuro’, which is Italian for light and shadow is about contrast, evoking Gothic architecture, how the light changes the patterns in a room. And, there is Kalahari, another inspired by the Tulip mania, a historical period when tulip bulb prices skyrocketed before dramatically plummeting. There is also a cape that took about 3,000 hours of embroidery work.
In 2017, I won the Woolmark Prize for my innovative use of Merino wool, particularly wool felt, a materual typically reserved for industrial applications like washers and insulation. I used this by-product to creare a collection inspired by armour, representing India in Paris. We’ve also been doing Indian wear along the way, but in a way which is always about lightweight.
For years, I’ve joked, saying, if I see another bride wearing a 20-kilo lehenga, I want to personally fit casters on her lehenga to slide her across the stage. Today, everybody wants lightweight clothes, stuff you can break up and wear again. The spin I put on it is to bring exquisite craftsmanship and a sense of ease, where you look like your best version rather than trying to look like somebody else.
Let me introduce my latest collection, “Lightness of Being.” This collection reflects a calmer bent of mind and introspection. It is a mood and attitude of optimism, gratitude, mindfulness, appreciation of the beautiful moments of life. So, costumes started for me in a very weird way when Mrs. Bachchan asked me years ago who I was dressing in personal life, saying, “Will you style an ad for me?” My first reaction was I had never done like it. She said, “Just make the clothes and come.”
My first day on a film set was doing costumes for Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, who cumulatively have 100 years of film cinema experience. It was quite a nerve-wracking moment, jumping off into the deep end and learning how to swim. Since then, I have done all the ads for Kalyan Jewellers and other brands.
Marathi films came to me again in the same way. Somebody called and said, will you do costumes? So, the first film I did is an adaptation of a play called Katyar Kaljat Ghusli, which means the dagger pierced my heart. The music is by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and is fantastic. Please check it out, not for the costumes.
In Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior… they wanted somebody to bring authenticity to the big screen, not just another chiffon saree with a border put on an actor trying to make it look period. So, we commissioned the sari specially and had it woven from weavers across the country. We got jewellery made from moulds which were 400 years old that the real family of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj used to use… from the jeweller that they used to patronise, we got jewellery revived and got it remade. So, it was not just going to a brand and picking something up. That film was a wonderful experience.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj… The figure is so iconic that you can’t take liberties in any way. I went to museums across the world: Victor and Albert Museum, Salar Jangan Hyderabad, Crafts Museum Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Calico in Ahmedabad, a bunch of places. It got me the National Film Award from the President. And I must tell you a highlight from that. One was having my parents in the room. The second was the way the ceremony is conducted. So, whether you are the winner of a regional technical award or the best actor, everybody has the same protocol. It’s not like they’re pandering to position. This is the last film I did, Har Har Mahadev, which was again based on a historical subject.
Here is a snippet of what we do at the studio. Flowers are universal, rarely failing to bring joy to people’s hearts. So that becomes a recurring kind of expression.
Utopia, as I said earlier, is sold online from the website as well. We take pride in our diverse clientele, across ages, body types, different kinds of personalities all buying into the brand.
I’ll just take a minute of your time. On the left is my wife Surabhi and on the right are two beautiful ladies from the US. They discovered us on Instagram and DMed us about purchasing our clothing. They needed outfits for an Indian wedding in Tuscany but could not travel to India. We did video consultations, collected measurements, and designed twinning outfits that they ordered form the US and wore in Tuscany for an Indian wedding. It was quite amazing. To be a part of so many people’s special occasions brings me great joy.
People have this notion also that you’re kind of dressing only celebrities and that’s not true at all because I think everybody is a celebrity on that special day in their lives. We do do a lot of custom-made stuff falso. Like somebody who’s a very dear friend and client as well wanted to get a patola made into a navvari. So, it was about how do you kind of take those two cultures and merge them together?
You are all a bunch of stylish, highly accomplished people and I don’t need to give you advice. But for those who still feel a little hesitant about fashion, I mean, it don’t bite. Secondly, just experiment. Sometimes we all get stuck in a rut where we feel like this is us and nothing else can be. I feel every five years, our personalities change, our thoughts change, our bodies change, our style must change as well. So, rather than following fashion blindly, just tap into that and see where it takes you. So that’s one thing.
And the last one before I wrap up is what I do in my personal time, which is a lot of wildlife photography. And I cook and I obviously eat but fashion is the thing that gives me great joy on a personal level. And this is our favourite quote, Imagination is intelligence having fun. ~ Einstein.
ROTARIANS ASK
Our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, is always seen in a different dress every time he’s on TV. Does he have a dress designer, and how many pairs of clothing do you think he must have?
I don’t know how big his house is, so maybe he has space to keep all of it. But all of us living in Bombay, no matter how palatial your house is, have to edit our wardrobes. It’s about mixing and matching smartly. When you look at icons like Audrey Hepburn, Gayatri Devi, and even Mr. Modi, they have a style that is consistent and best represents them. That creates their personal brand of style, rather than looking like a chameleon where one day you look like this, one day you look like this. So, spend a little time investing in what you want to look like and then really build on it.
You talked about people with different body types, but you always have skinny models.
Firstly, we have had plus size models also, which is the other end of the spectrum. Secondly, this notion that you have to be a prototype works only for Bisleri bottles because they all come in one size.
Real people not only come in different sizes, their sizes also change. Society, fashion and the beauty industry have conditioned us to say, if you don’t fit this mould, you’re not perfect. But each of us has things that are beautiful. Maybe on a woman, sometimes it’s the face or the jawline or neckline, collarbone, something. There will be aspects of you that are really amazing and there are aspects that you are not so perfect. And I think it’s the game of concealing and revealing, where you reveal or highlight what you want to show and conceal what you’re not so confident about. No matter what you do, a designer can help you in putting that together. I have women who range from double XS and go up to a seven XL. You may want to look a certain way, but that should not stop you from enjoying your life where you are, how you are right now.
Who are the designers that have inspired you the most?
Design is not just a product, it’s a way of thinking.
The first that comes to mind is Coco Chanel because she turned fashion on its head. She liberated women from the idea of a corset and structured kind of clothes and made something as simple as a jersey fashionable. She understood the value of personal style.
Second, Yves Sauit Laurent who was the first to put women in pants. When you look at the history of fashion or history of human rights, the fact that women can vote today as they must was not something to be taken for granted.
So that idea of saying, a big middle finger and women will wear pants was a radical, rebellious idea at that time, something which changed the course of modern fashion. I mean, I’m seeing so many women here and so many women wearing lovely pants, and that’s the legacy of YSL.