“Fashion is a way of learning about someone without talking to them. It’s a way of learning about people, where they are from, and how they carry themselves. It is your first impression of a person.”
Mrs Shilpa Poddar, founder of “Shilpa Poddar Couture,” is a rising star in the fashion industry. She currently supplies to several different fashion retailers, including AZA & Ensemble in Mumbai, and she aspires to supply her designs to stores across the world.
Her love for fashion began at a young age, and she was inspired by one of the most iconic toys of childhood: a Barbie doll. She dressed and designed outfits for them. Although she often experimented with western clothes at a young age, she developed a strong inclination for Indian Fashion after she met the famous Designer, Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
“Mr Sabyasachi is my main inspiration and role model. I love everything about his designs, and I feel like I have to own everything he designs.” His designs are not only loved by all, but they also have a unique edge to them. He designed one of Shilpa Poddar’s first Indian outfits, and she described their encounter as an incredible, fantastic experience.
For Mrs Poddar, the most important quality for a fashion designer is the relationship between the Client and the Designer. “Once you realise that you need to design clothes according to the clients’ wants and needs, everything will start to fall into place.” The Customer is “king,” and not being able to satisfy their needs could be disastrous. To stay up to speed with the latest trends in Fashion, she closely follows magazines such as Vogue and Harper Bazaar- world leaders in the fashion industry. “I take my inspiration from what I see around me. When I like something, I think about whether I can incorporate it into my designs or evolve them into something better and more special.”
The Indian Fashion industry has evolved significantly over the years. While Indian Fashion is known for its elegance and vibrancy, it has evolved into so much more. “The fashion scene in the early 2000s was very different from what it is now. We are moving into a functionality phase, where clothes are not just for specific occasions but can be worn for every occasion, and that is what is so great about it now. The lehenga has now evolved into fun skirts, the Kurta into asymmetrical tunics. You can now wear a funky Indian outfit to a baby shower, a birthday party or even a disco. Earlier, it was just one outfit or design per event, and there was limited flexibility.” Mrs Poddar believes that, soon, the Indian Fashion industry will expand internationally, much like the Italian and the Japanese Fashion industries, and we will be successful as a world-renowned industry in one more field!
