Introduction
Indian fashion designers have created a different aura of innovation with garments, their colours, and ways of draping, their stitches and designs. In the primitive age, mankind knew the dressing style with natural elements like leaves and barks, however with passing ages, attire is not only restricted to be a necessity or covering, but an area of unlimited creativity and exposure. In contemporary India, there is a change in trends and fashion every 6 months and the Indian fashion industry that is growing by leaps and bounces.
Growth of Indian Fashion Designers
The Indian fashion designers with their creativity, illustrations, imagination and originality has aided in carrying Indian fashion to the international arena. The idea is to not only to deck people up but also to bring out the true essence of the oriental fashion in the most matured way.
Indian dress designers combine Western trends with Indian touch, thus creating garments that reflect both Indian culture and international status. The talented Indian fashion designers have taken the Indian ramp shows to the glistening international fame. They are solely attributed for refreshing the generations of fashion and also creating the bedazzling fashion statement publicity of the renowned personalities. These advancements in the world of fashion are all owed to the hard work and creativity of the Indian fashion designers.
Famous Indian Fashion Designers
Bhanu Athaiya is Indian cinema`s most well regarded costume designer, having worked in more than 100 films, since 1950s. Indian contemporary fashion designers like Manish Malhotra, Neeta Lulla, Manish Arora and Rocky S have created a benchmark in the domain of fashion designing in India. They also design clothes for Bollywood personalities. Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla are well known names in the fashion circuit. They can be deliberated among first names in that made Indian fashion industry big and famous.
Aki Narula has created history in the Indian fashion industry. He is the Regional winner of "Damania Fashion Award 1994". Anamika Khanna ruled the fashion industry on a promising note by winning the "Damania Fashion Awards". 
Anita Dongre has been a part of the Indian fashion industry for the past 17 years. Anna Singh is a reputed Indian fashion designer, mainly working for the Indian movie industry Bollywood. A talented fashion designer, Arjun Khanna makes a bold mark in the fashion industry. Ashish Soni was the first Indian designer to receive the honour to present a runway show at the Olympus fashion week held at New York.
J. J. Valaya is known for his endowment of combining clothes, and his unique experimentation. Krishna Mehta she has been fledgling Indian fashion industry by storm. Malini Ramani is the undisputed nonconformist of the Indian fashion world. Monisha Jaising is responsible for inroads into the international arena way much before the origination of Lakme India Fashion Week, under the label Azzura. Traditional nurture and training of Raghavendra Rathore"s craft at the Parsons School of Design in New York enriched him as the eminent designer. For the past 15 years, Rina Dhaka has been a part and parcel of the Indian fashion scene.
Ritu Kumar is known as one of the leading designers of the garments, fabrics and accessories during the 1980s. Rohit Bal is known for his sense of aesthetics and his works are finely perfected with punctilious attention to details. Ritu Beri is one of the well-known designers who feel her job to be a great honour and a big challenge. Sabyasachi Mukherjee was honoured as the "King of Kitsch".
Satya Paul is famous for his exquisite prints and saris and is one of India"s leading brands, offering ethnic women"s wear. Suneet Verma is reckoned as the India"s "Style Guru". The master of mantle, Tarun Tahiliani is one of the most successful fashion designers in the country. Designer Wendell Rodricks portrays conservative, elegant and stylish style that is a passion among Indian clothes lovers.
Apart from the above-mentioned names, there are numerous others who also contributing to popularising the Indian fashion industries in various other countries.
Ethnic Fashion Designers
Ethnic fashion designers are the face of India`s ethnicity which is but a scrumptiously problematized subject intertwined with linguistic and regional issues. The ethnicity of India is conceivably more multifarious and complex than that of any other country. The cultural heritage that crowns India with her blandishments of ascertained ethnicity is artistically locked within the length and breadth of the creations by numerous Indian fashion designers.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee
Fashion`s "blue eyed boy" Sabyasachi Mukherjee ensures that he executes fashion with elegance, seemliness, solemnity and ethnicity. Sabyasachi`s fashion maintains that fashion remains to be an extension of one`s intellect. Sabyasachi has been involved in epoch making as he created waves internationally with his ethnic creations and it finally made him well identified as a trendsetting global marquee. The designs from him are indubitably relevant, bold, rebellious, innovative, chic, quaint and awe inspiring. As time rolled on his sense of style evolved too as he has lucratively built a clothing brand that has a brawny social perspective. Quick to identify with the demands of the Indian market, Sabyasachi has created a brand that has represented a comfort zone to global Indians and remained undistorted through major socio-economical-political changes. His signature style is originality, as he moves between stunningly crafted bridal wear and perfectly structured western statements. His inspiration has always been Satyajit Ray, and how using a broken camera he made world cinema.
Anamika Khanna
Anamika Khanna`s style is international with ethnic wear and Indian craft as her permanent perennial style bouquets. She contemplates that fashion is all about reinventing oneself and resulting into grunge-ethno-preppy mishmash. She has had delivered one of her strongest bodies of work to date in a luxury collection for Couture Week, shown off-site at the Evoluzione store. Kashmiri embroidery, zardosi, parsi gara etc co-existed happily in one collection. Anamika Khanna`s designs are traditional and yet contemporary and through them, she pays tribute to the modern Indian woman who knows her mind.
Abhishek Dutta
Abhishek Dutta is one of the unsullied Indian fashion designers whose creations untarnished literally screams different. Hailed as the quintessential fashion face of the season his works speak for him. Style is the mantra for him; fashion is his hymn as the fashion fraternity witnesses his quirky quick journey to framed fame, eminence and prominence. He has had already engraved a matchless alcove for himself and his stylistic agendas. Abhishek Dutta is one of the ethnic fashion designers whose work speaks of the ethnic stylistic features.
Ritu Kumar
Ritu Kumar one of India`s leading fashion designers whose philosophy is based on the premise that everything that is aesthetic cut across national and international borders. Her range of ethnicity creating history in clothing market has an identity of its own. Ritu Kumar was the first woman to introduce the "boutique" culture in India under the brand name "Ritu". With boutique culture had arrived ethnic artistry. It`s she but none who pioneered the term "fashion" in the Indian context demonstrating that hand made products can be as profitable as and even more glamorous than those made by the machine. She also demonstrated that Indian fashion is more than competent of holding it`s own in the international arena of haute couture. Ritu Kumar`s forte is traditional Indian clothes that draw heavily on the textile and embroidery heritage of India and remains classics of their kind. But she evolved another style for European buyer. Her Indo-West fusion wear has all the trappings of block prints, embroidery and craft inputs on a western style.
Neeta Lulla
Neeta Lulla is one designer whose style statements are ethnic owing to the fact that they are original assimilating the eastern and western styles. The USP of her creation is the ability to interlock western and Indian silhouettes, prints and design catering to the speckled tastes. Her creations have become a part of the luxury lexicon by continuing to create innovated attires by drawing inspiration from various cultures but yet maintaining the quintessential ethnicity that is part and parcel of the Indian orient soil and cultural extravaganza.
Kiran Uttam Ghosh
Kiran Uttam Ghosh is a venerable name of one who dwells in fashion designing and has subsequently nullified the codification of categorization. Her emblematic exposure in ethnicity is replicated in her style couture. The creations crafted by her are terribly understated, with silhouettes and characteristic textures that repudiate to be bracketed by terms such as Eastern or Western. A symmetrical hem lines sparkles and layers with ephemeral facades of silhouettes is what defines the designs of Kiran Uttam Ghosh. Her style is impeccable with a whole lot of mixed genres of intricate hand work on fabric. Her designs exhibit sensibility mingled with utilitarianism. Her clientele has reason to rejoice for her classic ensembles narrating the bountiful saga of Indian wears going global.
Satya Paul
Satya Paul, another fashion designer clearly indicates the ethnical style imbroglio of the Indian fashion panorama. Indian Sarees have received a new global look in his hand. From a quintessential fashion designer to a global brand designer, his intrinsic value of proactive response has been breath taking.
Tarun Tahiliani
Tarun Tahiliani is best known for his ability to infuse Indian craftsmanship and textile heritage with European tailored silhouette. There lies the configured border line of his adorned ethnicity. His signature is to combine traditional aesthetics, refined luxury with modern, meticulous design. Style, craftsmanship, quality and refinement are the defining symbols of Tarun`s garments. His collections attempt to rejuvenate ideas towards a renewal for contemporary Indian life. A wide spectrum of silhouettes and styles complement his trademark drapes and subtlety. Tarun is a successful fashion designer in the country whose clients cover a domestic and international arena.
Female Fashion Designers of India
Female Fashion Designers of India have been crucial to the growing panorama of style statements and fashion fiesta. They have initiated the different aura of innovation with garments, their colours, and ways of draping, their stitches and designs. In contemporary India, there is a change in trends and fashion every six months and the Indian fashion industry is growing by leaps and bounces.
Some of the eminent Female Fashion Designers of India are as follows;
Agnimitra Paul: Agnimitra Paul is the Indian Fashion Designer whose style quotients have been a trend setting path in the pavements of fashion. She established her own fashion label, called "INGA", after graduation and retailed in stores in major cities across India.
Kiran Uttam Ghosh: Her creations are terribly understated, with silhouettes and characteristic textures that repudiate to be bracketed by terms such as Eastern or Western. A professional fashion degree and training with British designer Jasper Conran inculcated in her the attention to detail that is so much a part of her work.
Anita Dongre: Anita Dongre is the brand designer, who has been widely acknowledged and highly esteemed in the Indian fashion fraternity for her vouchering unrelenting passion and creative extravaganza.
Ritu Beri: Ritu Beri, the Indian fashion designer who is known as the first Indian designer to present a collection in Paris. She has been quintessentially serving Indian fashion industry with her feminine and funky designer apparels; style and elegance reinstating the stamped tagline of her creation.
Rina Dhaka: One of the pioneering designers during the 80s, Rina Dhaka transformed the city into an epicentre of avant-garde fashion design. Rina Dhaka is the goddess of oomph of Indian fashion, styles clothes with a lot of fun and frolic.
Anamika Khanna: Anamika Khanna is a potential fashion designer based in Kolkata, who has created wonders on the ramp. Though she never had any formal training; however she is the first designer from India to commence an international label, and along with Manish Arora, the first to show at Paris Fashion Week.
Ritu Kumar: Ritu Kumar, one of India`s leading fashion designers whose philosophy is based on the premise that everything that is aesthetic cut across national and international borders.
Neeta Lulla: Neeta Lulla is one of the award winning costume designers, fashion stylist and couturier. The fashion stylist has worked on over 300 films. She has been designing wedding dresses since 1985.
Malini Ramani: Malini Ramani is one of the famous Indian fashion designers whose work of art has been a harmonious amalgamation of contrasts. Her clothes are glamorous and provocative, and are not for the timid client, with lots of beading, sequins and embroidery adorning feminine.
Aparna Jagdhari: Aparna Jagdhari"s resume boasts of a variety of creative and artistic endeavours, but her focus has always been on fashion. After graduating from NIFT, Delhi Aparna worked on product, computer aided design, textile-weaving projects and designed costumes for several plays.
Anjana Bhargav: Anjana Bhargava is a fashion designer and one of the best and finest in the line of creation, design and fashion. She made lot of shows from every part of the country and also internationally that made her to be on top of her career.
Payal Jain, Krishna Mehta, Anna Singh, Komal Sood, Aparna Chandra, Ashima and Leena Singh, Monisha Jaising are the other notable female fashion designers.
Male Fashion Designers of India
Male Fashion Designers of India are numerous and they seem to bring to the threshold the various fashion statements and the flowing style statements. The diverse nature of Indian dressing style has given ample scope of creativity to the Indian fashion designers. Thus, the nation has produced enormous talented designers who effortlessly blend respect for age-old traditions with modern aesthetics.
Some of the eminent Male Fashion Designers of India are as follows;
Manish Malhotra: Manish Malhotra is the epitome of style amidst the territory of India who is known for his different style and his ability to envision a `look` for the character. From "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge", "Khamoshi", "Hero No.1", "Judaai", "Hum Saath Saath Hai" to "Kaho Na Pyar Hai", "Mast", "Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani", "Satya", "Dhadkan" and "Mohabbatein", he has been associated with nearly all of the decade`s most successful films
Raghavendra Rathore: Raghavendra Rathore has revolutionized the way fashion`s perceived in India and has given a new dimension altogether. He is known for his sophisticated, aristocratic and deceptively simple silhouettes and the brand"s aim of creating wearable art.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee: Sabyasachi Mukherjee is one of the biggest names in Indian Fashion. Sabyasachi Mukherjee is one of the Associate Designer Members of Fashion Design Council of India and the youngest board member of the National Museum of Indian Cinema. He has designed costumes for Bollywood films such as "Guzaarish", "Babul", "Laaga Chunari Mein Daag", "Raavan", etc.
Suneet Verma: Suneet Verma has been involved with the arts of weaving and embroidery, researching and developing couture embroidered garments. He has also designed for many international design houses.
Arjun Khanna: Arjun Khanna"s work features fine embroidery and tailoring that makes one go weak in the knees. He also plays it partly sporty, partly edgy with his casual menswear collections and is favoured for the spunk.
Wendell Rodricks: Wendell Rodricks has carved a niche in Indian fashion, with his successful efforts to highlight and showcase the best of Goan fashion. He has put the tiny Indian state of Goa firmly on the fashion map.
Satya Paul: Satya Paul is known for his designs inspired from the Mother Nature. The designer gets the inspiration from the life and from the whole world around. He is a renowned global brand in the world of women`s wear for his creative genius in the area of exquisite prints.
Ashish Soni: Ashish Soni"s imagination, creativity and ability to create designs for men and women rapidly gave him label a reputation of quality and style.
Shahab Durazi: He is one of Indian Fashion designers who have laid strict restrictions on his creativity and career. He does not do ad campaigns, nor does he clothe the beauty queens or make uniforms or displays his garments at fashion shows.
Vikram Phadnis: Vikram Phadnis is one of the most ardent Indian Fashion Designers who started his career as a choreographer. Though not having any formal training in fashion, he currently adorns the wardrobe of some of the biggest names in the glamour industry.
Hemant Trvedi: He is one of the brightest and leading versatile designers. Hemant Trivedi is a fashion stylist, choreographer, design professor and undoubtedly, one of India"s foremost and most important fashion designers.
Tarun Tahiliani: Tarun Tahiliani is best known for his ability to infuse Indian craftsmanship and textile heritage with European tailored silhouette. His signature is to combine traditional aesthetics, refined luxury with modern, meticulous design.
Other eminent Male Fashion Designers of India who are meticulously exceptional in their field are Dev R Nil, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Kunal Rawal, Manish Arora, JJ Valaya, Troy Costa, Aki Narula, Rohit Bal, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Shantanu and Nikhil.
Fashion Designers of North India
Fashion Designers of North India reflects the aura of contemporary style statement that is ingeniously crafted by these fashion divas. Originality is their forte, creativity their asset and innovation their capital. The resultant product is obviously exclusive creation.
Satya Paul is a renowned global brand in the world of women`s wear for his creative genius in the area of exquisite prints.
Satya Paul is known for his designs inspired from the Mother Nature. The designer gets the inspiration from the life and from the whole world around us. Sarees are to Satya Paul what Obama is to world politics. His evolution from a quintessential Indian designer to a global brand international couture is rested upon the intrinsic value of proactive response to the entire universe it operates in and not just the fashion fraternity.
Ashish Soni`s , the designer from North India is infused with creative and zealous imagination, creativity and ability to create designs for men and women rapidly gave his label a reputation of quality and style. Words fall short when one starts embarking on this person`s creative brilliance. Creativity of a designer and the tactics and traits of an entrepreneur is what makes him what he is. Ashish`s creativity is rooted in a fiercely Indian family background, enlarged by western influences through an education largely abroad. His multiple exposures developed a clear and sharp aesthetic, which earned him a prominent place in the world of Indian haute couture. Ashish Soni`s instinctive and inventive style of creating garments renders them the deserved elegance. The numerous exposures to the various international forums have refined his artistic skills. He was the first Indian designer to be invited at the Olympus Fashion Week, held in New York.
Rohit Bal is a renowned Indian fashion designer of India whose work has been a trend setting one in India. He is a designer par excellence and the ultimate Master of Craft and Creative Design. He is the awe inspiring fashion designer who is fondly called gudda and creates clothes which are as breathtaking as the valleys of the incredible Kashmir. He is the master of fantasy having an enthusiasm which few designers have and the ability to transfer personality into style. Contemporary classicism is his forte his keyword.
Anjana Bhargav has been in the industry for a long span of time and feels globalization has opened up the avenues for young and dynamic women and with it the option of women designers as well. To be in sync with demand for comfortable yet stylish outfits for women designers are attempting all possibilities of being creative and more imploringly exclusive.
Manav Gangwani is the Indian fashion designer whose thrives to be on of the upcoming designers promising enough on the block. His label offers high style and flawless sensibility contributing gamut to the domain of Indian fashion industry. He has been equally deft in crafting an impeccable style rendezvous and informidable dent on the same. Gangwani`s forte has been the opulent costumes for women at large: the delicate damsels or the Femme Fatale!
Payal Jain is one of the most noted Indian fashion designers. She is basically from New Delhi. Payal Jain is very popular for her corporate uniforms in India. Jain had started her journey in the fashion fair as she first worked as a design assistant in some of the prestigious European fashion houses Fritzi, San Francisco and later worked with leading couturiers Jacqueline De Brey in San Francisco and Ulrich Engler in London. Her retreat to India had been solely for work. She designed corporate dressing for The Leela, Goa in 1993. She even designed for over 40 hotels. Her participation had been notable in some major international fashion shows including Toronto. She even wrote a book called Fashion Studies for aspiring young designers. This educational reference book specifically designed for X1 standard students for the CBSE curriculum is a synthesis of her experiences and endeavours in this field. Her journey continues as she is always ready to explore new avenues while creating a label which makes truly world class garments.\
Fashion Designers of West India
Fashion Designers of West India are mainly from Rajasthan, Ahmedabad, Delhi, the urban tinge getting highlighted in their creations and the influential climate of globalization mapping their work. Manish Malhotra who is famous for his ability to envision a `look` for the character is an inhabitant of Mumbai, West India. Manish Malhotra`s list of films includes several blockbusters since Rangeela, where Mass hysteria erupted when he transformed the then "plain" actress Urmila Matondkar and turned her into a raging sex symbol. He then won the first Filmfare Costume Award Awards for the Rangeela. He repeated the magic with Karishma Kapoor and changed her image through Raja Hindustani and bagged an award for the same; then followed Dil to Pagal Hai and an award for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. He has also been graced with Indira Priyadarshini Memorial Award for his contribution to the fashion industry, felicitated by National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi and the Indo American Society for his contribution to fashion designing. He is named as the most Stylish Designer of the Year at the Elle Style Awards in 1999.
Manish`s style is strongly influenced by fusion wear and he favours pale, ice creamy neutrals, lilacs and lemons for hot, sultry summers adding chiffons. Manish greatly admires on the foreign fashion front, designers Georgio Armani and DKNY. His other favourites include Vivienne Westwood and Donatella Versace.
Neeta Lulla is the West Indian fashion designer from Ahmedabad who with a flicker of flurry Chiffon and unabashed glamour walked into the fashion street whirling and discovering the fashion fair once again two decades ago and in her sojourn exploring her self anew afresh. She fires up the canvas creating waves across runaways and the silver screen worldwide.
Raghavendra Rathore from Rajasthan is the pride of West India who has in actuality revolutionized the way fashion`s perceived in India and has given a new dimension altogether a couture and prˆt in India. The eclectic Avant Garde designer is known for his sophisticated, aristocratic and deceptively simple silhouettes and the brand`s aim of creating wearable art. If any one understands the value of "Brand India", it is Raghavendra Rathore.
Wendell Rodricks an inhabitant of Goa or West India does not fall into the basket of middling fashion designer rather the jack of all trades and inherently master of many; he has written special features for Apparel, regular columns for Femina, Goa Today and freelance fashion journalism in major Indian news media. The flexible designer`s work includes theatre design, advertising styling and forecast portfolios!
J. J. Valaya, an inhabitant of Rajasthan is regarded as one of the fashion czars in the industry; referred to as the Monarch of Indian fashion. He rules the fashion world with his splendid collection of hand embroidered fabric that has captured the global market. JJ Valaya, one of India`s most celebrated designers, has come a long way from his days of auditing banks in India. Growing up in an Army family, JJ and his two older brothers were raised by their parents in various cities across India. He is known for his knack of combining clothes and his unique experimentation.
Tarun Tahiliani born and brought up in Mumbai, West India is best known for his ability to infuse Indian craftsmanship and textile heritage with European tailored silhouette. His signature is to combine traditional aesthetics, refined luxury with modern, meticulous design. Tarun started his professional career in management, with a degree from the Wharton School of Business. In 1987 he conceived of starting a world-class fashion store in Mumbai that would house up-market designer clothing. Tarun and his wife Sailaja chose a handful of talented young, undiscovered designers, which led to the birth of Ensemble, and along with it a revolution that would change the face of the fashion industry. Tarun`s own design career also had its inception in the birth of Ensemble. Although he had the flair he honed his technical knowledge in design by qualifying for an associate degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
Masaba Gupta is the Indian fashion designer who is currently the design head of Satya Paul who has beyond doubt sculpted a niche for herself in the fashion world and B-town and is definitely here to stay. Her creations are simple yet eye-catching which forms to be the wardrobe of scores of Bollywood divas. Her cow- and camera-print outfits are a particular favourite with many.
Malini Ramani, one of the famous Indian fashion designers was born in New York, but came to India rather Mumbai at the age of 11 and then her parents put her into a boarding school in the Himalayan Mountains (Sanawar). From the very start she found that it was too military and conformist for her. Being a rebel right from her childhood days, she ended up running away from school 6-1/2 years later.
Azeem Khan is a Fashion designer who is one of the innovators of Mumbai`s Coho, with his cool and snazzy boutique next to the Colaba Post Office, and with his background of a being a real New York City Soho inhabitant, living and working downtown.
Manish Arora is one of the Indian fashion designers based in New Delhi. In early 2011, he was appointed creative director of the womens wear collection of the French fashion house Paco Rabanne, although he left the company in May 2012.
Rajesh Pratap Singh is one of the Indian Fashion Designers are on a perpetual spree to explore the new vistas of fashion market, of stepping and turning the new stones of fashion fair churning into new statements and new moves every time . Reinvention of fashion and steering it towards a new way a destination that calls forth change to be welcomed by one and all is the forte of Rajesh Pratap Singh.
Monisha Jaising is one of the designers to show with Ensemble, as early as the 80s. This is one designer who has shown consistency and skill in her styling. Monisha got noticed due to her wonderful prints, the softness and sculpt of her professional cutting and her price consciousness.
Fashion Designers of East India
Fashion Designers of East India are mainly from West Bengal and the other regional states with a streak of originality and attained excellence.
Agnimitra Paul is the Indian Designer whose style quotients have been a trend setting path in the pavements of fashion. She is the resident of Kolkata and an ardent creator of fashion. Anamika Khanna is the symbolic eclectic designer who has emerged as a global brand due to her innate innovations in the cosmopolitan strata of fashion. Anamika Khanna is a potential fashion designer based in Kolkata, India who has created wonders on the ramp though miraculously she never had any formal training however; she is the first designer from India to commence an international label, and along with Manish Arora, the first to show at Paris Fashion Week. Khanna ventures for the juxtaposed traditional Indian and modern methodologies counting texturing with a range of embroideries. Neeta Lulla has personified women and more specifically Indian women for more than two decades from the elegant look of Lamhe and the undertone, demure shades of Yuva to the majestic Jodha and the simplicity of Taal, the docile Paro: she has accomplished these with great expertise! She has ransacked Bollywood style quotient and cinematic fashion factions with her genuine and authentic style mavericks. This genius designer has eclipsed the jounces of the dressing conceptual notions. Having cemented her position in the industry her inimitable ability to mix grandeur and simplicity has made her the most sought after Indian Designer. The designer has been an active contributor in giving the actors a look to die for. Her designs have not only been recognized in India, but have also acquired great acclaims globally. The designer has made a niche for herself, creating the costumes of the era long lost; the talented designer has each time surpassed her own record, to create a new high.
Aki Narula, the big fish from Bengal has been in the fashion business for many years. He is also the recipient of the Damania Fashion Designer Award, Narula`s designs are understated and he stresses on drapes and texture. Known for his crazy and whacky style, his clothes are always fun, bright, and cheery and cool with an accent towards leisurewear. His designs are available at India`s premier design salons - Ensemble (Delhi, Mumbai), 1 MG Road, You Grasshopper, Ogaan (Delhi, Kolkata), Melange (Mumbai), Folio (Bangalore), Cinnamon (Bangalore), Sosas (Goa), Kali (Calcutta) Zingra in Cannes and St Tropez. He designs for both men and women in the Indian and western wear. Having worked as a stylist for various fashion shoots and ad campaigns, Narula has also designed costumes for theatre and a national award winning Bengali film. In recent months, Narula has also taken to designing lifestyle linen, candle stands and screens. He is currently the Design Director for Sheetal Design Studio; he retails under his label under `Aki Narula for SDS` and also works on his main label `AKI` from his studio in Delhi.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee is one of the biggest names in Indian Fashion. As and when fashion touches mother earth one names it Sabyasachi Mukherjee. `Sabyasachi` Mukherjee is one of the Associate Designer Members of Fashion Design Council of India and the youngest board member of the National Museum of Indian Cinema. He has designed costumes for Bollywood films such as Guzaarish, Babul, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Raavan etc. Sabyasachi, the fashion icon of India stands apart for his uniqueness in creating a magic with his ideas of styling and stitching. Sabyasachi has created waves internationally, and made him well known as a trendsetting global label. The designs from his stable are indubitably relevant, bold, rebellious, innovative, chic and quaint are awe inspiring. Over the years, he has successfully built a clothing brand which has a very strong social perspective. Quick to understand the demands of the Indian market, Sabyasachi has created a brand that has represented a comfort zone to global Indians and remained undistorted through major socio-economical-political changes. His signature style is originality, as he moves between stunningly crafted bridal wear and perfectly structured western statements. His inspiration has always been Satyajit Ray, and how using a broken camera he made world cinema.
One of the pioneering designers during the Eighties, Rina Dhaka transformed the city into an epicentre of avant-garde fashion design. That is no small feat, considering that her label is self-financed. While a brooding, intellectual quality evolved as the hallmark of Indian designers, Dhaka continually balances it with her contemporary "style vs. sexiness" aesthetic. Today, she boasts "Best Designer Award in Miami Fashion Week 2004", has shown her work in The Louvre Paris, and was bestseller at a Bollywood promotion at Selfridges. Her stellar clientele includes Naomi Campbell, Uma Thurman, Tara Palmer Tomlinson and Vittorio Radice, to name a few.
Anita Dongre is the brand designer, who has journeyed the forte of excellence; Anita Dongre has been at the vanguard of the Indian Fashion scene for over 20 years. Widely acknowledged and highly esteemed in the Indian fashion fraternity for her vouchering unrelenting passion and inexhaustible ingenuity and creative extravaganza, Anita has slowly but surely carved her own alcove and substantiated slot and created an empire that any designer would only dream to accomplish. From runaways and award shows to premieres and award shows to premiers and movies her designs have graced the countries most elite and celebrated personalities from all walks of life. With five inimitable tables, Anita Dongre is one of the most recognized and well known designers creating staple designs for the modern cosmopolitan go getter women. Fashion is all about elegance, style, comfort and attitude. It need not be loud or outrageous, changing drastically every season but definitely attuned to the culture and the mood of the individuals.
Ritu Kumar one of India`s leading fashion designers whose philosophy is based on the premise that everything that is aesthetic cut across national and international borders. It was in the late 1960`s that Ritu Kumar was to become the country`s leading designers of the buildings, garments, fabrics and accessories. Ritu Kumar began with hand block printers and two tablets in a small village near Kolkata. Ritu Kumar was the first woman to introduce the `boutique` culture in India under the brand name `Ritu`. And in the last 28 years, Ritu`s team of dedicated designers have progressed to produce some of the country`s most exquisite garments and accessories in cotton, silk and leather. This range embraces both traditional textile crafts and the lineage of Indian design.
Kiran Uttam Ghosh is a resident of Kolkata is a venerable name of one who dwells in fashion designing and has subsequently nullified the codification of categorization. Her creations are terribly understated, with silhouettes and characteristic textures that repudiate to be bracketed by terms such as Eastern or Western. A professional fashion degree and training with British designer Jasper Conran inculcated in her the attention to detail that is so much a part of her work today.
