Ritu Kumar India's fashion OG | Return to the runway

The grand matriarch of Indian fashion, Ritu Kumar is currently basking in the adulation of her recent showcase ‘The OG’ at India Couture Week (ICW) 2023. Her return to the runway at ICW after a decade-long hiatus is not just another appearance—it is a testament to her relentless pursuit of reviving Indian textile and craft over five decades.However, Kumar isn’t too pleased with the word ‘comeback’. Her outings on the ramp, lately, may be far and few, but the veteran fashion designer has been at the forefront of haute couture much before it became a part of India’s vocabulary. “Couture in India translates to bridal wear and party clothes, which we have been designing right from our inception in the 1960s. There have also been fewer couture shows. This was the right time for us to showcase our collection on the runway,” says the Padma Shri awardee.‘The OG’ is a fitting tribute to Kumar’s design journey that began as a young student of art history and museology in the 1960s. While most of her creations feature modern, contemporary styling, techniques like zardozi kasab embroidery and Kashmir’s kashida work continue to take centre stage. For showstopper-actor Aditi Rao Hydari, an exquisite lehenga paired with a timeless Gazal jacket hand embroidered with gold zardozi work was designed. “The collection leans heavily on the strength of Indian textiles. It’s a miracle that India is the only country to boast an intrinsic, organic handwriting that is used by our designers,” says Kumar.Her foray into fashion wasn’t by design. In the 1960s, Kumar stumbled upon a tiny unit of hand-block printers in Serampore, West Bengal, who were engaged in cheap printing for export. Thus began her mission to reverse the 150-year-old colonial mindset that had prevented Indians from recognising their own craftsmanship and design. Shortly after, Kumar introduced boutique culture in India with her first store in Delhi’s Defence Colony. “Today, we take for granted the buti, paisley, jaal and other motifs. I had to travel to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and request them to open up their archives to show me what India would produce,” she recounts.Five decades later, the Ritu Kumar empire—also India’s oldest fashion house—has several prominent brands: Ritu Kumar, Ri Ritu Kumar, Ritu Kumar Home, aarké and Label Ritu Kumar, and over 90 stores.In 2021, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) acquired a 52 per cent stake in the brand, a testimony to how Indian craft and textile is being reimagined for contemporary fashion and couture. “We don’t look to Paris for our embellishments but our own craftspeople. When I started out, these crafts were almost extinct, but we have come a long way. The biggest luxury fashion houses in the world like Chanel and Dior lean on India for hand embroidery,” says Kumar. Fashion is often criticised for being hedonistic, but Kumar has been at the helm of bridging the gap between the world of textile and fashion. From designing the wardrobes of Miss Indias like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra-Jonas who went on to win international beauty pageants, to dressing the late Princess Diana, Kumar’s silhouettes have stood out for their timeless beauty.But Kumar, who calls herself the ‘barefoot doctor’ of Indian fashion, doesn’t take any credit for her design aesthetic. “I discovered the treasure trove of Indian textile and craft and joined the dots. By marrying various elements, I attempted to create an Indian identity for our clothes,” she says.Sustainability has also been a core value of the Ritu Kumar brand, much before it became a buzzword. The designer highlights how India has never “liked to waste”, with recycling being in our DNA. “I find the word ‘sustainability’ amusing. There are several brands that get their clothes made in China using polyester and then talk of sustainability,” says Kumar.However, Kumar believes the inadvertent use of certain words in the Indian context is problematic. One of them is ‘luxury’, a term thrown around loosely without any context. “High textile design was always luxury that was patronised by royalty. There were also karkhanas during the Mughal era. For us, luxury means a Paithani sari or a gorgeously woven Benarasi piece,” says the author of the book Costumes and Textiles of Royal India (1999).While Kumar’s journey has been long and illustrious, she continues to draw inspiration from the richness and diversity of Indian textiles. “We are coming full circle in the field of couture. There’s no centre like India that still has craft available that is not in museums,” concludes Kumar.Edited By: Arindam MukherjeePublished On: Aug 11, 2023Must Watch

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