Overview of Tahiliani's Gurgoan factory and studio.
‘FOR ME THE FIRST THING ABOUT LUXURY IS HOW IT FEELS IF YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES, NOT A PROJECTION OF WHAT YOU ARE SHOWING TO SOMEBODY. THE WAY IT HANGS ON YOUR BODY, THE WAY YOU CAN MOVE, THE WAY IT CARESSES YOU...’ Serious fashion weeks are here. It has huge tourist traffic because it’s the Capital and due to its proximity to the traditional tourist hubs of Jaipur and Agra. On the other side, south Indian cities are becoming quite fashionable. In Kolkata they still like to go to the tailors…
Mumbai is much more casual because of the lifestyle and much more stylish.
What are the three things that everybody
should own to make their wardrobe complete?
Have you ever had to forfeit any of your
artistic ideals to stay in business?
You always have to balance. People want to
buy a printed shirt between this price and
this price so you have got to work with that. That’s a realistic thing.
You have to balance business with creativity and as you get more and more experience you learn how to do that. You keep your couture for your crazy ideas but with your ready-to-wear you create balance. Designers like Armani and Lagerfeld do that beautifully.
What do you still want to accomplish
in your lifetime?
Oh my God you might just bump me off in my 40s! I want to develop couture in a much more refined way. I want to be able to do a ready-to-wear line which is much cheaper and produced more economically and make that available all over the country and eventually all over the world.
NOV — DEC 2012
For women something as simple as a fluted blouse sari is wonderful because you can dress it up or it wear it in the simplest way without doing anything, like a black dress – very versatile. A white chikan shirt is amazing because it goes with anything. You can dress it up or down. I think truly stylish people
whether it is Maharani Gayatri Devi or Jacqueline Kennedy, were always simple and always had great quality. They never needed to wear 20 things on themselves. When people do that here, even though I know that it’s a bit to do with Indian culture, it just seems a very nouveau thing to do. You feel you have got to clutter yourself and show a hundred things.
For men, a beautiful achkan or bandhgala in beige linen or black wool, because you can’t go wrong with that. Lovely white kurtas in the summer are fantastic.