The right cut

So it’s perhaps not surprising to see that Bhavnani has taken on another mantle: that of a fashion designer. She has joined fashion stylist Sukriti Grover to start a label,Sofake,which will showcase its latest collection at LFW. “We started out a two months ago. This is our label’s first outing and we chose to begin with a stall and talent box show,” she explains.

Grover,who studied fashion communication at National Institute of Fashion Technology,Delhi,and fashion styling in Milan,recalls how Bhavnani always nursed an ambition to hone her sartorial talent. “I have been her client for at least six years and every other time,she’d compliment me on my outfit and ask me to make her one. Then,last year,she mentioned that she wanted to make them herself—that’s how Sofake was born,” she says.

However,this isn’t Bhavnani’s first brush with designing. “In the late ’90s,when I was in Los Angeles,I bought myself a sewing machine as I wanted to make my own clothes. When I returned to India,I got busy setting up my salon,” she elaborates,adding that the name Sofake was her own idea. She had thought of it long time back. “The name sums up the fact that the glamour-struck fashion industry is,to put it simply,very fake,” she says.

The duo claims that the USP of their label is its androgyny. “Our basic line that sells out of Mad-O-Wot has waistcoats,linen shirts,jackets and high-waisted pants in just black and white; they can be worn by both men and women. But it is different from the LFW line,which is inspired by both Victorian influences and Kathakali. The latter will have ruffled shirts and tops,apart from long flowing skirts and voluminous dresses —in black and white,” points out Grover.

Doesn’t the lack of a formal training in fashion deter Bhavnani? She says,“I haven’t been trained as a hairstylist either; but I love it and I put my heart into it. It’s the same for designing; both are about the right cut,” she says.