There’s Something About Malini

Malini may not be counted as the top-five favourite clothes-makers,but there’s rarely a fashion follower in this country who doesn’t own at least a few items from her. She isn’t the most innovative or avant-garde designer you will meet,but her contribution to fashion in India is immense and undervalued: quite simply,she makes it cool.

Her mantra is singular: she makes clothes that she would like to wear. She paints her world in hallucinogenic colours,her prints are sock-eye vivid and her style is unchanging. Call it hippie,boho,resort or what you will,here’s a designer whose biggest strength is being true to her signature.

It could be said that her clothes are her autobiography; every phase she goes through is mirrored in her collection. That,and the fun-tastic fashion shows she presents. Malini always has her own voice-over through the show and she writes every single line of it herself. The audience is spectator to not just bikini tops and kaftans but also to her last break-up and new boyfriend,her favourite cocktail and her SMS-addiction. Malini’s shows are her story.

Of course,she’s gifted in coining words extempore. ‘Super sexy’,‘Indiva’,‘hippie-deluxe’,‘Bombabe’ and,heck,even ‘Sindhi Central’ roll imaginatively and effortlessly off her tongue. I’ve got one for you,Ms Ramani,you are just so Malini-fic.

Malini is much more than a fashion designer,she’s a way of life. Her tiny taut frame,gamine beauty,sunglasses the size of headlights and a flower somewhere—behind her ear or dangling from her neck—Malini is a permanent denizen of Bohemia.

Everything you see (or hear) is everything she really is. Her friends call her ‘the purest soul to have walked the earth’. For her fortieth birthday last year,she invited her inner circle for a three-day (correction: nights) costume ball. She says it was her most overwhelming experience; each guest says it was their most overwhelming experience too. There was so much love and energy in the room,there was barely a dry eye.

She may come across as flamboyant or flaky,but here’s a woman whose life is rich with experience. She is controversy’s favourite chase: whether running an illegal bar where Jessica Lall was shot or wearing a beautifully sequined national flag on a dress,Malini comes out stronger.

She follows her passions: whether it’s starting her own nightclub at 21,acting in a TV series (A Mouthful of Sky) or making clothes (interestingly,she debuted at the first fashion week).

Wharton Business School invited her this summer to speak at their campus (she was the only Indian designer among corporate bigwigs) about successful Indian women. Everyone began to cheer loudly when she finished.

And that’s Malini-fic.

(namratanow@gmail.com)