Legendary Lady

Jaikishan would have clocked in 40 years in the business two years ago, had her mother not passed away then. It is a milestone like none other, since the Indian fashion industry counts itself as only about 25 years old. This means, Jaikishan has been making clothes — beautifully embroidered and very special pieces — when most of our most famous designers were toddlers being dressed by their mums, or not even yet born. And to think, she’s still making those beautiful clothes and making those kids run for their big bucks now.

Jaikishan started her label Paraphernalia in 1972. A few years later, she was selling beaded and embroidered dresses to Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. Her closest contemporaries were Adarsh Gill and Ritu Kumar. Gill took her designs to Europe and befriended the likes of Karl Lagerfeld; she also introduced French lace to India. Kumar rooted herself in Indian textile, manufactured large quantities, aggressively marketed herself to several ready-to-wear stores in India and lost her designer edge. Jaikishan continues to ride the bridal wave.

Jaikishan is so easily Mumbai’s hostess with the most-est. Yearly parties at her Marine Drive home are awaited. Of course her walls are filled with art, and she serves the most expensive champagne and the spread is laid out in real silver, but there’s little new in that. Jaikishan’s home is adored for its kitchen, her retinue of maharajas make every dish themselves and the food is better than that served by pricey caterers.

A few weeks ago, Jaikishan sent out a truly mesmerising line of her signature wispy tulle saris and elegant lehengas with her favourite Chinese-patterned roses in silk thread or sequins. This was at the India Bridal Fashion Week, and she was launching light-weight costume jewellery to wear with her ensembles. Her collection was so sophisticated and tasteful, I later told her I barely noticed the baubles. I’m sure I didn’t please her with that one, but she simply smiled and thanked me.

A few days later, I met her again at a party for a literature festival her daughter-in-law, the glamorous Roohi Jaikishan, was hosting. Jaikishan’s cooks were at work here, and much ice was broken between snobby socialites and snobbier authors simply by delighting at the khandvi and haandvo on the table. Rachel Dwyer, the famed British Indophile and professor, marveled at discovering Jaikishan’s late husband was one half of the Shankar-Jaikishan music composers, she said she was a big fan and was researching him for her new project.

And then came the evening which has made every fashion aesthete all gooey and fuzzy. Jaikishan celebrated her 42nd year at work with a meticulously planned retrospective. She sought out a 127-year-old bungalow at Mumbai’s Kemp’s Corner, and turned it into a museum for one night. She brought in bridal lehengas and saris of her famous clients — Mumbai’s blue-chip ladies who one aches to see in the society pages these days but in vain. Mannequins were dressed in the wedding outfit and placed alongside a wedding photograph of brides such as Devaunshi Mehta, Barkha Amin, Kavita Singh and Sheetal Mafatlal. Many guests dressed in their favourite Pallavi Jaikishan saris.

Jaikishan proudly took each of her guests to see the first sari she ever made; it was in 1966 and she had embroidered it herself. It was like touching a piece of history.

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