Style guru

Being a fashion designer from the North East — he is the most well-known designer from Nagaland — comes with its own baggage. Sekhose is evidently tired of being a spokesperson for the fashion-conscious North East.

“We have a very Westernized culture back home. Our taste in music and our lifestyle are distinctly different from the rest of India… Which is why we are so comfortable in Western outfits,” claims Sekhose.

His own sense of aesthetics is entrenched in the “Nagaland milieu”. “I was brought up in a household where women kept abreast with the latest trends in the West. This was before fashion magazines were even launched in India,” he claims.

In 1998,Atsu made a decision which changed his life. “I joined NIFT Delhi. My parents were very supportive of this choice and I really didn’t face much problem at all,” he says. If he had to battle discrimination in the big bad world of fashion,then he is not telling.

“People of the fashion industry are very open about things. They don’t care where you come from as long as you are talented,” he says. But what about the mainstream society,surely the Delhi of the 1990s was anything but kind to the people from the North East,or chinkies as we call them.

“The popular perception about students from the North East is that they are always partying and having a good time. Which is why I had to work doubly hard to prove myself. There is nothing that you cannot achieve with discipline and hard work,” he says.

After graduating from NIFT,Sekhose interned with Tarun Tahiliani after which he launched his own label Atsu. His design sensibility is hailed as “sharp,stylish and elegant”. Glimpses of trademark North Eastern craft can be seen in his works.

“I try to incorporate such elements in my work. I source a lot of my material from states like Mizoram and Nagaland,” he says. Vogue (India) has earmarked him as “the designer to watch out for”. These laurels,evidently,lie easy on his shoulders. “I showcased my works in the Milan Fashion Week recently and it was widely appreciated,” he signs off.