One track mind

Vijay Balhara tells us that there were no accidents which mapped his route from being an average Delhi youngster to a fashion insider. Except one. My twin brother Ajay was spotted at a petrol station by a man who worked for Rohit Bal, the designer says.

Vijay Balhara tells us that there were no accidents which mapped his route from being an average Delhi youngster to a fashion insider. Except one. My twin brother Ajay was spotted at a petrol station by a man who worked for Rohit Bal, the designer says. You should be a model, the guy told Ajay and asked him to meet Bal. As it turned out,Gudda (Bal) was being featured in Style Gurus,a TV show hosted by Suneet Varma and Ajay had been called for that. But when Suneet saw that we were twins,he thought it would be interesting to use both of us together. And thats how the journey began.

The rest of the story,however,Balhara tells us,has been meticulously plotted by him. From being a successful modelhe walked the ramp at the Lakme Fashion Week for seven years and modelled for names like Tarun Tahiliani,Ashish Soni,Ermenegildo Zegna and Hugo Bossto being a stylist and then a designer was inevitable. I always knew I wanted to be a fashion designer,even when I studied zoology and law, Balhara says.

For someone who only started designing in 2007,without any training,Balhara is very confident about his ramp debut as a designer at the LFW on March 7. Ive retailed at some major stores in Mumbai like Aza,Mogra and Amara,but a ramp show is a first for me, he says. There is also great confidence in the way he designs clothes. Its evident in his quirky use of cottonhis favourite fabricto create silhouettes usually meant for chiffon and similar fabrics. And it certainly takes a very poised mind to make women wear churidar pants,which have been modelled on the traditional Gujarati male attire.

Balhara started off as a stylist for TV shows like Gizmo Freak and Directors Cut and even styled and designed for Kunal Khemu for his movie Superstar. But he recalls his days as a novice designer with a shudder. I had no idea where to get fabric or find tailors. I didnt even know how to cut patterns.

Luckily,his family gave him full support. I was always talking about fashion and my parents decided to let me do what I want, he says. Even during his childhood holidays in his ancestral village in Haryana,it was the clothes of the village women that held the greatest fascination for himfrom his grandmothers voluminous skirts to the casually assembled tunic-skirt-dupatta combination of the women working in the fields. It was like they just knew what went with what,but the truth is,that they couldnt have cared less. It was just a matter of convenience.

Call it an ode to those childhood memories; Balharas LFW collectionBorala Nautchdraws upon the rustic chic of these ladies,combined with the elaborate ornamentation of Colonial era nautchgirls. He thinks urban India is ready to adopt those fashion quirks as well. The use of bright colours,cotton,flared silhouettes,block prints,loops and potli buttonsthese set apart Indian fashion.

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One track mind

Vijay Balhara tells us that there were no accidents which mapped his route from being an average Delhi youngster to a fashion insider. Except one. My twin brother Ajay was spotted at a petrol station by a man who worked for Rohit Bal, the designer says.

Vijay Balhara tells us that there were no accidents which mapped his route from being an average Delhi youngster to a fashion insider. Except one. My twin brother Ajay was spotted at a petrol station by a man who worked for Rohit Bal, the designer says.