Kitschy Comfort

A Zeenat Aman chair,a Don trunk,a Jadugar bag and a Gabbar Singh t-shirt. Loud,quirky and very kitsch.

A Zeenat Aman chair,a Don trunk,a Jadugar bag and a Gabbar Singh t-shirt. Loud,quirky and very kitsch. “That’s me,” says designer Nida Mahmood ahead of her city visit. This Delhi-based designer,a NIFT graduate,is five years old in the industry. Her collections,whether High on Chai,Maachis,The Great Indian Bohemian Tamasha,will now occupy space at Atelier,Aundh. The showcase event – High on Chai – will be held on December 17.

Mahmood is excited about bringing her work to Pune. The ambience will be in keeping with the ‘chai’ theme. “There will be fun visuals,food and music. A whole new space will be dedicated to my collection,” she says. The exhibition will be on till January 26. “My reading of Pune is that people want to buy interesting products and ideas,but the supply is missing. I hope I can bridge that gap.”

Mahmood doesn’t restrict herself to clothes. “I’m an artist and then other things. I speak different languages; design just happens to be the best language I speak in,” she says. Ironically though,she is a trained designer and not a trained artist.

Though many of Mahmood’s works are inspired by Bollywood,she doesn’t work with celebrities. “My designs are my stars. I am absolutely against using celebs to promote my work. I work so hard to create designs so I don’t want anyone or anything else to spoil the focus,” she says. More often than not,Mahmood’s designs have been described as interpretations of designer Manish Arora’s India. “He’s brilliant and I love his work,but I have my own space and I am not inspired by him,” she says pointedly. “Can’t two people be inspired by India? The streets,colours and imagery are the same. Arora and I are set apart by so many years,but it’s just that we’ve been inspired by similar things.”

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