ENTER, THE PRET PROTEGES

Vineet Bahl
Fashion school
Nottingham Trent University, England
Design ethic
Floral prints, feminine cuts on soft fabrics
Like guru tarun Tahiliani,
he dresses his women up as divas
Vineet bahl has just finished showcasing an autumn-winter line at the Lakme Fashion Week and is gearing up for Sydney where he has a show at the end of April. Relatively new in the Indian fashion scene, the 28-year-old says he has admired the work of senior designer Tarun Tahiliani since childhood. “I called him from England after finishing university and asked for a job. He said sure,” says Bahl. For the next three years, Bahl concentrated on learning the art of draping, rouching and pleating, styles Tahiliani is famous for. He also picked up techniques of Indian embroidery and developed a colour palette of his own. Bahl says the skills he learnt from Tahiliani were invaluable, especially for Indian couture. “It cemented my entry into fashion and Tarun helped me out by introducing me to key people in the circuit,” acknowledges Bahl, who currently retails out of stores like Bombay Electric, Ensemble and Ogaan.
Right after his stint with Tahiliani, Bahl decided to participate in an exhibition in France before launching his label in India. “I felt I still needed to learn and Paris is the fashion Mecca,” he says. Under his label Indjapink, Bahl supplied bags and tunics to French store Apostrophe where rigorous checks and high quality standards kept him on his toes. “After almost three years with Tarun, I was scared I’d just be a carbon copy. Paris gave me what I needed, a wider perspective,” says Bahl. He needn’t have worried. Bahl’s current collection has no drapes, little embellishment and striking floral prints put together on loose satin kaftans. In every way, it’s vastly different from Tahiliani’s classic look. “I don’t see any similarity between our styles. Of all my assistants, Bahl’s look is the most original,” says Tahiliani. Last year, five of Tahiliani’s assistants have launched their own labels and participated in fashion weeks. “I always encourage new talent. But ultimately they’ll have to develop their own style to survive,” he adds. Bahl counts Anamika Khanna as currently India’s most talented designer. “If I had to work with anyone besides Tarun, it would be Anamika,” he says.

Abhijit khanna
Fashion school
Nift
Design ethic
Bling and beautiful
Like guru manish arora,
his style is irreverent and humorous; shares a similar palette
Clad in a regular white shirt and jeans in his studio in Shahpurjat in Delhi, the bespectacled Abhijit Khanna, 27, could easily pass off as a techie geek. That’s only till you notice his shoes, colourful sneakers with images of dog-paws on them. Voted the most promising designer of NIFT in Hyderabad when he passed out in 2003, Khanna headed straight to Manish Arora for an internship because he says he was instinctively attracted to his sensibility. His designs are far more toned down than Arora’s riot of colour, but there are basic similarities: lots of mirror-work, lots of mix-and-match and wonderfully chaotic designs.

Rahul Reddy
Fashion school:nift
Design ethic: Minimalist
Like guru rajesh pratap, he prefers to work in black and white and geometric prints
A narrow lane off the bustling MG Road in Delhi leads to an old house where designer Rahul Reddy, 29, has set up a modest manufacturing unit. Thirty tailors, embroiderers and colourists are hard at work trying to translate Reddy’s vision onto his favourite palette of grey, white and black garments. There are a variety of bubble skirts and understated motifs on kurtas in shades like mustard and chocolate hanging on a rack.