GenNext Rising Fashionably

After Ritu Kumar and Rohit Bal, who are the next stars of Indian fashion? The buzz is around four designers

EVEN BEFORE the India Fashion Weektookoff inDelhi last month, the fash frat was saying that Gaurav Gupta was the man to watch out for. AgraduatefromLondon8217;s Cen-tral St Martins, Gupta had a thorough grounding in fashion basics while working with the likes of fashion diva VivienneWestwood.8220;I like improvising on existing notions of fashion, which is why even though my designs are simple, a lot of research and disci-pline goesinto it,8221; claimsthe29- year-old, whohasset upapro-duction unit in New Delhi after hisreturntoIndia.

Despite an infant in-frastructural back-up, Guptaliveduptothe hype. His debut show had the dis-cerning critics and buyers ap-plaudingfor more.8220;I never pick upa debu-tant designer. I always watch someone I like over four to five seasons and if heis consistent, I know I have got my guy. Guptalookslike he has the spark,8221; said Maria Luisa, owner of a fashion bou-tique in Paris named after herself. A few years ago, it was Luisa who picked up de-signs by Manish Aro-ra and Ra-jesh Pratap Singh, who were then rela-tively unknown.

Kolkata-based de-signer Shantanu Goenka is now in the process of moving out of his 1,000-sq-feet stu-dio on Eastern Bypass to a place five times the area, which will house his en-tire production unit. He has put on hold plans to participate in the India Fashion Week in September, and declined an invitation to the Singapore Fashion Week. 8220;I am con-centrating on my infrastructural back-up.

Unless one has a good back-up, you can8217;t match up to international standards,8221; says the 30-year-old, who nowsells from about 12 stores in seven countries. Goenka8217;s strength lies in his embroidery and Indian texturising. 8220;Even though Shantanu8217;s clothes are heavy on embroidery, he knows how to give it an international feel,8221; says Sunil Sethi of Alliance Merchan-dising, which represents Harrods and SelfridgesinIndia.

When you meet Jatin Verma you knowinstantly that this guyis ago-get- ter. There8217;s anair of flamboyanceinthe 26-year-old graduate from the Pearl Academy of Fashion that is hard to miss.8220;He8217;sarockstar,8221;saysPradeepHi-rani, owner of Kimaya and Ayamik fashionboutiques. At theIndiaFashion Week in Delhi last month Verma8217;s evening-wears won him a nod of ap- proval from Didier Grumbach, presi-dentof theFrenchFashionFederation.

Mumbai-based Deepika Gehani started off working with design houses like Intershoppe, Sheetal and Instyle before launching her own label in 2000. There8217;s been no looking back since. She now retails out of high-end boutiques in West Asia, South-East Asia, Latin America, US, UK and South Africa. Her experimental palette in-volves design elements ranging from chikankari and zardozi to Chinese em-broideries and tissue rosette work.

8220;Deepika8217;s strength lies in that she understands the commercial side of design very well,8221; says Tina Tahiliani Parikh of Ensemble.

May the force be with the four.