‘Patna’s got sex too, I wanted to shock’

But the designer on display isn’t Rohit Bal or Manish Arora, Indian fashion’s infamous mavericks—it’s newbie Shahzad Kalim or this industry’s Abhijeet Sawant.

Kalim, the winner of the 13-episode television reality show Lakme Fashion House hails from Bihar—he studied in K R K High School in Lakhisarai, 125 km from Patna—and has been thrust into a world of style, sexuality and soundbites. On Saturday, he packed a full-house at the Lakme India Fashion Week’s (LIFW) new 10 am slot.

Post-show, the 24-year-old faced his first-ever press conference with the same confidence and rawness that his clothes are made of. He stumbles with his English, gives good copy and looks like Sabyasachi Mukherjee of the early days.

‘‘Patna’s got sex too, and I wanted to shock,’’ said the boy who wore a skirt when he showed his winning show to Donatella Versace last month.

‘‘People came to my show with expectations and I didn’t want them to forget me,’ says Kalim.

Kalim is the son of 55-year old Kalimuddin Ahmad, an ultrasound practitioner from Bihar’s Jamui. And he says his father always wanted him to be a doctor, though his heart was in fashion—Kalim’s been making his own clothes since he was 14.

‘‘When I told him I wanted to take up designing, my father was terribly upset,’’ he says. ‘‘There are no fashion designers from Patna.’’ But when he won the television contest, father and son made up. ‘‘My father jumped out of his seat. I’ve never seen him happier.’’

Says dad Ahmad: ‘‘My wife Yasmin and I are very proud of him. We didn’t expect him to get this far. But he’s done it. Initially, we were nervous. We’re simple people, and I didn’t even know what fashion design meant. But my son’s science teacher once told me he would go on to do great things. Besides, Shahzad had an aptitude for sketching since he was very young. So I told him to go ahead, and he applied to NIFT.’’

Kalim’s Lakme prize also includes a six-month internship with the house of Versace in Milan. And though he’s never been out of the country, he’s got the next few years all figured out. ‘‘I’m going to stay there for a year more, and then come back and launch my own label,’’ he says.

For the LIFW show, Kalim didn’t have the means to produce a collection. Veteran designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, also judges of the reality show, offered their workshop.

‘‘His collection had lots of spark,’’ says designer Narendra Kumar, who watched Kalim’s show. ‘‘He looked like he believed in what he was doing.’’

‘‘Patna is a small town,’’ says Kalim. ‘‘Hyderabad seemed huge when I was taken there for the show. Now I want to put Bihar on the global map.’’

And with his love for sensationalism, he may just do that.

— (With Nitya Rao/New Delhi)