Suneet Varma (Fashion)

About the Book Suneet Varma entered the world of fashion design in 1987 and is one of India's best known couturiers today. His name is synonymous with femininity, style and drama. For over two decades his unique vision has held India spellbound and his career mirrors the growth of the country's fashion industry. His collaborations with international brands such as Judith Leiber have catapulted him to fame in the West. A founding member of the FDCI, he has won several accolades during his twenty-five year journey in the field of fashion.

Suneet Varma celebrates the work of this pioneering Indian designer with a trove of iconic images by India's top photographers like Prabuddha Dasgupta, Bharat Sikka, Farrokh Chothia, Tarun Khiwal, Vibhash Tiwari and Pommy Issar. There are also interviews with industry experts and stalwarts. It provides a unique insight into Suneet's design process from inspiration to runway and also his vision for the future.

About the Author Nishat Fatima is a journalist and author. She has written for many of the country's leading newspapers and luxury magazines including Harper's Bazaar, Robb Report and Vogue. Her first novel Seriously, Sitara? is scheduled for release in December.

Foreword One day in 1987, an elegant and confident young gentleman walked into my office with his charming mother, He was impeccably polite and had the most brilliant laugh. He wanted to be a professional designer. He had just returned from London and admired the work of Yves St. Laurent. At that time, the Festival of France was being hosted in India and one of the events was public fashion shows in Delhi and Mumbai Suneet made his first fashion contributions to these spirited and superbly refined shows.

His next involvement was a fashion show organized at Carma, a lovely space in Mehrauli which featured the work of two designers. This was Suneet's first show on the theme of spring and it received rave reviews. The designs were light and fresh and the mood was exuberant and happy.

And so began Suneet's career and the upward graph was terrific. All his work was beautifully conceived. It was extremely contemporary and Suneet rediscovered embroidery. His studio was small and full of inspirational photographs His drawings were like works of art; the embroidery patterns were detailed to the finest degree. 1 chanced upon a crystal embroidered veil on a gold lamé cloth. I was marveling at its finesse, when I realized that I was seeing the reverse side of the embroidery, I turned it around and it just took my breath away.

Very soon he was designing trousseaus for brides. The fabrics became more pliant and the embroidery more refined. He introduced new silhouettes, and in some ways added a repertoire to the traditional skirt and veil. His inspiration was no longer restricted to India. There were influences from Greece, Italy, France and many parts of the world; from rare porcelain bowls, contemporary art, sexy films, to the tango and Renaissance painting. It was an exquisite mélange with an essentially Indian overtone. He has since branched into accessories and his Judith Lieber bags are superb. They are pavé set with crystals and overlaid with ruby and emerald colored stones.

Suneet is constantly searching for new ways of interpreting his vision, and his clothes and accessories continue to reach new levels of refinement. He has received much acclaim and many awards but none of this has changed him. He continues to remain impeccably polite and hard-working and above all, a fine gentleman with a happy and reverberating laugh.

Introduction Twenty-five years Suneet Varma as much tale of pioneering Indian fashion designer as of Indian fashion industry. It quarter century electrifying, roller coaster ride where heady surges consolidation, dipped significantly, is story This just pause Suneet Varma always believed that fashion is much more than clothes. him, it's about the story, elaborate at the heart of every collection. woven a fragment inspiration and tale woman whose wardrobe created for latest magical mystery show. dreams it, obsesses over knows his muse real person with well-etched likes who will wear only of flash only sliver of waist, whimsically drape two saris together before she steps the spotlight. Her tale completion through vision runway presentation. These theatrical shows are central to Suggesting of traditional Indian theatre European pieces, they are culmination of compelling "My role to people dream. to them experience something spectacular," says "When they look the clothes they have sense what was thinking, why clothes are certain way, and what they are intended convey.

Typically. Varma's narratives based in arts. movie; all these have proved to be source inspiration, the starting point for many a collection. Shaam-e-Awadh (2010) up song 'Nigahein Milane Ko Chahta Hai' movie Hi To Hai. An early collection. The Tree of (1994), inspired by the oft-used motif kalamkari textiles. Enchanted Forest William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, while sculptures of Aphrodite. the classical goddess love, his collection titled Greek Sculpture of Venus (1992). The movie Farewell, My Concubine was spirit behind Lure of Orient (2008).

It no accident much his inspiration comes from the West. my sensibility the 1988, analyses East-West confluence his work. "Suneet one the early designers venture the international arena his design was impacted from it. That understated and not rich, luxurious but over the top, and with equal élan Mumbai New York."

**Contents and Sample Pages**